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50-459: The Lozi people , also known as Balozi , are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa . They have significant populations in Angola , Botswana , Namibia , Zambia , and Zimbabwe . The Lozi language, Silozi , is used as the formal language in official, educational, and media contexts. The Lozi people number approximately 1,562,000. The Lozi comprise several tribes, including

100-421: A V- syllable at the start). In other words, a strong claim for this language family is that almost all words end in a vowel, precisely because closed syllables (CVC) are not permissible in most of the documented languages, as far as is understood. This tendency to avoid consonant clusters in some positions is important when words are imported from English or other non-Bantu languages. An example from Chewa :

150-463: A crucial means of solidifying and extending family connections. A man who has reached adulthood is expected to have employment, establish his own homestead known as a lapa , and find a wife mufumahali . Upon marriage, the wife typically moves to her husband's homestead, integrating into his family and adopting their surname. The way a couple manages their lapa influences their social status. Although declining in modern times, polygamy remains common among

200-668: A designation referring indiscriminately to language, culture, society, and race"." The Bantu languages descend from a common Proto-Bantu language , which is believed to have been spoken in what is now Cameroon in Central Africa . An estimated 2,500–3,000 years ago (1000 BC to 500 BC), speakers of the Proto-Bantu language began a series of migrations eastward and southward, carrying agriculture with them. This Bantu expansion came to dominate Sub-Saharan Africa east of Cameroon, an area where Bantu peoples now constitute nearly

250-414: A distant third place with 8.2 million speakers ( South Africa and Zimbabwe ), and Shona with less than 10 million speakers (if Manyika and Ndau are included), while Sotho-Tswana languages ( Sotho , Tswana and Pedi ) have more than 15 million speakers (across Botswana , Lesotho , South Africa, and Zambia ). Zimbabwe has Kalanga, Matebele, Nambiya, and Xhosa speakers. Ethnologue separates

300-456: A mabeli 30 mashumi a malalu 40 mashumi a mane 50 mashumi a ketalizoho 60 mashumi a silezi 70 mashumi a supile 80 mashumi a supile ni kalikamu 90 mashumi a supile ni totubeli 100 muanda The following is a sample text in Silozi. Silozi : Kakuli Mulimu U latile hahulu batu ba lifasi, mane U ba file Mwan'a Hae wa libanda kuli mutu ufi ni ufi ya lumela ku Yena a si ke a shwa, kono

350-690: Is Swahili , with 16 million native speakers and 80 million L2 speakers (2015). Most native speakers of Swahili live in Tanzania , where it is a national language, while as a second language, it is taught as a mandatory subject in many schools in East Africa, and is a lingua franca of the East African Community . Other major Bantu languages include Lingala with more than 20 million speakers ( Congo , DRC ), followed by Zulu with 13.56 million speakers ( South Africa ), Xhosa at

400-497: Is estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages, depending on the definition of "language" versus "dialect" . Many Bantu languages borrow words from each other, and some are mutually intelligible . Some of the languages are spoken by a very small number of people, for example the Kabwa language was estimated in 2007 to be spoken by only 8500 people but was assessed to be a distinct language. The total number of Bantu speakers

450-564: Is estimated to be around 350 million in 2015 (roughly 30% of the population of Africa or 5% of the world population ). Bantu languages are largely spoken southeast of Cameroon , and throughout Central , Southern , Eastern , and Southeast Africa . About one-sixth of Bantu speakers , and one-third of Bantu languages, are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The most widely spoken Bantu language by number of speakers

500-1174: Is hampered by insufficient data. Simplified phylogeny of northwestern branches of Bantu by Grollemund (2012): A40-50-60-70: Basaa languages , Bafia languages , Mbam languages , Beti language A10-20-30: Sawabantu languages , Manenguba languages A80-90: Makaa–Njem languages B20: Kele languages B10: Myene language B30: Tsogo languages C10-20-30: Ngondi–Ngiri languages , Mboshi languages , Bangi–Ntomba languages C40-D20-D32: Bati–Angba languages , Lega–Binja languages , Bira language B80-C60-70-80: Boma–Dzing languages , Soko languages , Tetela languages , Bushoong languages B40-H10-30-B50-60-70: Sira languages , Kongo languages , Yaka languages , Nzebi languages , Mbete languages , Teke languages L10-H40: Pende languages , Hungana language C50-D10: Soko languages , Lengola language D10-20-30-40-JD50: Mbole–Enya languages , Komo–Bira languages , Shi–Havu languages Other computational phylogenetic analyses of Bantu include Currie et al. (2013), Grollemund et al. (2015), Rexova et al. 2006, Holden et al., 2016, and Whiteley et al. 2018. Glottolog ( 2021 ) does not consider

550-514: Is known as Mulonga, and Lozi society tolerates little criticism, even of an unpopular Litunga. Criticisms of a Litunga by a foreigner are treated as criticisms of the Lozi nation as a whole. The Lozi are not separated into clans, unlike most African ethnic groups. The Lozi people are closely related to the Balobedu and therefore also have rainmaking abilities. Lozi culture is strongly influenced by

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600-666: Is likely the innovative line cladistically . Northwest Bantu is not a coherent family, but even for Central Bantu the evidence is lexical, with little evidence that it is a historically valid group. Another attempt at a detailed genetic classification to replace the Guthrie system is the 1999 "Tervuren" proposal of Bastin, Coupez, and Mann. However, it relies on lexicostatistics , which, because of its reliance on overall similarity rather than shared innovations , may predict spurious groups of conservative languages that are not closely related . Meanwhile, Ethnologue has added languages to

650-548: Is mainly geographic. The term "narrow Bantu" was coined by the Benue–Congo Working Group to distinguish Bantu as recognized by Guthrie, from the Bantoid languages not recognized as Bantu by Guthrie. In recent times, the distinctiveness of Narrow Bantu as opposed to the other Southern Bantoid languages has been called into doubt, but the term is still widely used. There is no true genealogical classification of

700-463: Is spoken by the Lozi people , primarily in southwestern Zambia and in surrounding countries. The language is most closely related to Northern Sotho ( Sesotho sa Leboa ), Tswana ( Setswana ), Kgalagari ( SheKgalagari ) and Sotho ( Sesotho /Southern Sotho). Lozi, sometimes written as Rotse , and its dialects are spoken and understood by approximately six per cent of the population of Zambia. Silozi

750-640: Is the endonym (the name of the language used by its native speakers) as defined by the United Nations . Lozi is the exonym . The origins of Silozi can be traced back to a mixture of languages, primarily Luyana and Kololo . The Luyana people migrated south from the Kingdom of Luba and Kingdom of Lunda in the Katanga area of the Congo River basin , either late in the 17th century or early in

800-459: Is the extensive use of affixes (see Sotho grammar and Ganda noun classes for detailed discussions of these affixes). Each noun belongs to a class , and each language may have several numbered classes, somewhat like grammatical gender in European languages. The class is indicated by a prefix that is part of the noun, as well as agreement markers on verb and qualificative roots connected with

850-492: Is valued for its modesty, respect, and dignity. The staple food of the Lozi is a maize meal porridge called buhobe . It is often served with Zambezi bream fish and vegetables, or eaten with a fermented milk " mabisi " dish. This cuisine reflects the Lozi's connection to their environment and traditional agricultural practices. Music and dance are integral to Lozi social life. Sipelu is a traditional Lozi dance performed by young men and women at various social events throughout

900-660: The Makololo language, referring to the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi River , on and around which most Lozi live. It may also be spelled Lotse or Rotse, the spelling Lozi having originated with German missionaries in what is now Namibia . Mu- and Ba- are corresponding singular and plural prefixes for certain nouns in the Silozi language , so Murotse means "person of the plain" while Barotse means "people of

950-431: The (Narrow) Bantu languages. Until recently most attempted classifications only considered languages that happen to fall within traditional Narrow Bantu, but there seems to be a continuum with the related languages of South Bantoid. At a broader level, the family is commonly split in two depending on the reflexes of proto-Bantu tone patterns: many Bantuists group together parts of zones A through D (the extent depending on

1000-631: The 18th century. They settled on the floodplains of the upper Zambezi River in what is now western Zambia , where they established a kingdom called Barotseland or Bulozi . In the 1830s, the Kololo people , originally from the Free State province of South Africa , fled northwards to escape the Mfecane under King Shaka Zulu (died 1828). They employed tactics learned from the Zulu armies to conquer

1050-691: The Bamakoma, Kwanda, Lukolwe, Bafwe , Batotela , Bayeyi , Mbowe (Mamboe), Bambukushu , Mishulundu, Muenyi (Mwenyi), Mwanga, Ndundulu, Nygengo, Shanjo, Simaa, Basubia , and Batonga . These tribes share common customs and traditions, with Silozi serving as the formal language for official, educational, and media purposes. Intermarriage among the tribes further strengthens their cultural bonds. The Lozi people are also known by various names such as Malozi, Nyambe, Makololo, Barotse, Rotse, Rozi, Rutse, Balozi, Balobedu, and Tozvi. They refer to their land as Bulozi or Barotseland . The word "Lozi" means "plain" in

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1100-590: The Guthrie classification which Guthrie overlooked, while removing the Mbam languages (much of zone A), and shifting some languages between groups (much of zones D and E to a new zone J, for example, and part of zone L to K, and part of M to F) in an apparent effort at a semi-genetic, or at least semi-areal, classification. This has been criticized for sowing confusion in one of the few unambiguous ways to distinguish Bantu languages. Nurse & Philippson (2006) evaluate many proposals for low-level groups of Bantu languages, but

1150-564: The Lozi has long centred on a monarchy , whose reigning head, the Paramount King, is known as ' Litunga ', which means 'keeper of the earth.' The renowned Litunga Lewanika , whose latter name was a nickname from the Mbunda meaning "unifier" following the Lozi revolt, reigned from 1878 to 1916, with a short insurrectionist break in 1884–85. He requested that Queen Victoria bring Barotseland under protectorate status. Great Britain, however,

1200-408: The Lozi. Traditional attire is an important aspect of Lozi culture, particularly for women. Lozi women wear the musisi , which means "skirt" in Silozi . This garment is usually made from satin and is often paired with a matching shawl called a cali . Additionally, women wear a wrapper to cover themselves, particularly from the waist down, and always cover their hair with a headscarf. This attire

1250-570: The Luyana on the Zambezi floodplains , imposing their rule and language. However, by 1864, the indigenous population revolted and overthrew the Kololo. By then, the original Luyana language had largely been replaced by a new hybrid language, Silozi. Today, Silozi is spoken in Angola , Botswana , Namibia , Zambia , and Zimbabwe , reflecting its historical development and cultural significance in

1300-514: The adjective prefix ki- (representing the diminutive form of the word) and the verb subject prefix a- . Then comes perfect tense -me- and an object marker -ki- agreeing with implicit kitabu 'book' (from Arabic kitab ). Pluralizing to 'children' gives Vitoto vidogo vimekisoma ( Vana vadoko varikuverenga in Shona), and pluralizing to 'books' ( vitabu ) gives vitoto vidogo vimevisoma . Bantu words are typically made up of open syllables of

1350-465: The author) as Northwest Bantu or Forest Bantu , and the remainder as Central Bantu or Savanna Bantu . The two groups have been described as having mirror-image tone systems: where Northwest Bantu has a high tone in a cognate, Central Bantu languages generally have a low tone, and vice versa. Northwest Bantu is more divergent internally than Central Bantu, and perhaps less conservative due to contact with non-Bantu Niger–Congo languages; Central Bantu

1400-609: The beginning of a syllable can be readily observed in such languages as Shona, and the Makua languages . With few exceptions, such as Kiswahili and Rutooro , Bantu languages are tonal and have two to four register tones. Reduplication is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem. Well-known words and names that have reduplication include: Repetition emphasizes

1450-483: The concept of "language". In addition, delegates at the African Languages Association of Southern Africa conference in 1984 reported that, in some places, the term Kintu has a derogatory significance. This is because kintu refers to "things" and is used as a dehumanizing term for people who have lost their dignity. In addition, Kintu is a figure in some mythologies. In the 1990s,

1500-498: The entire population. Some other sources estimate the Bantu Expansion started closer to 3000 BC. The technical term Bantu, meaning "human beings" or simply "people", was first used by Wilhelm Bleek (1827–1875), as the concept is reflected in many of the languages of this group. A common characteristic of Bantu languages is that they use words such as muntu or mutu for "human being" or in simplistic terms "person", and

1550-772: The flood cycle of the Zambezi River, with annual migrations taking place from the floodplain to higher ground at the start of the wet season . The most important of these festivals is the Kuomboka , in which the Litunga moves from Lealui in the flood plain to Limulunga on higher ground. The Kuomboka usually takes place in February or March. These annual floods displace hundreds of people every year. [REDACTED] Media related to Lozi people at Wikimedia Commons Bantu languages The total number of Bantu languages

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1600-548: The languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, or lower intensity of the action, and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more. The following is a list of nominal classes in Bantu languages: Lozi language Lozi , also known as Silozi and Rozi , is a Bantu language of the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho–Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30) , that

1650-426: The largely mutually intelligible Kinyarwanda and Kirundi , which together have 20 million speakers. The similarity among dispersed Bantu languages had been observed as early as the 17th century. The term Bantu as a name for the group was not coined but "noticed" or "identified" (as Bâ-ntu ) by Wilhelm Bleek as the first European in 1857 or 1858, and popularized in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. He noticed

1700-445: The larger ethnolinguistic phylum named by 19th-century European linguists. Bleek's identification was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups frequently self-identifying as "people" or "the true people" (as is the case, for example, with the term Khoikhoi , but this is a kare "praise address" and not an ethnic name). The term narrow Bantu , excluding those languages classified as Bantoid by Malcolm Guthrie (1948),

1750-493: The noun. Plurality is indicated by a change of class, with a resulting change of prefix. All Bantu languages are agglutinative . The verb has a number of prefixes, though in the western languages these are often treated as independent words. In Swahili , for example, Kitoto kidogo kimekisoma (for comparison, Kamwana kadoko karikuverenga in Shona language ) means 'The small child has read it [a book]'. kitoto 'child' governs

1800-414: The older geographic classification by Guthrie relevant for its ongoing classification based on more recent linguistic studies, and divides Bantu into four main branches: Bantu A-B10-B20-B30 , Central-Western Bantu , East Bantu and Mbam-Bube-Jarawan . Guthrie reconstructed both the phonemic inventory and the vocabulary of Proto-Bantu. The most prominent grammatical characteristic of Bantu languages

1850-527: The plain". Lozi tradition states that they have always inhabited Barotseland. In about 1830, an army that originated in the Sotho-speaking Bafokeng region of South Africa , known as the Makololo , led by a warrior called Sebetwane , invaded Barotseland and conquered the Lozi. They ruled until 1864, when the Sotho clique was overthrown following a Lozi revolt. The political organisation of

1900-407: The plural prefix for human nouns starting with mu- (class 1) in most languages is ba- (class 2), thus giving bantu for "people". Bleek, and later Carl Meinhof , pursued extensive studies comparing the grammatical structures of Bantu languages. The most widely used classification is an alphanumeric coding system developed by Malcolm Guthrie in his 1948 classification of the Bantu languages. It

1950-535: The region. Lozi has 5 vowels: 20 consonants are in Lozi: Tone is marked as high or low. Lozi uses the Latin script , which was introduced by missionaries . In 1977, Zambia standardised the language's orthography. Counting numbers in Silozi 1 kalikamu 2 totubeli 3 totulalu 4 totune 5 ketalizoho 6 silezi 7 supile 8 ketalizoho ni totulalu 9 ketalizoho ni totune 10 lishumi 20 mashumi

2000-496: The repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," means "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," means "A slow but steady pace wins the race." The latter repeats "pole" to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace. As another example, "Haraka haraka" would mean "hurrying just for the sake of hurrying" (reckless hurry), as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry]. In contrast, there are some words in some of

2050-464: The result is not a complete portrayal of the family. Glottolog has incorporated many of these into their classification. The languages that share Dahl's law may also form a valid group, Northeast Bantu . The infobox at right lists these together with various low-level groups that are fairly uncontroversial, though they continue to be revised. The development of a rigorous genealogical classification of many branches of Niger–Congo, not just Bantu,

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2100-547: The run-up to independence, the Litunga, the Ngambela (Prime Minister), and about a dozen senior indunas went to London for talks with the Colonial Office, in an attempt to have Barotseland remain a Protectorate. In Lozi society, the family is traditionally led by the eldest male, often the grandfather. Family relationships are formed through marriage, birth, or adoption. Marriage holds significant importance, serving as

2150-410: The term Kintu was still occasionally used by South African linguists. But in contemporary decolonial South African linguistics, the term Ntu languages is used. Within the fierce debate among linguists about the word "Bantu", Seidensticker (2024) indicates that there has been a "profound conceptual trend in which a "purely technical [term] without any non-linguistic connotations was transformed into

2200-546: The term to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu , from the plural noun class prefix *ba- categorizing "people", and the root *ntʊ̀- "some (entity), any" (e.g. Xhosa umntu "person", abantu "people"; Zulu umuntu "person", abantu "people"). There is no native term for the people who speak Bantu languages because they are not an ethnic group . People speaking Bantu languages refer to their languages by ethnic endonyms , which did not have an indigenous concept prior to European contact for

2250-415: The territory failed to produce gold, copper, or other exports, the "British South Africa Company defaulted on every commitment it had made to Lewanika," and few developments in infrastructure and education were made. Although Barotseland was incorporated into Northern Rhodesia , it retained a large degree of autonomy, which was carried over when Northern Rhodesia became Zambia on its independence in 1964. In

2300-453: The type CV (consonant-vowel) with most languages having syllables exclusively of this type. The Bushong language recorded by Vansina , however, has final consonants, while slurring of the final syllable (though written) is reported as common among the Tonga of Malawi. The morphological shape of Bantu words is typically CV, VCV, CVCV, VCVCV, etc.; that is, any combination of CV (with possibly

2350-406: The word "school", borrowed from English, and then transformed to fit the sound patterns of this language, is sukulu . That is, sk- has been broken up by inserting an epenthetic -u- ; -u has also been added at the end of the word. Another example is buledi for "bread". Similar effects are seen in loanwords for other non-African CV languages like Japanese . However, a clustering of sounds at

2400-402: The year. It is a vibrant expression of cultural identity, showcased during performances for the king at his palace, his visits to communities, weddings, and other celebrations, though it is not performed at funerals. Lozi society is highly stratified, with a monarch at the top and those of recent royal descent occupying high positions in society. The monarch, or Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE),

2450-557: Was introduced in the 1960s. The prefix ba- specifically refers to people. Endonymically, the term for cultural objects, including language, is formed with the ki- noun class (Nguni ísi- ), as in KiSwahili (Swahili language and culture), IsiZulu (Zulu language and culture) and KiGanda (Ganda religion and culture). In the 1980s, South African linguists suggested referring to these languages as KiNtu. The word kintu exists in some places, but it means "thing", with no relation to

2500-561: Was uninterested in acquiring the territory. The granting of a royal charter to the British South Africa Company by Cecil Rhodes allowed the company to acquire Barotseland under the guise of the British government. Although under protectorate status, Lewanika eventually realized that he had been tricked and petitioned for the protectorate status to be corrected. Yet the land remained under Rhodes's control, and when

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