Fanagalo, or Fanakalo, is a vernacular or pidgin based primarily on Zulu with input from English and a small amount of Afrikaans.[3] It is used as a lingua franca, mainly in the gold, diamond, coal and copper mining industries in South Africa and to a lesser extent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Although it is used as a second language only, the number of speakers was estimated as "several hundred thousand" in 1975. By the time independence came–or in the case of South Africa, universal suffrage–English had become sufficiently widely spoken and understood that it became the lingua franca, enabling different ethnic groups in the same country to communicate with each other, and Fanagalo use declined.
The name "Fanagalo" comes from strung-together Nguni forms fana-ga-lo meaning "like + of + that" and has the meaning "do it like this", reflecting its use as a language of instruction. Other spellings of the name include Fanagalo and Fanekolo. It is also known as Isikula, Lololo or Isilololo, Piki or Isipiki, and Silunguboi.
Like Turkish, Fanagalo is characterised by a certain amount of vowel harmony, wherein a vowel in a prefix is changed according to the subsequent vowel. In the Nguni tongues, the prefixMu- or Ma- denotes the singular, while Bu- or Ba- signifies the plural – hence Muntu = a man; Bantu = men, particularly when applied to tribes, e.g. Ma-tabele. Similarly, the prefix Chi- or Si- indicates the language spoke by that tribe. e.g. men of the Lozi tribe are called Ba-rotse (spelling is not standardised), and they speak Si-lozi; Bembas speak Chiwemba; Tswanas live in Botswana, formerly called Bechuanaland.
Chi-lapa-lapa thus is the "language" derived from lapa = "there", with reduplication for emphasis.
History and usage
Fanagalo is one of a number of Africanpidgin languages that developed during the colonial period to promote ease of communication in South Africa. It originated as a mining language spoken by miners from different linguistic backgrounds. However, it is uncertain as to how this pidgin language was developed in the first place, as there are multiple competing theories.
The most common theory is that Fanagalo was created as a result of men speaking different languages (coming from different cultural backgrounds throughout South Africa and its neighbouring states) that went to work in the mines during the late 19th century. Eventually, these languages combined and a new dialect was formed to break the language barrier among miners. Fanagalo had spread across the country and throughout Southern Africa. Therefore, Fanagalo was spoken as a "contact language" in the mines between people originating from different tribes in South Africa and from different countries in Southern Africa, and between foremen and workers. In addition to Indigenous Africans, Afrikaans and English-speaking settlers and European immigrants (such as those of Portuguese, Polish and German descent) contributed to the development of Fanagalo for communication in the mines. However, some researchers disagree with this theory as Fanagalo is predominately derived from Zulu (as borrowed words from other South African languages and languages of neighbouring states such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe are not common.) However, the pidgin language was and still is mostly spoken by miners from different tribes in South Africa and neighbouring states, which gives support to this theory.
Another theory (suggested by Adendorff and other researchers) is that Fanagalo came from the Colony of Natal as a way of communication between Black people who spoke Zulu and white people who spoke English and Afrikaans. This theory explains why the pidgin language is composed mostly of Zulu, Afrikaans and English. This would be the result of the arrival of the British settlers and Afrikaners in Natal in the early 19th century; during the late 1830s, Cape Afrikaners travelled to Natal (and subsequently founded the Boer republic of Natalia (1840–1843)) and immigrants from England landed a decade later. The development of the pidgin language in Natal is attributed to "the acute difficulties of communication". Fanagalo was also spoken with Indianlabourers that were imported to Natal by the British rulers and it eventually became a way of communication between the Indians and the Zulus as well. It is worth noting, however, that it is not influenced by Indian dialects. Indeed, the Indian languages had no economic value for interactions with the English and the Zulus. Fanagalo was then taught in the gold mines when Zulu men migrated from Natal to the Witwatersrand to work in the mines and this became the predominant pidgin language throughout South Africa. Some researchers also disagree with this theory as well because it is difficult to explain how a pidgin language from Natal could suddenly transfer to the gold mines in Witwatersrand and the diamond mines in Kimberly. However, a large increasing migration of Zulu people from Natal to Transvaal province, Cape province, and the Orange Free State to work in the mines validates this theory as most mines in South Africa are located in areas dominated by the native Sotho and Tswana peoples, yet there are few words in Fanagalo derived from these two languages and from other Bantu languages from South Africa and its neighboring states.
Adendorff describes two variants of the language, Mine Fanagalo and Garden Fanagalo. The latter name refers to its use with servants in households. It was previously known as Kitchen Kaffir. Both Fanagalo and Kitchen Kaffir contributed to linguistic colonisation as Kitchen Kaffir was created to segregate the colonizers from the local communities and was used as a means to exercise control.[4] The term kaffir was used as a derogatory term for Black people in South Africa and is now considered extremely offensive. It is derived from the Arab word kafir, meaning unbeliever.[5]
Two factors kept Fanagalo from achieving status as a primary language: the segregation of Fanagalo to work-related domains of use and an absence of leisure uses. Secondly, women and children were not permitted to speak Fanagalo, meaning that family communication did not exist and there were little ways to expand the uses of the pidgin.[3] In the mid-20th century in South Africa there were government-led efforts to promote and standardise Fanagalo as a universal second language, under the name of "Basic Bantu".[citation needed]
In contrast, mining companies in the early 21st century have attempted to phase out Fanagalo in favour of the pre-existing local languages. In addition, there was a conscious effort to promote the use of English in domains where Fanagalo was predominantly used as a means of control.[3] Ravyse (2018) discusses Fanagalo's apparent resistance to opposing official policy in spite of its ongoing stigma as a language for the illiterate. Fanagalo has become intertwined with the culture of the mining industry, and its continuation seems to hinge on the ongoing favour of its speaking community rather than industry policy. Despite this decline in use, Fanagalo is still accepted as a part of mining culture and identity and is seen as a de facto policy and maintains its significance in its domain of use.[6] The strong identity Fangalo speakers shared enabled homogeneity and therefore they were resistant to the inclusion of English and likely explains why the pidgin is still used today.[6]
Aside from mining, Adendorff also suggests that Fanagalo has unfavourable and negative connotations for many South Africans. However, he raises the point that Fanagalo is sometimes used between white South Africans, particularly expatriates, as a signal of South African origin and a way of conveying solidarity in an informal manner. That role has of late largely been taken over by Afrikaans; even among English speaking South African expatriates.[6] In the latter half of the 20th century, holiday makers from the Rhodesias frequently went on holiday to Lourenço Marques in Mozambique (now Maputo), where many people speak Portuguese – but most also spoke a form of Fanagalo.[citation needed]
There have been some small books, grammars, and dictionaries published about Fanagalo.[7][8] Presumably, these were used more by white supervisors than by Bantu-speaking workers as most Black workers learned the language naturally at work and many were illiterate.
Phonology
Consonants
According to the Dictionary and Phrase-Book of Fanagalo (Kitchen Kafir) by J.D. Bold,[8] Fanagalo (as spoken in the early 1950s) had the following consonants. He remarks that there did not appear to be a consistent set of allophones (the allophones used varied according to the speaker's native language) and that some Zulu speakers substituted /l/ for /r/ and /k/ for /ɡ/.
Bold remarks that Fanagalo had five monophthongs, five diphthongs, and two syllabic consonants with no tone or length contrast: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /ai/, /ei/, /au/, /oi/, /ou/, /m̩/, and /n̩/. The syllabic consonants occurred only at the beginning of words such as mlungu and nkosi which are derived from the Zulu words umlungu and inkosi.[8]
Most present tense (which double as infinitive) verbs in Fanagalo end in -a; other tenses are formed by removing -a and adding other affixes or words. The following table shows the inflection of the regular verb hamba, meaning "to go."[8]
Grammatical Tense
English
Fanagalo
Present
I arrive.
Mina fika.
Past
I arrived.
Mina fikile.
Future
I will arrive.
Mina zo fika.
Present Progressive
I am arriving.
Mina fikwa.
Present Perfect
I have arrived.
Mina fikiwe.
Causative
I make others arrive.
Mina fikisa.
Future Perfect
I will have arrived.
Mina zo fikile.
Present Modal
I can arrive.
Mina yazi fika.
Past Modal
I could have arrived.
Mina yazi fikile.
Present Permissive
I may arrive.
Mina wena fika.
Possibility
I might arrive.
Mhlaumbe mina zo fika.
Desire
I want to arrive.
Mina funa fika.
Wish
I like to arrive.
Mina tanda fika.
Desire (Formal)
I would like to arrive.
Mina zo tanda fika.
Expectation
I should arrive.
Muhle mina fika.
Irrealis
I am about to arrive.
Mina zo fika konamanje.
Several irregular verbs, some of which end in -a and some of which do not, also exist in the language and do not follow these basic rules for conjugation. For example, the following verbs hamba (to go) and azi (to know) are conjugated in the following way. The remote past tense prefix nga- and the recent past tense prefix be- can be used only with verbs that do not end in -a along with some other verbs such as dula (to stay), cula (to sing), and lala (to sleep).[9]
Grammatical Tense
English
Fanagalo
Present
I go.
Mina hamba.
Past
I went.
Mina hambile.
Remote Past
I went a long time ago.
Mina ngahamba.
Recent Past
I just went.
Mina behamba.
Future
I will go.
Mina zo hamba.
Present Progressive
I am going.
Mina hambwa.
Present Perfect
I have gone.
Mina hambiwe.
Causative
I drive away (cause to go).
Mina hambisa.
Future Perfect
I will have gone.
Mina zo hambile.
Present Modal
I can go.
Mina yazi hamba.
Past Modal
I could have gone.
Mina yazi hambile.
Present Permissive
I may go.
Mina wena hamba.
Possibility
I might go.
Mhlaumbe mina zo hamba.
Desire
I want to go.
Mina funa hamba.
Wish
I like to go.
Mina tanda hamba.
Desire (Formal)
I would like to go.
Mina zo tanda hamba.
Expectation
I should go.
Muhle mina hamba.
Irrealis
I am about to go.
Mina zo hamba konamanje.
Grammatical Tense
English
Fanagalo
Present
I know.
Mina azi.
Past
I knew.
Mina aziile.
Remote Past
I knew a long time ago.
Mina ngaazi.
Recent Past
I just knew.
Mina beazi.
Future
I will know.
Mina zo azi.
Present Progressive
I am knowing.
Mina aziwa.
Present Perfect
I have known.
Mina aziiwe.
Causative
I teach (cause to know).
Mina aziisa.
Future Perfect
I will have known.
Mina zo aziile.
Present Modal
I can know.
Mina yazi azi.
Past Modal
I could have known.
Mina yazi aziile.
Present Permissive
I may know.
Mina wena azi.
Possibility
I might know.
Mhlaumbe mina zo azi.
Desire
I want to know.
Mina funa azi.
Wish
I like to know.
Mina tanda azi.
Desire (Formal)
I would like to know.
Mina zo tanda azi.
Expectation
I should know.
Muhle mina azi.
Irrealis
I am about to know.
Mina zo azi konamanje.
Noun Pluralisation
Most inanimate nouns in Fanagalo are pluralised by adding ma- to the base form of the word, but words starting with i are pluralised by adding z- and words beginning with n are pluralised with zi-. For example, the plural of foshol (shovel) is mafoshol (shovels); the plural form of inyoni (bird) is zinyoni (birds) and the plural form of nkomo (cow) is zinkomo (cattle). Regular proper nouns referring to people and categories of people are pluralised by adding ba- to the base form of the word. For example, the plural form of the proper name Judah (spelled Juda) in Fanagalo would be BaJuda (Judahs).[8]
Bold documents several irregular plurals in his guidebook to the language: Abelungu (white people) as the plural of Mlungu (white person), mehlo (eyes) as the plural form of iliso (eye), and befazi (women) as the plural form of mfazi (woman).
Interrogatives
Yes–no questions are formed by raising the tone in a declarative sentence with the same meaning similarly to Spanish or by adding the grammatical particle na at the end of the declarative sentence. Other questions are formed by adding wh-words to the beginning of sentences.[8]
Language features and variants
Mine Fanagalo in South Africa and Zimbabwe is based mostly on Zulu vocabulary (about 70%), with English (about 25%) and some words from Afrikaans (5%). It does not have the range of Zulu inflections, and it tends to follow English word order.
Adendorff describes Mine Fanagalo and Garden Fanagalo as being basically the same pidgin. He suggests that Garden Fanagalo should be seen as lying towards the English end of a continuum, and Mine Fanagalo closer to the Zulu end.
The variety in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) is known as Chilapalapa and is influenced by Shona, while the variety in Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), called Cikabanga[10] (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, Chikabanga), is influenced by Bemba.
Several key features differentiate Fanagalo from the Nguni languages (such as Zulu and Xhosa). Lo functions as both an article and a demonstrative, while only a demonstrative in Zulu. Lapha is used to mean "here", also meaning "there" when the first syllable is stressed, and is also used as a general preposition for location. (It works for anything such as "on", or "near", etc.) Zulu, on the other hand, uses only lapha to mean "here". Additionally, Fanagalo uses only free pronouns: mina, thina, wena, ena, meaning "I, we, you, he/she/it/they". Zulu uses only pronouns for emphasis, relying instead on verb agreement markers, much like Spanish.[3]
Here are two examples (all letters are pronounced):-
Koki Lobin Cock Robin
Zonke nyoni lapa moyo ena kala, ena kala All birds of air, they cried, they cried Ena izwile ena file lo nyoni Koki Lobin They heard the death the bird Cock Robin Ena izwile, ena file, ena izwile ena file Cocky Lobin.
Kubani ena bulalile Koki Lobin? Who they killed Cock Robin Mina kruma lo Sparrow Me, said the sparrow Na lo picannin bow and arrow kamina With the little bow & arrow of mine Mina bulalile Koki Lobin. I killed Cock Robin
TANDAZO' (The Lord's Prayer)
Baba ga tina, Wena kona pezulu, Father of ours, You are above Tina bonga lo Gama ga wena; We thank (for) the name of you
Tina vuma lo mteto ga wena Lapa mhlaba, fana na pezulu. Niga tina namuhla lo zinkwa yena izwasisa; Give us today etc., etc... Futi, yekelela masono gatina, Loskati tina yekelela masono ga lomunye. Hayi letisa tina lapa lo cala; Kodwa, sindisa tina ku lo bubi, Ndaba Wena kona lo-mteto, lo mandla, na lo dumela, Zonkeskat. Amen.
The Bantu languages are a language family of about 600 languages that are spoken by the Bantu peoples of Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
South African English is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans.
Zulu, or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken and indigenous to Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 13.56 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The word "KwaZulu-Natal" translates into English as "Home of the Zulu Nation is Natal". Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa, and it is understood by over 50% of its population. It became one of South Africa's 12 official languages in 1994.
Xhosa, formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, 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 a Bantu language, with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click.
Swazi or siSwati is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 4.7 million including first and second language speakers. The language is taught in Eswatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Siswati is an official language of Eswatini, and is also one of the twelve official languages of South Africa.
Tsonga or, natively, Xitsonga, as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of South Africa. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga. The Xitsonga language has been standardised for both academic and home use. Tsonga is an official language of the Republic of South Africa, and under the name "Shangani" it is recognised as an official language in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. All Tswa-Ronga languages are recognised in Mozambique. It is not official in Eswatini.
Kraal is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of thorn-bush branches, a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form. It is similar to a boma in eastern or central Africa.
At least thirty-five languages are spoken in South Africa, twelve of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, South African Sign Language, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and English, which is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all official languages are equal in legal status. In addition, South African Sign Language was recognised as the twelfth official language of South Africa by the National Assembly on 3 May 2023. Unofficial languages are protected under the Constitution of South Africa, though few are mentioned by any name.
Northern Ndebele, also called Ndebele, isiNdebele saseNyakatho, Zimbabwean Ndebele, Sindebele or North Ndebele, associated with the term Matabele, is a Bantu language spoken by the Northern Ndebele people which belongs to the Nguni group of languages.
Kaffir or Kafir may refer to:
Tsotsitaal is a South African vernacular dialect derived from a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province, but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa. Tsotsi is a Sesotho, Pedi or Tswana slang word for a "thug" or "robber" or "criminal", possibly from the verb "ho lotsa" "to sharpen", whose meaning has been modified in modern times to include "to con"; or from the tsetse fly, as the language was first known as Flytaal, although flaai also means "cool" or "street smart". The word taal in Afrikaans means "language".
Zambia has several major indigenous languages, all members of the Bantu family, as well as Khwedam, Zambian Sign Language, several immigrant languages and the pidgins Settla and Fanagalo. English is the official language and the major language of business and education.
The phonology of Sesotho and those of the other Sotho–Tswana languages are radically different from those of "older" or more "stereotypical" Bantu languages. Modern Sesotho in particular has very mixed origins inheriting many words and idioms from non-Sotho–Tswana languages.
The Nguni people are a linguistic cultural group of Bantu cattle herders who migrated from central Africa into Southern Africa, made up of ethnic groups formed from iron age and proto-agrarians, with offshoots in neighboring colonially-created countries in Southern Africa. Swazi people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Ndebele people live in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.
This article presents a brief overview of the grammar of the Sesotho and provides links to more detailed articles.
Tswa (Xitswa) is a South-Eastern Bantu language in Southern Mozambique. Its closest relatives are Ronga and Tsonga, the three forming the Tswa–Ronga family of languages.
Lala is a Bantu language of South Africa, claimed to be extinct in some sources. As of 1999, however, there were still a number of communities of speakers in the coastal regions of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Although it is a Tekela Nguni language, for sociological reasons it is often considered a dialect of Zulu, whereas it differs quite markedly in phonology and to a degree in morphology, and with a large portion of its lexicon derived from Xhosa and the IsiZansi Tekela variety of the lower South Coast.
The following list names English words that originate from African languages.
1 2 3 4 Mesthrie, Rajend (2007). "Differentiating Pidgin from Early Interlanguage – A Comparison of Pidgin Nguni (Fanakalo) and Interlanguage Varieties of Xhosa and Zulu". Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 25: 75–89. doi:10.2989/16073610709486447. S2CID144973893.
Adendorff, Ralph (2002). "Fanakalo – a Pidgin in South Africa". Language in South Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-79105-2.
Lunga, Violet Bridget (2004). "Mapping African Postcoloniality: Linguistic and Cultural Spaces of Hybridity". Perspectives on Global Development and Technology. 3 (3): 291–326. doi:10.1163/1569150042442502. ISSN 1569-1500
Mesthrie, Rajend (2019-08-27). "Fanakalo as a mining language in South Africa: A new overview". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 2019 (258): 13–33. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2019-2027. ISSN 0165-2516.
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