Sotho language 322334 215885098 2008-05-30T03:19:16Z Jakoli4 2085031 <!-- Sesotho language --> {|style = "float: right" |- | valign = "top"|{{Sesotho language}} <!-- Ke a tshepa hore "valign" e tla sebetsa hantle... --> |{{Infobox Language |name=Sesotho |pronunciation=[sɪ̀sʊ́tʰʊ̀] |familycolor=Niger-Congo |states={{flagicon|Lesotho}} [[Lesotho]] <br> {{flagicon|South Africa}} [[South Africa]] |speakers=at least 5 million |fam1=[[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] |fam2=[[Atlantic-Congo languages|Atlantic-Congo]] |fam3=[[Volta-Congo languages|Volta-Congo]] |fam4=[[Benue-Congo languages|Benue-Congo]] |fam5=[[Bantoid languages|Bantoid]] |fam6=[[Southern Bantoid languages|Southern]] |fam7=[[Narrow Bantu languages|Narrow Bantu]] |fam8=Southern |fam9=S group |fam10=[[Sotho-Tswana languages|Sotho-Tswana]] (S30) |nation={{flagicon|Lesotho}} [[Lesotho]] <br> {{flagicon|South Africa}} [[South Africa]] |agency=[[Pan South African Language Board]] |iso1=st|iso2=sot|iso3=sot }} |} '''Sesotho''' ('''Sotho''', '''Southern Sotho''', or '''Southern Sesotho'''<ref name = "schizo">or ''Suto'', or ''Suthu'', or ''Souto'', or ''Sisutho'', or ''Sutu'', or ''Sesutu'' etc.<!-- seriously, I didn't make these up, though the people who originally came up with them must have had rather good imaginations... --> by various authors and sources during various periods. The language's name has not changed for the last 200 years, though.</ref>) is a [[Bantu languages|Bantu language]] spoken primarily in [[South Africa]], where it is one the [[official languages of South Africa|11 official languages]], and in [[Lesotho]], where it is the [[national language]]. It is an [[agglutinative language]] which uses numerous [[affixes]] and derivational and inflexional rules to build [[Sesotho grammar#The_Sesotho_word|complete words]]. __TOC__ <!-- So that the next lines appear below toc and are more obvious (fewer distracting blue links) --> <br clear = right /> <!-- Since there is not enough space at the top for the following box (it should appear next to the first section, below the language infobox) --> {{Sotho}} <!-- All 8 instances of the hover text match the regular expression: {{H:title\|([^|]*)\|((\[\[[^|\[\]]*\|[^|\[\]]*\]\])|([^|]*))\|dotted=no}} This regex should work with most engines (it was tested with the Python re library), though you should probably escape the curly braces just to be on the safe side... --> <!-- ==History== Should include: probable history of the language; what form of Bantu it is most closely derived from (the coolest forms!); dates of movement of major groups of speakers. ==Vocabulary== This section should contain a discussion of any special features of the vocabulary (lexicon) of the language, including whether it contains a large number of borrowed words or different sets of words for different politeness levels (registers), taboo groups, and so on. --> ==Classification== Sesotho is a (narrow) [[Bantu languages|Bantu language]], belonging to the [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo language family]]. It is most closely related to three other major languages in the [[Sotho-Tswana languages|Sotho-Tswana language group]]: [[Setswana]], the [[Northern Sotho language|Northern Sotho]] languages (Sesotho sa Leboa), and [[Lozi language|Silozi]]. ''Sesotho'' is, and has always been, the name of the language in the language itself, and this term has come into wider use in English since the 1980s, especially in [[South African English]] and in Lesotho. It is also sometimes referred to as ''Southern Sotho'', principally to distinguish it from Northern Sotho. The Sotho-Tswana languages are in turn closely related to other Southern Bantu language groups, including the [[Tshivenda|Tshivenḓa]], [[Xitsonga]], [[Inhambane languages|Inhambane]], and [[Nguni languages]], and possibly also the [[Makua languages]] of [[Tanzania]] and [[Mozambique]]. ==Dialects== Standard Sesotho<!-- like every other standard language?? --> is remarkable in having little to no distinctive dialectal variation. Except for faint lexical variation within Lesotho, and except for marked lexical variation between the Lesotho/[[Free State]] variety, and that of the large urban townships to the north (e.g. [[Soweto]]) due to heavy borrowing from neighbouring languages, there is no discernible dialect variation in this language. However, one point which seems to often confuse authors who attempt to study the dialectology of Sesotho is the term "[[Basotho]]" which can variously mean "Sotho-Tswana speakers," "Sesotho and Northern Sotho speakers," "Sesotho speakers," and "residents of Lesotho." Thus, when considering speech varieties, all minor ethnic groups living in Lesotho may be considered to be Sesotho speakers, and this has resulted in the Nguni language [[Phuthi language|isiPhuthi]] (which has been heavily influenced by Sesotho, and whose speakers have strong Sotho-Tswana ancestry) sometimes being treated as a dialect of Sesotho named "Sephuthi." Additionally, due to being derived from a language or dialect very closely related to modern Sesotho,<ref name = "Sil_clik">To the extent that it even has several words which resemble Sesotho words with clicks: : ''ku kala'' to begin (Sesotho {{H:title|[hʊǃɑlɑ]|''ho qala''|dotted=no}}) : ''ku kabana'' to quarrel (Sesotho {{H:title|[hʊǃɑbɑnɑ]|''ho qabana''|dotted=no}}) One could just as easily say that these words were imported from Nguni languages (''ukuqala'' and ''ukuxabana'', which is where the Sesotho versions come from), and the language does also contain words resembling click words from Nguni but not from Sesotho (such as ''ku kabanga'' to think, c.f. isiZulu ''ukucabanga'').</ref> the [[Zambia]]n Sotho-Tswana language [[Silozi]] is also sometimes cited as a modern dialect of Sesotho named "Serotse" or "Sekololo." The oral history of the Basotho and Northern Sotho peoples (as contained in their [[diboko]]) states that Mathulare, a daughter of the chief of the Bafokeng nation (an old and respected people), was married to chief Tabane of the (Southern) Bakgatla (a branch of Bahurutse, who are one of the most ancient of the Sotho-Tswana clans), and bore the founders of five clans: [[Bapedi]] (by Mopedi), Makgolokwe (by Kgetsi<!-- not Mokgolokwe?? -->), Baphuthing (by Mophuthing, and later the Mzizi of [[Dlamini]], connected with the present-day [[Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)|amaNdebele]]), Batlokwa (by Kgwadi), and Basia (by Mosia). These were the first peoples to be called "Basotho", before many of their descendants and other peoples came together to form [[Moshoeshoe I]]'s nation in the early 19th century. The situation is even further complicated by various historical factors, such as members of parent clans joining their descendants, or various different clans calling themselves by the same names (because they honour the same legendary ancestor or have the same totem). An oft-repeated story is that when the modern Basotho nation was established by King Moshoeshoe I, his own "dialect" Sekwena was chosen over two other popular variations Setlokwa and Setaung, and that these two still exist as "dialects" of modern Sesotho. The inclusion of Setlokwa in this scenario is confusing, as the modern language named "Setlokwa" is a Northern Sotho language spoken by descendants of the same Batlokwa whose attack on the young chief Moshoeshoe's settlement during [[Difaqane]] (lead by the famous widow [[Mmanthatisi]]) caused them to migrate to present day Lesotho. On the other hand, Doke &amp; Mofokeng claims that the tendency of many Sesotho speakers to say e.g. {{H:title|[kʼɪʀʊŋ̩ŋʷe]|''ke ronngwe''|dotted=no}} instead of {{H:title|[kʼɪʀuˌmilʷe]|''ke romilwe''|dotted=no}} when forming the perfect of the passive of verbs ending in {{H:title|[mɑ]|''-ma''|dotted=no}} (as well as forming their perfects with {{H:title|[m̩me]|''-mme''|dotted=no}} instead of {{H:title|[mile]|''-mile''|dotted=no}}) is "a relic of the extinct Tlokwa dialect." ==Geographic distribution== [[Image:Sesothodistrib.gif|thumb|300px|right|Areas in which significant proportions of the population are Sesotho mother tongue speakers]] According to [[2001]] census data, there were almost four million first language Sesotho speakers recorded in South Africa &mdash; approximately eight per cent of the population. Sesotho is also the main language spoken by the people of [[Lesotho]], where, according to [[1993]] data, it was spoken by about 1 493 000 people, or 85% of the population. The census fails, unfortunately, to record the ''at least'' five million further South Africans for whom Sesotho is a second or third language. Such speakers are found in all major residential areas of greater [[Johannesburg]], [[Soweto]] and [[Tshwane]], where multilingualism and polylectalism are very high. ===Official status=== Sesotho is one of the eleven [[official languages of South Africa]], and one of the two official languages of [[Lesotho]]. ==Derived languages== Sesotho is one of the many languages from which the pseudo-language [[Tsotsitaal]] is derived. Tsotsitaal is not a proper language, as it is primarily a unique vocabulary and a set of idioms but used with the grammar and inflexion rules of another language (usually Sesotho or [[isiZulu]]). It is a part of the youth culture in most Southern [[Gauteng]] "[[township (South Africa)|township]]s" and is the primary language used in [[kwaito|Kwaito music]]. ==Phonology== {{main|Sesotho phonology}} The sound system of Sesotho is unusual in many respects. It has [[ejective consonant]]s, [[click consonant]]s, a [[uvular trill]], a relatively large number of [[affricate consonant]]s, no [[prenasalized consonant]]s, and a rare form of vowel-height (alternatively, [[advanced tongue root]]) harmony. In total, the language contains some 39 consonantal<ref name = "lab_cons">75 if you include the [[Sesotho phonology#pp_labialization|labialized]] consonants.</ref> and 9 vowel [[phonemes]]. It also has a large number of complex sound transformations which often change the phones of words due to the influence of other (sometimes invisible) sounds. ==Grammar== {{main|Sesotho grammar}} The most striking properties of Sesotho grammar, and the most important properties which reveal it as a [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] language, are its [[Sesotho nouns|noun gender]] and [[Sesotho concords|concord]] systems. The grammatical gender system does not include sex gender, and indeed, Bantu languages generally have no grammatical means of distinguishing between males and females. Another well-known property of the Bantu languages is their [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] morphology. Additionally, they tend to lack any [[grammatical case]] systems, indicating noun roles almost exclusively through word order. ==Notes== <references /> ==See also== *[[South African Translators' Association]] *[[Basotho]] ==References== *Batibo, H. M., Moilwa, J., and Mosaka N. 1997. ''The historical implications of the linguistic relationship between Makua and Sotho languages''. In PULA Journal of African Studies, vol. 11, no. 1 <!-- Related to other Southern languages --> <!--*Demuth, K. 1992. ''Acquisition of Sesotho''. In D. Slobin (ed.), The Cross-Linguistic Study of Language Acquisition. --> *[[Clement Martyn Doke|Doke, C. M.]], and Mofokeng, S. M. 1974. ''Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar''. Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, 3rd. impression. ISBN 0 582 61700 6. *Ntaoleng, B. S. 2004. ''Sociolinguistic variation in spoken and written Sesotho: A case study of speech varieties in Qwaqwa''. M.A. thesis. University of South Africa. <!-- Setaung, Setlokwa, and Serotse "dialects" --> *Tšiu, W. M. 2001. ''Basotho family odes (Diboko) and oral tradition''. M.A. thesis. University of South Africa<!-- Stuff about The Klan (this paper is a bit confused on some points and is somewhat unreliable)... --> ==External links== {{interwiki|code=st}} {{Wiktionarylang|code=st}} <!-- *[http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=sot Ethnologue report for Sesotho] This Ethnologue link should probably be removed as it doesn't really add anythinng --> *[http://www.sesotho.org Sesotho Online] A gentle introduction to the Sesotho language and [[Basotho]] culture. *[http://sesotho.blogspot.com Weblog on Sesotho] *[http://translate.org.za/ Translate.org.za] Project translating Free and Open Source Software into South African languages, including Sesotho. *[http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Sesotho PanAfrican L10n page on Sesotho] Information on the language and localization. *[http://friendsoflesotho.org/puo_ea_sechaba.pdf Sesotho language tutorial] A beginner's language text, designed for the US Peace Corps. ===Software=== * [http://translate.org.za/content/view/1610/54/ Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla], [http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/32/ OpenOffice.org], [http://translate.org.za/content/view/1611/54/ Mozilla Firefox web-browser], and [http://translate.org.za/content/view/1612/54/ Mozilla Thunderbird email program] in Sesotho. {{Languages of South Africa}} [[Category:Sotho-Tswana languages|Sotho]] <!-- Use more practical stem-based ordering of Bantu language names --> [[Category:Bantu languages|Sotho]] [[Category:Languages of Lesotho|Sotho]] [[Category:Languages of South Africa|Sotho]] [[Category:Tonal languages|Sotho]] [[Category:Vowel harmony languages|Sotho]] <!-- um, the name should be isiSuthu... --> [[af:Suid-Sotho]] [[br:Sothoeg]] [[bg:Сесото]] [[da:Sesotho]] [[de:Süd-Sotho]] [[es:Sesotho]] [[eo:Sota lingvo]] [[fr:Sotho du Sud]] [[ko:소토어]] [[id:Bahasa Sesotho]] [[xh:IsiSotho]] [[zu:IsiSuthu]] [[it:Lingua sesotho]] [[lij:Lengua sesotho]] [[nah:Sōtotlahtōlli]] [[nl:Zuid-Sotho]] [[no:Sesotho]] [[nov:Sutum]] [[pl:Język sotho]] [[pt:SeSotho do sul]] [[ru:Сесото]] [[st:Sesotho]] [[fi:Sesothon kieli]] [[sv:Sesotho]]