- Official language in
- South Africa
- Script
- Latin
- Speakers
- 12M (2011)
Where it's spoken
IsiZulu is one of the official languages of South Africa. According to the national census, it is the most frequently spoken first language in South African households, ahead of isiXhosa. Its speakers are concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal: the same census found isiZulu to be the first language of more than three-quarters of that province's population.
Sources
- South African Government — "South Africa's people" (official languages) — List of South Africa's official languages
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (as amended, 2012 revision) — Section 6(1), official languages
- Statistics South Africa (2012). "Census 2011 Census in Brief." Report No. 03-01-41 — p.24 (most frequently spoken first language); p.25 (KwaZulu-Natal share); Table 2.5 (province and national totals)
Script & pronunciation
IsiZulu is written with the letters of the English alphabet. Of its twenty-six letters, five are used for the vowels, seventeen for the ordinary consonants, three for click consonants, and one more for a harsh guttural sound. The three click letters are c, q and x, standing for a dental, a palatal and a lateral click respectively — sounds produced by pressing the tongue against the front teeth, the roof of the mouth or the side teeth and then pulling it away suddenly, and sounds that do not occur in any European language. This app's cards keep these letters as they are in both the native text and the romanization rather than respelling them: in Ngisebenzisa isizinda sokuzwa — uxoxe ucacile, uyacelwa ("I use a hearing aid — please speak clearly"), the x and c carry straight through into the romanization, Ngi-se-be-nzi-sa i-si-zi-nda so-ku-zwa — u-xo-xe u-ca-ci-le, u-ya-ce-lwa. Aside from these letters, the romanization is the same spelling with hyphens added to mark syllable breaks.
Sources
- Colenso, John William (1882). "First Steps in Zulu: being an elementary grammar of the Zulu language." — pp.5-6: the English alphabet and the click letters c, q, x
Grammar essentials
An isiZulu noun is described as a root preceded by a short prefix that marks the noun's class, and part of this prefix reappears elsewhere as a pronoun standing for a noun of that same class. This app's cards show the same prefix carried onto the words that go with the noun: "one person" is Umuntu oyedwa, but "two people" is Abantu ababili, where the numeral itself switches to the aba- form to match abantu ("people"). A verb takes a matching prefix for its subject: in Lo muntu uqulekile ("This person is unconscious"), the u- before the verb is the same class-1 agreement as the u- that starts umuntu ("person").
Sources
- Colenso, John William (1882). "First Steps in Zulu: being an elementary grammar of the Zulu language." — p.11: a noun described as root + prefix, and part of the prefix reused as a third-person pronoun (concord)
Politeness & etiquette
IsiZulu distinguishes a single addressee from several both in its pronouns and in the form of a verb, and this distinction shows up in the everyday greeting: this app's cards use Sawubona for one person and note that Sanibonani is said to several people at once. The expected reply to Sawubona is Yebo ("yes"). A request can also be softened with a passive verb form: this app's cards gloss uyacelwa, literally "you are requested," as a respectful, polite way to ask for something.
Sources
- Colenso, John William (1882). "First Steps in Zulu: being an elementary grammar of the Zulu language." — pp.36, 38: second person singular vs. plural pronoun and verb forms