Swazi language

Last updated

Swazi
siSwati
Pronunciation [sísʷaːtʼi]
Native to Eswatini, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique
Native speakers
L1: 2.3 million (2013–2019) [1]
L2: 2.4 million (2013) [1]
Latin (Swazi alphabet)
Swazi Braille
Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed Swazi
Official status
Official language in
Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa
Flag of Eswatini.svg  Eswatini
Language codes
ISO 639-1 ss
ISO 639-2 ssw
ISO 639-3 ssw
Glottolog swat1243
S.43 [2]
Linguasphere 99-AUT-fe
Swati (Swazi)
PersonliSwati
People emaSwati
Language siSwati
Country eSwatini
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Swazi at home.
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0-20%
20-40%
40-60%
60-80%
80-100% South Africa Swati speakers proportion map.svg
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Swazi at home.
  •   0–20%
  •   20–40%
  •   40–60%
  •   60–80%
  •   80–100%
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: density of Swazi home-language speakers.
<1 /km2
1-3 /km2
3-10 /km2
10-30 /km2
30-100 /km2
100-300 /km2
300-1000 /km2
1000-3000 /km2
>3000 /km2 South Africa Swati speakers density map.svg
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: density of Swazi home-language speakers.
  •   <1 /km²
  •   1–3 /km²
  •   3–10 /km²
  •   10–30 /km²
  •   30–100 /km²
  •   100–300 /km²
  •   300–1000 /km²
  •   1000–3000 /km²
  •   >3000 /km²

Swazi or siSwati is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) 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. [1] The language is taught in Eswatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Siswati is an official language of Eswatini (along with English), and is also one of the twelve official languages of South Africa.

Contents

The official term is "siSwati" among native speakers; in English, Zulu, Ndebele or Xhosa it may be referred to as Swazi. Siswati is most closely related to the other Tekela languages, like Phuthi and Northern Transvaal (Sumayela) Ndebele, but is also very close to the Zunda languages: Zulu, Southern Ndebele, Northern Ndebele, and Xhosa.

Dialects

Siswati spoken in Eswatini can be divided into four dialects corresponding to the four administrative regions of the country: Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni.

Siswati has at least two varieties: the standard, prestige variety spoken mainly in the north, centre and southwest of the country, and a less prestigious variety spoken elsewhere.

In the far south, especially in towns such as Nhlangano and Hlatikhulu, the variety of the language spoken is significantly influenced by isiZulu. Many Swazis (plural emaSwati, singular liSwati), including those in the south who speak this variety, do not regard it as 'proper' Swazi. This is what may be referred to as the second dialect in the country. The sizeable number of Swazi speakers in South Africa (mainly in the Mpumalanga province, and in Soweto) are considered by Eswatini Swazi speakers to speak a non-standard form of the language.

Unlike the variant in the south of Eswatini, the Mpumalanga variety appears to be less influenced by Zulu, and is thus considered closer to standard Swazi. However, this Mpumalanga variety is distinguishable by distinct intonation, and perhaps distinct tone patterns. Intonation patterns (and informal perceptions of 'stress') in Mpumalanga Swazi are often considered discordant to the Swazi ear. This South African variety of Swazi is considered to exhibit influence from other South African languages spoken close to Swazi.

A feature of the standard prestige variety of Swazi (spoken in the north and centre of Eswatini) is the royal style of slow, heavily stressed enunciation, which is anecdotally claimed to have a 'mellifluous' feel to its hearers.

Phonology

Vowels

Swazi vowels
Front Back
Close i u
Mid ɛ ~ e ɔ ~ o
Open a

Consonants

Swazi does not distinguish between places of articulation in its clicks. They are dental (as [ǀ]) or might also be alveolar (as [ǃ]). It does, however, distinguish five or six manners of articulation and phonation, including tenuis, aspirated, voiced, breathy voiced, nasal, and breathy-voiced nasal. [3]

Swazi consonants
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Lateral Post-
alveolar
Velar Glottal
plainnasalplainnasal
Click plain ᵏǀ ᵑǀ
aspirated ᵏǀʰ ᵑǀʰ
breathy ᶢǀʱ ᵑǀʱ
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ ~ŋɡ
Plosive ejective kʼ~k̬
aspirated
breathy ɡʱ
implosive ɓ
Affricate voicelesstf tsʼ ~ tsʰ tʃʼ kxʼ
voiceddv dz dʒʱ
Fricative voiceless f s ɬ ʃ h
voiced v z ɮ ʒ ɦ ɦ̃
Approximant w l j

The consonants /tskŋɡ/ each have two sounds. /ts/ and /k/ can both occur as ejective sounds, [tsʼ] and [kʼ], but their common forms are [tsʰ] and [k̬]. The sound /ŋɡ/ differs when at the beginning of stems as [ŋ], and commonly as [ŋɡ] within words. [3] [4] [5]

Tone

Swazi exhibits three surface tones: high, mid and low. Tone is unwritten in the standard orthography. Traditionally, only the high and mid tones are taken to exist phonemically, with the low tone conditioned by a preceding depressor consonant. Bradshaw (2003) however argues that all three tones exist underlyingly.

Phonological processes acting on tone include:

The depressor consonants are all voiced obstruents other than /ɓ/. The allophone [ŋ] of /ŋɡ/ appears to behave as a depressor for some rules but not others. [6]

Orthography

Screenshot of the Swazi-language Wikipedia Swazi Wikipedia screenshot.png
Screenshot of the Swazi-language Wikipedia

Vowels

Consonants

Labialised consonants

Grammar

Nouns

The Swazi noun (libito) consists of two essential parts, the prefix (sicalo) and the stem (umsuka). Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages.

The following table gives an overview of Swazi noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.

ClassSingularPlural
1/2um(u)- [lower-alpha 1] ba-, be-
1a/2aØ-bo-
3/4um(u)- [lower-alpha 1] imi-
5/6li-ema-
7/8s(i)- [lower-alpha 2] t(i)- [lower-alpha 2]
9/10iN- [lower-alpha 3] tiN- [lower-alpha 3]
11/10lu-, lw-tiN- [lower-alpha 3]
14bu-, b-, tj-
15ku-
17ku-
  1. 1 2 umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g. umuntfu (person).
  2. 1 2 s- and t- replace si- and ti- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. sandla/tandla (hand/hands).
  3. 1 2 3 The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and tiN- stands for m, n or no letter at all.

Verbs

Verbs use the following affixes for the subject and the object:

Person/
Class
PrefixInfix
1st sing.ngi--ngi-
2nd sing.u--wu-
1st plur.si--si-
2nd plur.ni--ni-
1u--m(u)-
2ba--ba-
3u--m(u)-
4i--yi-
5li--li-
6a--wa-
7si--si-
8ti--ti-
9i--yi-
10ti--ti-
11lu--lu-
14bu--bu-
15ku--ku-
17ku--ku-
reflexive-ti-

Months

meaning of the Months in Swazi/Swati:

EnglishSwazi/Swati
JanuarynguBhimbidvwane
FebruaryyiNdlovana
MarchyiNdlovulenkhulu
AprilnguMabasa
MayyiNkhwekhweti
JuneyiNhlaba
JulynguKholwane
AugustiNgci
SeptemberiNyoni
OctoberiMphala
NovemberLweti
DecemberyiNgongoni

Sample text

The following example of text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Bonkhe bantfu batalwa bakhululekile balingana ngalokufananako ngesitfunti nangemalungelo. Baphiwe ingcondvo nekucondza kanye nanembeza ngakoke bafanele batiphatse futsi baphatse nalabanye ngemoya webuzalwane. [8]

The Declaration reads in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." [9]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Swazi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. 1 2 Taljaard, P. C.; Khumalo, J. N.; Bosch, S. E. (1991). Handbook of siSwati. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
  4. Corum, Claudia W. (1991). An Introduction to the Swazi (Siswati) Language. Indiana University.: Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics. pp. 2.7–2.20.
  5. Ziervogel, Dirk; Mabuza, Enos John (1976). A Grammar of the Swati Language: siSwati. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
  6. Bradshaw, Mary M. (2003). "Consonant-tone interaction in Siswati". 음성음운형태론연구. 9 (2): 277–294. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  7. "Swati alphabet, pronunciation, and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  8. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Siswati". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  9. "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". wikisource.org. Retrieved 20 December 2018.

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