Southern Ndebele language

This article is about the Southern Ndebele language of the Transvaal region of South Africa. For information about the language spoken by the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe (sometimes called Matabele, Sindebele or Zimbabwean Ndebele), see Zimbabwean Ndebele language.

Transvaal Ndebele
isiNdebele
Native to	South Africa
Region	Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng, North West
Native speakers	1.1 million (2011 census) 1.4 million L2 speakers (2002)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Transvaal Ndebele
Writing system	Latin (Ndebele alphabet) Ndebele Braille
Signed forms	Signed Ndebele
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nr
ISO 639-2	nbl
ISO 639-3	nbl
Glottolog	sout2808
Guthrie code	S.407
Linguasphere	99-AUT-fi + 99-AUT-fj

File:South Africa Ndebele speakers proportion map.svg

Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks isiNdebele at home.

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a HTML "div" (division) open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.

Column templates

Type	Family	Handles wiki  table code?	Responsive/ Mobile suited	Start template	Column divider	End template
Float	"Col-float"	Yes	Yes	{{Col-float}}	{{Col-float-break}}	{{Col-float-end}}
	"Columns-start"	Yes	Yes	{{Columns-start}}	{{Column}}	{{Columns-end}}
Columns	"Div col"	Yes	Yes	{{Div col}}	–	{{Div col end}}
	"Columns-list"	No	Yes	{{Columns-list}} (wraps div col)	–	–
Flexbox	"Flex columns"	No	Yes	{{Flex columns}}	–	–
Table	"Col"	Yes	No	{{Col-begin}}, {{Col-begin-fixed}} or {{Col-begin-small}}	{{Col-break}} or {{Col-2}} .. {{Col-5}}	{{Col-end}}

Can template handle the basic wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, special templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}})—or HTML tags (<table>...</table>, <tr>...</tr>, etc.)—need to be used instead.

File:South Africa Ndebele speakers density map.svg

Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: density of isiNdebele home-language speakers.

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a HTML "div" (division) open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.

Column templates

Type	Family	Handles wiki  table code?	Responsive/ Mobile suited	Start template	Column divider	End template
Float	"Col-float"	Yes	Yes	{{Col-float}}	{{Col-float-break}}	{{Col-float-end}}
	"Columns-start"	Yes	Yes	{{Columns-start}}	{{Column}}	{{Columns-end}}
Columns	"Div col"	Yes	Yes	{{Div col}}	–	{{Div col end}}
	"Columns-list"	No	Yes	{{Columns-list}} (wraps div col)	–	–
Flexbox	"Flex columns"	No	Yes	{{Flex columns}}	–	–
Table	"Col"	Yes	No	{{Col-begin}}, {{Col-begin-fixed}} or {{Col-begin-small}}	{{Col-break}} or {{Col-2}} .. {{Col-5}}	{{Col-end}}

Can template handle the basic wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, special templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}})—or HTML tags (<table>...</table>, <tr>...</tr>, etc.)—need to be used instead.

Bilingual sign in Afrikaans and Transvaal Ndebele at the Pretoria Art Museum

The Transvaal Ndebele language (Southern Ndebele, isiNdebele or Nrebele) is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele (the Ndebele people of South Africa).

There is also another, separate language called Zimbabwean Ndebele or Matabele spoken in Zimbabwe. The "Ndebele of Zimbabwe is closer to" Zulu than other Nguni dialects.

Overview

The Ndebele 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 Mkhalangana - Some of his sons branched and formed the Kalanga tribe Mntungwa - Founder of the amaNtungwa clan Njonono - He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Jonono is in the Hlubi tribe Nanasi - He died in Jononoskop near Ladysmith – Surname Nanasi is in the Hlubi tribe Mafana - He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni) Mhlanga - He died in Randfontein (Emhlangeni) 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.

Language

Ndebele is one of the eleven 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 Ndebele way of doing or saying'. Isikhethu means Ndebele the same way that sikitsi will mean Swazi and se harona will mean Sotho. The language has been severely marginalized over the years. Until the formation of the apartheid Ndebele homeland (KwaNdebele), speaking the language publicly was discouraged. Most Ndebele speakers preferred Zulu especially because the latter was learned at school. Today the Ndebele speakers, mostly those who are educated still prefer to use Ndebele as home language for their children and will use Ndebele as a language to communicate with other Ndebele speakers.

Examples

Months in Ndebele

English	Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe)	Southern Ndebele (South Africa)
January	uZibandlela	uTjhirhweni
February	uNhlolanja	uMhlolanja
March	uMbimbitho	uNtaka
April	uMabasa	uSihlabantakana
May	uNkwekwezi	uMrhayili
June	uNhlangula	uMgwengweni
July	uNtulikazi	uVelabahlinze
August	uNcwabakazi	uRhoboyi
September	uMpandula	uKhukhulamungu
October	uMfumfu	uSewula
November	uLwezi	uSinyikhaba
December	uMpalakazi	uNobayeni

AmaNdebele In Zimbabwe

The two Ndebele groups are both part of the Nguni language group and are therefore mutually intelligible to some extent. However, the Zimbabwean Ndebele is part of the Zunda sub-group of the Nguni languages (which includes Xhosa and Zulu) while the South African (or Transvaal Ndebele), while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the Sotho languages.

External links

• List links to Ndebele language resources
• The 1971 Pelling lexicon of Ndebele->English (text file) (on a stable Archive.org link)
• CBOLD - Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary - including Ndebele

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