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37-527: Mpondoland stretches between the Mthatha River , whose mouth is its southernmost point, and the Mtamvuna River in the north along a coastal strip that is not more than 50 km wide. The Mzimvubu River divides Mpondoland into an eastern and a western region. It is a mountainous area whose main vegetation consists in thornveld , grassland, as well as subtropical evergreen forests in

74-462: A noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. Agreements usually reflect part of the original class with which the word agrees. The word order is subject–verb–object , like in English. The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in both class and number. The Xhosa noun consists of two essential parts,

111-529: A Bantu language (approximately tied with Yeyi ), with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click. Xhosa is part of the branch of Nguni languages , which also include Zulu , Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele , called the Zunda languages. Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties. Xhosa is, to a large extent, mutually intelligible with Zulu and with other Nguni languages to

148-498: A diminishing extent ), and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and for non-native speakers. Literary works, including prose and poetry, are available in Xhosa, as are newspapers and magazines. The South African Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in Xhosa on both radio (on Umhlobo Wenene FM) and television, and films, plays and music are also produced in the language. The best-known performer of Xhosa songs outside South Africa

185-463: A lesser extent. Nguni languages are, in turn, classified under the much larger abstraction of Bantu languages . Xhosa is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, though the most commonly spoken South African language is Zulu. Xhosa is the second most common Bantu home language in South Africa. As of 2003 approximately 5.3 million Xhosa-speakers, the majority, live in

222-483: A region whose primary language is Xhosa: (said to a group of people) Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the 16th century. They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa . Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came across Khoisan -speaking people; "as a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance,

259-445: A vowel, e.g. is andla / iz andla (hand/hands). The placeholder N in the prefixes iN - and iiN - is a nasal consonant which assimilates in place to the following consonant (producing an im- before vowels), but is typically absent in loanwords. Before monosyllabic stems in some words. Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject and object: The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits

296-489: Is a Nguni language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe . Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8 million people and as a second language in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape , Western Cape , Northern Cape and Gauteng , and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho . It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in

333-659: Is a hymn written in Xhosa by Enoch Sontonga in 1897. The single original stanza was: Additional stanzas were written later by Sontonga and other writers, and the original verse was translated into Sotho and Afrikaans, as well as English. In The Lion King and its reboot , Rafiki the sagely mandrill chants in Xhosa. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War , Black Panther , Avengers: Infinity War , Avengers: Endgame , and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ,

370-417: Is feature-matching its noun: /iN- + ɬɛ/ → intle"beautiful" (of a class 9 word like inja "dog") When aspirated clicks ( ⟨ch, xh, qh⟩ ) are prenasalised, the silent letter ⟨k⟩ is added ( ⟨nkc, nkx, nkq⟩ ) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks ⟨nc, nx, nq⟩ , and are actually distinct sounds. The prenasalized versions have a very short voicing at

407-644: Is long in the penultimate syllable and short in the last syllable. Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent phonemic tones: low and high. Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated ⟨a⟩ [à] , ⟨á⟩ [á] , ⟨â⟩ [áà] , ⟨ä⟩ [àá] . Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written except for ⟨â⟩ and ⟨ä⟩ , which are each sequence of two vowels with different tones that are realized as long vowels with contour tones ( ⟨â⟩ high–low = falling, ⟨ä⟩ low–high = rising). Xhosa

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444-567: Is part of the Mzimvubu to Keiskamma Water Management Area . This Eastern Cape location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in South Africa is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Xhosa language Xhosa ( / ˈ k ɔː s ə / KAW -sə , / ˈ k oʊ s ə / KOH -sə ; Xhosa pronunciation: [kǁʰóːsa] ), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa ,

481-494: Is rich in uncommon consonants . Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, which are found in all spoken languages, it has a series of ejective stops and one implosive stop. It has 18 click consonants (in comparison, Juǀʼhoan , spoken in Botswana and Namibia , has 48, and Taa , with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana , has 83). There is a series of six dental clicks , represented by the letter ⟨c⟩ , similar to

518-509: Is still productive, as is shown by palatalization before the passive suffix /-w/ and before diminutive suffix /-ana/. This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa). The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of

555-497: The Bantu Education Act, 1953 . At present, Xhosa is used as the main language of instruction in many primary schools and some secondary schools, but is largely replaced by English after the early primary grades, even in schools mainly serving Xhosa-speaking communities. The language is also studied as a subject in such schools. The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English (or Afrikaans, to

592-779: The Eastern Cape , followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), Gauteng (671,045), the Free State (246,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225). There is a small but significant Xhosa community of about 200,000 in Zimbabwe . Also, a small community of Xhosa speakers (18,000) live in Quthing District , Lesotho . The Xhosa language employs 26 letters from

629-646: The Indian Ocean in an estuary located near Coffee Bay . The Mthatha river flows in a southeastern direction and is approximately 250 km long with a catchment area of 2,600 km . Mthatha Town (Umtata) is named after it. Its main tributaries are the Ngqungqu River and the Cicira River . The Mthatha River marks the southern limit of the Pondoland region. Presently this river

666-514: The Indian Ocean , Portuguese ships, as well as ships from other colonial empires (such as the Grosvenor ) ran aground at different spots of the coast of Mpondoland. Some of the castaways stayed in Mpondoland and were later absorbed into Mpondo communities. The Mpondo clan of abeLungu traces its ancestry to a castaway English girl named Bessie who married the son of Mpondo Chief Mathayi of

703-505: The Latin alphabet ; some of the letters have different pronunciations from English. Phonemes not represented by one of the 26 letters are written as multiple letters. Tone, stress, and vowel length are parts of the language but are generally not indicated in writing. Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a] , [ɛ~e] , [i] , [ɔ~o] and [u] written a , e , i , o and u in order, all occurring in both long and short . The /i/ vowel

740-755: The Mpondo people is being revived for the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot biodiversity hotspot , the Maputaland-Pondoland bushland and thickets , one of the ecoregions of South Africa, and for the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism . It is also found in scientific works, as well as in the naming of species, such as the Pondoland palm ( Jubaeopsis afra ), the Pondoland ghost bush ( Raspalia trigyna ),

777-602: The Pondoland conebush ( Leucadendron pondoense ), the Pondoland widow ( Dira oxylus ) and the Pondoland cannibal snail ( Natalina beyrichi ). 31°20′S 29°15′E  /  31.333°S 29.250°E  / -31.333; 29.250 Mthatha River Mthatha River or Umtata River ( Xhosa : 'mtathe Bawo ) is a river in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa . The river flows into

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814-600: The amaTshomane. In 1820, Mpondo King Faku granted permission to the Wesleyans to establish a mission within his territory. A few decades later some German settlers came to Mpondoland and by 1885 German lieutenant Emil Nagel tried to establish a German colony , an effort that was unsuccessful. In 1886 the British annexed Xesibeland , traditionally part of the Mpondo Kingdom, and armed Mpondo people resisted

851-534: The click sounds of the Khoisan languages". The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with a Khoisan language that did. An estimated 15% of Xhosa vocabulary is of Khoisan origin. John Bennie was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary and early Xhosa linguist. Bennie, along with John Ross (another missionary), set up a printing press in the Tyhume Valley and

888-668: The first printed works in Xhosa came out in 1823 from the Lovedale Press in the Alice region of the Eastern Cape. But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another. The first Bible translation was in 1859, produced in part by Henry Hare Dugmore . The role of indigenous languages in South Africa is complex and ambiguous. Their use in education has been governed by legislation, beginning with

925-436: The following vowel. Fricatives become affricated and, if voiceless, they become ejectives as well: mf is pronounced [ɱp̪fʼ] , ndl is pronounced [ndɮ] , n+hl becomes ntl [ntɬʼ] , n+z becomes ndz [ndz] , n + q becomes [n͡ŋǃʼ] etc. The orthographic b in mb is the voiced plosive [mb] . Prenasalisation occurs in several contexts, including on roots with the class 9 prefix /iN-/, for example on an adjective which

962-546: The form of the 1951 Bantu Authorities Act led to the Pondo Revolt in 1960. After the quelling of the revolt, Mpondoland was made part of the Transkei homeland in 1963, which in turn became a nominally-independent bantustan in 1976. Finally the region, along with the other areas that were part of Transkei, was reincorporated into South Africa in 1994. In recent times (circa 2010) the name of this traditional region of

999-425: The humid coastal valleys . The Khoikhoi and San people had inhabited the region since ancient times in scattered nomadic groups. About 500 AD the Xhosa speaking Ngunis settled in the area, for the mountain grasslands were a good resource for cattle-rearing. Geographically Mpondoland was a remote area, not strongly affected by the events in the rest of Southern Africa. During the centuries of European navigation on

1036-467: The illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa. In keeping with many other Bantu languages , Xhosa is an agglutinative language, with an array of prefixes and suffixes that are attached to root words . As in other Bantu languages, nouns in Xhosa are classified into morphological classes , or genders (15 in Xhosa), with different prefixes for both singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify

1073-429: The language spoken in the fictional African nation of Wakanda is Xhosa. This came about because South African actor John Kani , a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictional Civil War incorporate a dialogue in the language. For Black Panther , director Ryan Coogler "wanted to make it a priority to use Xhosa as much as possible" in

1110-467: The move by invading the territory, burning kraals and causing disorder. The segregation of Xesibeland was a first step prior to its annexation to the Cape Colony at the end of the same year. Finally Mpondoland as well became a British protectorate and in 1894 the amaMpondo were forced to accept the annexation of their own region to the Cape Colony . The implementation of Apartheid legislation in

1147-511: The onset which then releases in an ejective, like the prenasalized affricates, while the phonemically nasal clicks have a very long voicing through the consonant. When plain voiceless clicks ( ⟨c, x, q⟩ ) are prenasalized, they become slack voiced nasal ( ⟨ngc, ngx, ngq⟩ ). /ǀ̃/ , /ǁ̃/ , /ǃ̃/ /ǀ̃/ , /ǁ̃/ , /ǃ̃/ Palatalisation is a change that affects labial consonants whenever they are immediately followed by /j/ . While palatalisation occurred historically, it

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1184-441: The oral occlusion is then very short in stops, and it usually does not occur at all in clicks. Therefore, the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) The more notable characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable. When consonants are prenasalised , their pronunciation and spelling may change. The murmur no longer shifts to

1221-472: The prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. Which they call 'amahlelo' The following table gives an overview of Xhosa noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs. Before monosyllabic stems, e.g. ili so (eye), ulu hlu (list). is - and iz - replace isi - and izi - respectively before stems beginning with

1258-560: The pronunciation in IPA on the left and the orthography on the right: In addition to the ejective affricate [tʃʼ] , the spelling ⟨tsh⟩ may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates [tsʰ] and [tʃʰ] . The breathy voiced glottal fricative [ɦ] is sometimes spelled ⟨h⟩ . The ejectives tend to be ejective only in careful pronunciation or in salient positions and, even then, only for some speakers. Otherwise, they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Similarly,

1295-401: The sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk"; a series of six alveolar lateral clicks , represented by the letter ⟨x⟩ , similar to the sound used to call horses; and a series of alveolar clicks , represented by the letter ⟨q⟩ , that sounds somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle. The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, with

1332-416: The tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time , but that is uncommon. The murmured clicks, plosives and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. That is, da may be pronounced [dʱa̤] (or, equivalently, [d̥a̤] ). They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. They are truly voiced only after nasals, but

1369-420: Was Miriam Makeba , whose Click Song #1 (Xhosa Qongqothwane ) and "Click Song #2" ( Baxabene Ooxam ) are known for their large number of click sounds. In 1996 , the literacy rate for first-language Xhosa speakers was estimated at 50%. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika is part of the national anthem of South Africa , national anthem of Tanzania and Zambia , and the former anthem of Zimbabwe and Namibia . It

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