Swazi language

"Swati language" redirects here. For the language spoken in Swat, Pakistan, see Pashto language.

Swazi
siSwati
Native to	eSwatini, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique
Native speakers	2.3 million (2006–2011) 2.4 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Tekela Swazi
Writing system	Latin (Swazi alphabet) Swazi Braille
Signed forms	Signed Swazi
Official status
Official language in	South Africa eSwatini
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ss
ISO 639-2	ssw
ISO 639-3	ssw
Glottolog	swat1243
Guthrie code	S.43
Linguasphere	99-AUT-fe

The Swazi Language
Person	liSwati
People	emaSwati
Language	siSwati
Country	eSwatini

Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Swazi at home.

  0–20%

  20–40%

  40–60%

  60–80%

  80–100%

Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: density of Swazi home-language speakers.

  <1 /km²

  1–3 /km²

  3–10 /km²

  10–30 /km²

  30–100 /km²

  100–300 /km²

  300–1000 /km²

  1000–3000 /km²

  >3000 /km²

The Swazi, Swati or siSwati language (Swazi: siSwati) (pronounced [siswatʼi]) is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in the Kingdom of eSwatini and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 12 million. The language is taught in eSwatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Swazi is an official language of eSwatini (along with English), and is also one of the eleven official languages of South Africa.

Although the preferred term is "siSwati" among native speakers, in English it is generally referred to as Swazi. Swazi is most closely related to the other Tekela languages, like Phuthi and Northern Transvaal (Sumayela) Ndebele, but is also very close to the Zunda languages: Zulu, Southern Ndebele, Northern Ndebele, and Xhosa.

Dialects

Swazi spoken in Swaziland can be divided into four dialects corresponding to the four administrative regions of the country: Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni.

Swazi has at least two varieties: the standard, prestige variety spoken mainly in the north, centre and southwest of the country, and a less prestigious variety spoken elsewhere.

In the far south, especially in towns such as Nhlangano and Hlatikhulu, the variety of the language spoken is significantly influenced by isiZulu. Many Swazis (plural emaSwati, singular liSwati), including those in the south who speak this variety, do not regard it as 'proper' Swazi. This is what may be referred to as the second dialect in the country. The sizeable number of Swazi speakers in South Africa (mainly in the Mpumalanga province, and in Soweto) are considered by Swaziland Swazi speakers to speak a non-standard form of the language.

Unlike the variant in the south of Swaziland, the Mpumalanga variety appears to be less influenced by Zulu, and is thus considered closer to standard Swazi. However, this Mpumalanga variety is distinguishable by distinct intonation, and perhaps distinct tone patterns. Intonation patterns (and informal perceptions of 'stress') in Mpumalanga Swazi are often considered discordant to the Swazi ear. This South African variety of Swazi is considered to exhibit influence from other South African languages spoken close to Swazi.

A feature of the standard prestige variety of Swazi (spoken in the north and centre of Swaziland) is the royal style of slow, heavily stressed enunciation, which is anecdotally claimed to have a 'mellifluous' feel to its hearers.

Phonology

Vowels

Swazi vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Consonants

Swazi does not distinguish between places of articulation in its clicks. They are dental (as [ǀ]) or might also be alveolar (as [ǃ]). It does, however, distinguish five or six manners of articulation and of manner, including tenuis, aspirated, voiced, breathy voiced, nasal, and breathy-voiced nasal.

Swazi consonants

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
		central	nasal	central	nasal
Click	plain			ǀ	ᵑǀ
	aspirated			ǀʰ	ᵑǀʰ
	breathy			ᶢǀʱ	ᵑǀʱ
Nasal	plain	m		n			ɲ	ŋ, ŋɡ
	breathy			n̤ʱ			ndʒʱ
Stop	ejective	pʼ		tʼ				k̬, kʼ
	aspirated	pʰ		tʰ				kʰ
	breathy	bʱ	mɓ, mbʱ	dʱ				ɡʱ
	implosive	ɓ
Affricate	voiceless	tf		tsʼ, tsʰ				kʼˡ
	voiced	dv		dz			dʒʱ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s		ɬ	ʃ		h
	breathy	vʱ		zʱ		ɮ	ʒ		ɦ
Approximant		w				l	j

The consonants /ts k ŋɡ mb/ have two sounds. /ts/ and /k/ can both occur as ejective sounds, /tsʼ/ and /kʼ/, but their common forms are /tsʰ/ and /k̬/. The sounds of /ŋɡ/ and /mb/ differ when at the beginning of stems as /ŋ/ and /mbʱ/, and commonly as /ŋɡ/ and /mɓ/ within words.

Grammar

Nouns

The Swazi noun (libito) consists of two essential parts, the prefix (sicalo) and the stem (umsuka). Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages.

The following table gives an overview of Swazi noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.

Class	Singular	Plural
1/2	um(u)-1	ba-, be-
1a/2a	Ø-	bo-
3/4	um(u)-1	imi-
5/6	li-	ema-
7/8	s(i)-2	t(i)-2
9/10	iN-3	tiN-3
11/10	lu-, lw-
14	bu-, b-, tj-
15	ku-
17	ku-

¹ umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g. umuntfu (person).

² s- and t- replace si- and ti- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. sandla/tandla (hand/hands).

³ The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and tiN- for m, n or no letter at all.

Verbs

Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject:

Person/ Class	Prefix
1st sing.	ngi-
2nd sing.	u-
1st plur.	si-
2nd plur.	ni-
1	u-
2	ba-
3	u-
4	i-
5	li-
6	a-
7	si-
8	ti-
9	i-
10	ti-
11	lu-
14	bu-
15	ku-
17	ku-

Months

Months in Swazi/Swati:

English	Swazi/Swati
January	uBhimbidvwane
February	iNdlovana
March	iNdlovulenkulu
April	uMabasa
May	iNkhwenkhweti
June	Nhlaba
July	uKholwane
August	iNgci
September	iNyoni
October	iMphala
November	Lweti
December	iNgongoni

Sample text

The following example of text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Bonkhe bantfu batalwa bakhululekile balingana ngalokufananako ngesitfunti nangemalungelo. Baphiwe ingcondvo nekucondza kanye nanembeza ngakoke bafanele batiphatse nekutsi baphatse nalabanye ngemoya webuzalwane.

The Declaration reads in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

External links

• PanAfrican L10n page on Swazi
• Tinanatelo ne Tibongo tema Swati

Software

• Project to translate Free Software into Swazi
• Swazi edition of OpenOffice.org
• Swazi spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla (basic)