Northern Sotho language
| Sepedi | |
|---|---|
| Northern Sotho | |
| Sesotho sa Leboa | |
| Native to | South Africa |
| Region | Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga |
Native speakers | 4.7 million (2011 census)[1] 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)[2] |
| Dialects | |
| Latin (Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille | |
| Signed Pedi | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  South Africa |
| Regulated by | Pan South African Language Board |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | nso |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:nso – Pedi etc.brl – Birwatwo – Tswapong |
| Glottolog | nort3233 North Sotho + South Ndebele[4] |
S.32,301–304[3] | |
| Linguasphere | |
| Pedi | |
|---|---|
| Person | Mopedi |
| People | Bapedi |
| Language | Sepedi |
Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa), also known by the name of its standardised dialect version Sepedi (or Pedi) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages. According to the 2011 census it was the first language of 4,618,576 people in South Africa, principally in the provinces of Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.[5]
Contents
Classification[edit]
Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family. Northern Sotho is thus most closely related to Southern Sotho (mostly referred to as just Sesotho), Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardized dialect, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects.
Until recently, Lobedu (also Khilovedu or Khelobedu) used to exist only in an unwritten form, and the standard Northern Sotho language and orthography was usually used for teaching and writing by this language community. As of 2018, a Khilovedu dictionary is being compiled in addition to proper Khilovedu orthography which is also in the process of being developed. The monarch associated with this language community is Queen Modjadji (also known as the Rain Queen). Lobedu is spoken by a majority of people in the Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba, and BaPhalaborwa municipalities, and a minority in Greater Giyani municipality, as well as in the Limpopo Province and Tembisa township in Gauteng. Its speakers are known as the Balobedu.
Sepulana (also sePulane) exists in unwritten form and forms part of the standard Northern Sotho. Sepulana is spoken in Bushbuckridge area by the MaPulana people.
Confusion of nomenclature with Sepedi[edit]
Northern Sotho is often equated with the dialect it is primarily based on,[citation needed] Sepedi, and continued to be known as Pedi or Sepedi for some years after the new South African constitution appeared. However, the Pan South African Language Board and the Northern Sotho National Lexicography Unit now specifically endorse the names Northern Sotho or Sesotho sa Leboa.[citation needed]
The original confusion arose from the fact that the (now official) Northern Sotho written language was based largely on the Sepedi dialect (from which missionaries first developed the orthography[citation needed]), but has subsequently provided a common writing system for 20 or more varieties of the Sotho-Tswana languages spoken in the former Transvaal. The name "Sepedi" thus refers specifically to the language of the Pedi people,[citation needed] while "Northern Sotho" refers to the official language of that name and to all the speech varieties it has been taken to cover.
The English version of the Constitution of South Africa refers to the language as "Sepedi".[6] Its official translation into the language refers to it as "Sesotho sa Leboa" in the article about languages, but as "Sepedi" on the front page.[7]
Other varieties of Northern Sotho[edit]
Apart from the Sepedi dialect itself, other languages or dialects covered by the term "Northern Sotho" appear to be a diverse grouping of communal speech-forms within the Sotho-Tswana group. They are apparently united by the fact that they are classifiable neither as Southern Sotho nor as Tswana.[8]
Very little published information is available on these other dialects of Northern Sotho, but these have been reported:
- kheLobedu (khiLobedu or seLobedu)
- seTlokwa
- seBirwa
- sePulana
- seKhutswe
- seTswapo
- SePai (transitional between Sotho-Tswana and Zulu/Swati)
- Sebididi(Sotho/Tswana) spoken in Setateng
- Phahladira
- Ga-Monyeki
- Abbortspoort
- Thabo Mbeki villages and surrounding farms north-east of the coal mining town Lephalale (formerly Ellisras)
The morphological and possible lexical variation among these dialects has led to the above assertion that 'Northern Sotho' is no more than a holding category for otherwise unclassified Sotho-Tswana varieties spoken in northeastern South Africa. Maho (2002) leaves SePhalaborwa and the "East Sotho" varieties of SeKutswe, SePai, and SePulana unclassified within Sotho–Tswana. Their precise classification would appear to be a matter for further research.
Writing system[edit]
Northern Sotho is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter š is used to represent the sound [ʃ] ("sh" is used in the trigraph "tsh" to represent an aspirated "ts" sound). Circumflex accent can be added to the letters e and o to distinguish their different sounds, but it is mostly used in language reference books. Some word prefixes, especially in verbs, are written separately from the stem.[9]
Phonology[edit]
Vowels[edit]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
Consonants[edit]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | prepalatal | alveolar | plain | lateral | |||||
| Stop | ejective | pʼ | pʃʼ | psʼ | tʼ | tlʼ | kʼ | ||
| aspirated | pʰ | pʃʰ | psʰ | tʰ | tlʰ | kʰ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
| Affricate | ejective | tsʼ | tʃʼ | ||||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | tʃʰ | kxʰ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | fʃ | fs | s | ɬ | ʃ | h~ɦ | |
| voiced | β | βʒ | ʒ | ɣ | |||||
| Rhotic | r | ɺ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||||
Within nasal consonant compounds, the first nasal consonant sound is recognized as syllabic. Words such as nthuša "help me", are pronounced as [n̩tʰuʃa]. /n/ can also be pronounced as /ŋ/ following a velar consonant.[10]
Urban varieties of Northern Sotho, such as Pretoria Sotho (actually a derivative of Tswana), have acquired clicks in an ongoing process of such sounds spreading from Nguni languages.[11]
Vocabulary[edit]
Some examples of Northern Sotho words and phrases:
| English | Northern Sotho |
|---|---|
| Welcome | Kamogelo (noun) / Amogela (verb) |
| Good day / Hello | Dumela (singular) / Dumelang (plural) / Thobela and Re a lotšha (to elders) |
| How are you? | O kae? (singular) Le kae? (plural, also used for elders) |
| I am fine | Ke gona. |
| I am fine too, thank you | Le nna ke gona, ke a leboga. |
| Thank you | Ke a leboga (I thank you) / Re a leboga (we thank you) |
| Good luck | Mahlatse |
| Have a safe journey | O be le leeto le le bolokegilego |
| Good bye! | Šala gabotse (singular)/ Šalang gabotse (plural, also used for elders)(keep well) / Sepela gabotse(singular)/Sepelang gabotse (plural, also used for elders)(go well) |
| I am looking for a job | Ke nyaka mošomô |
| No smoking | Ga go kgogwe (/folwe) |
| No entrance | Ga go tsenwe |
| Beware of the steps! | Hlokomela disetepese! |
| Beware! | Hlokomela! |
| Congratulations on your birthday | Mahlatse letšatšing la gago la matswalo |
| Seasons greetings | Ditumedišo tša Sehla sa Maikhutšo |
| Merry Christmas | Mahlogonolo a Keresemose |
| Merry Christmas and Happy New Year | Mahlogonolo a Keresemose le ngwaga wo moswa wo monate |
| Expression | Gontsha sa mafahleng |
| yes | ee/eya |
| no | aowa |
| please | hle |
| thank you | ke a leboga |
| help | thušang/thušo |
| danger | kotsi |
| emergency | tšhoganetšo |
| excuse me | ntshwarele |
| I am sorry | Ke maswabi |
| I love you | Ke a go rata |
| Questions / sentences | Dipotšišo / mafoko |
| Do you accept (money/credit cards/traveler's cheques)? | O amogela (singular) / Le
amogela ( tshelete/.../...)? |
| How much is this? | Ke bokae e? |
| I want ... | Ke nyaka... |
| What are you doing? | O dira eng? |
| What is the time? | Ke nako mang? |
| Where are you going? | O ya kae? |
| Numbers | Dinomoro |
| 1 | one -tee |
| 2 | two – pedi |
| 3 | three – tharo |
| 4 | four – nne |
| 5 | five – hlano |
| 6 | six – tshela |
| 7 | seven – šupa |
| 8 | eight – seswai |
| 9 | nine – senyane |
| 10 | ten – lesome |
| 11 | eleven – lesometee |
| 12 | twelve – lesomepedi |
| 13 | thirteen – lesometharo |
| 14 | fourteen – lesomenne |
| 15 | fifteen – lesomehlano |
| 20 | twenty – masomepedi |
| 21 | twenty one – masomepedi-tee |
| 22 | twenty two – masomepedi-pedi |
| 50 | fifty – masomehlano |
| 100 | hundred – lekgolo |
| 1000 | thousand – sekete |
| Days of the week | Matšatši a beke |
| Sunday | Lamorena |
| Monday | Mošupologo |
| Tuesday | Labobedi |
| Wednesday | Laboraro |
| Thursday | Labone |
| Friday | Labohlano |
| Saturday | Mokibelo |
| Months of the year | Dikgwedi tša ngwaga |
| January | Pherekgong |
| February | Dibokwane |
| March | Tlhakola |
| April | Moranang |
| May | Mopitlo |
| June | Phupu |
| July | Mosegemanye |
| August | Phato |
| September | Lewedi |
| October | Diphalane |
| November | Dibatsela |
| December | Manthole |
| Computers and Internet terms | Didirishwa tsa khomphutha le Inthanete |
| computer | sebaledi / khomphutara |
| imeile | |
| e-mail address | aterese ya imeile |
| Internet | Inthanete |
| Internet café | khefi ya Inthanete |
| website | weposaete |
| website address | aterese ya weposaete |
Notes[edit]
- ^ Pedi etc. at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Birwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Tswapong at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - ^ Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78
- ^ a b c Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Northern Sotho". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ^ Census 2011: Census in brief (PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 23. ISBN 9780621413885. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015.
- ^ "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 - Chapter 1: Founding Provisions | South African Government". www.gov.za. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
- ^ MOLAOTHEO wa Repabliki ya Afrika Borwa wa, 1996. Department of Justice and Correctional Services. 2014. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-621-39063-6.
- ^ See Doke, Clement M. (1954). The Southern Bantu Languages. Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Pukuntšu ya polelopedi ya sekolo: Sesotho sa Leboa le Seisimane: e gatišitšwe ke Oxford = Oxford bilingual school dictionary: Northern Sotho and English. De Schryver, Gilles-Maurice. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa. 2007. pp. S24–S26. ISBN 9780195765557. OCLC 259741811.
- ^ Louwrens, Kosch, Kotzé, Louis J., Ingeborg M., Albert E. (1995). Northern Sotho. München: Lincom. pp. 4–11.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^ http://archive.ethnologue.com/15/show_country.asp?name=ZA
External links[edit]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northern Sotho language. |
 |
Northern Sotho edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
- Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northern Sotho language". World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Northern Sotho language
- Online Northern Sotho – English dictionary
- Online Northern Sotho explanatory dictionary
- Pan South African Language Board
Audio files in Pedi at Wikimedia Commons
Software[edit]
- Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Northern Sotho
- Translate.org.za Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Northern Sotho
- Keyboard with extra Northern Sotho characters
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| Recognised unofficial languages mentioned in the 1996 constitution |
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