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[[File:South Africa Ndebele speakers proportion map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Southern Ndebele in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Southern Ndebele at home.

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[[File:South Africa Ndebele speakers density map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Southern Ndebele in South Africa: density of Southern Ndebele home-language speakers.

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thumb|Bilingual sign in [[Afrikaans and Southern Ndebele at the Pretoria Art Museum]]

Southern Ndebele (), also known by its native name isiNdebele, is an African language belonging to the Mbo group of Bantu languages, spoken by the Ndebele people of South Africa.

Northern Ndebele or Ndebele also known as isiNdebele is spoken in Limpopo in areas such as Polokwane (Bhulungwane), Ga-Rathoka (KaSondonga), Ga-Mashashane, Ga Maraba / Kalkspruit, Mokopane (Mghumbane), Zebediela (Sebetiela), which is closer to Southern Ndebele.

Overview

The Ndebele (Southern and Northern) people's history has been traced back to King Ndebele, King Ndebele fathered King Mkhalangana, King Mkhalangana fathered King Mntungwa (not to be confused with the Khumalo Mntungwa, because he was fathered by Mbulazi), King Mntungwa fathered King Jonono, King Jonono fathered King Nanasi, King Nanasi fathered King Mafana, king Mafana fathered King Mhlanga and Chief Libhoko, King Mhlanga fathered King Musi and Chief Skhube.

Ndebele – Some of his sons were left behind with the Hlubi tribe<br/>

Mkhalangana – Some of his sons branched north and formed the Kalanga tribe<br/>

Mntungwa – Founder of the amaNtungwa clan<br/>

Njonono – He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Jonono is in the Hlubi tribe<br/>

Nanasi – He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Nanasi is in the Hlubi tribe<br/>

Mafana – He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni)<br/>

Mhlanga – He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni)<br/>

Musi – He died in kwaMnyamana (Pretoria)

King Musi's kraal was based at eMhlangeni a place named after his father Mhlanga, the name of the place is currently known as Randfontein (Mohlakeng) and later moved to KwaMnyamana which is now called Emarula or Bon Accord in Pretoria. King Musi was a polygamist and fathered the following sons, Skhosana (Masombuka), Manala (Mbuduma), Ndzundza (Hlungwana), Thombeni (Kekana or Gegana), Sibasa, Mhwaduba (Lekhuleni) and Mphafuli and others.

Southern Ndebele is one of the twelve official languages in the Republic of South Africa. The language is a Nguni or Zunda classification (UN) spoken mostly in the Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northwest.

The expression isikhethu can be loosely translated to mean 'the Southern Ndebele way of doing or saying'. Isikhethu means Southern Ndebele in the same way that sikitsi will mean Swazi and se harona will mean Sotho.

The language has been severely marginalised over the years. Until the formation of the apartheid Southern Ndebele homeland (KwaNdebele), speaking the language publicly was discouraged. Most Southern Ndebele speakers preferred Zulu especially because the latter was learned at school. Today the Southern Ndebele speakers, mostly those who are educated still prefer to use Southern Ndebele as home language for their children and will use Southern Ndebele as a language to communicate with other Southern Ndebele speakers.

Phonology

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Southern Ndebele vowels

|-

!

! Front

! Back

|- style="text-align:center;"

! Close

| i

| u

|- style="text-align:center;"

!Mid

| e [~]

| o [~]

|- style="text-align:center;"

! Open

| colspan="2" | a

|}

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Southern Ndebele consonants

! rowspan="2" colspan="2" |

! rowspan="2" | Labial

! colspan="2" | Alveolar

! rowspan="2" | Post-alv./<br>Palatal

! rowspan="2" | Velar

! rowspan="2" | Glottal

|-

!

!

|-

! rowspan="6" | Plosive

!

| p

| t

|

|

| k

|

|-

!

| ph

| th

|

|

| kh

|

|-

!

| bh

| d

|

|

| ɡ

|

|-

!

| mp

| nt

|

|

| nk

|

|-

!

| mb

| nd

|

|

| ng

|

|-

!

| b

|

|

|

|

|

|-

! rowspan="5" | Affricate

!

|

| ts

| tl

| tj

| kg

|

|-

!

|

| tsh

| tlh

| tjh

| kgh

|

|-

!

|

| dz

|

|

|

|

|-

!

|

|

|

| j

|

|

|-

!

|

|

|

| nj

|

|

|-

! rowspan="5" | Fricative

!

| f

| s

| hl

|

| rh

|

|-

!

| v

| z

| dl

|

|

| h

|-

!

| mf

|

|

|

|

|

|-

!

| mv

|

|

|

|

|

|-

!

|

|

| dlh

|

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" | Nasal

| m

| n

|

| ny

| ngh

|

|-

! colspan="2" | Liquid

|

| r

| l

|

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" | Semivowel

| w

|

|

| y

|

|

|}

Consonant sounds nt, nd, k, mf, and mv often result in allophones of .

References

  • List links to Ndebele language resources

Software

  • Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Ndebele
  • Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into Ndebele