Northern Ndebele language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Northern Ndebele
Zimbabwe Ndebele siNdebele saseNyakatho
Region	Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe; North-East District in Botswana
Native speakers	1.6 million  (2012)e18
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Zunda Northern Ndebele
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe
Guthrie code	S.44
Linguasphere	99-AUT-fk incl. varieties 99-AUT-fka to 99-AUT-fkd

Northern Ndebele is an African language. It is also called Sindebele, Zimbabwean Ndebele or North Ndebele, and formerly known as Matabele. It is part of the Nguni group of Bantu languages. It is spoken by the amaNdebele, Ndebele and Matabele people of Zimbabwe. It is also known as siNdebele or simply Ndebele.

Ndebele is related to the Zulu language spoken in South Africa. The Ndebele people of Zimbabwe are descended from followers of the Zulu leader Mzilikazi. Mzilikazi and his people left kwaZulu in the early 1800s during the Mfecane. They travelled North, past what is now Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, in South Africa, and into Zimbabwe and Botswana. There are Sindebele speakers in many places in Southern Africa.

The Northern Ndebele language and the Southern Ndebele language are not two variations of the same language. Both are Bantu languages, but Northern Ndebele is very similar to Zulu. The Southern Ndebele language has similarities to the Sotho and Tswana languages.

Pronunciation

Title page of one of the earliest Sindebele phrase books

It is relatively easy to pronounce Ndebele words because the vowel sounds are constant. (That is, each vowel has basically one sound.) The accent is usually on the second-to-last syllable.

Vowels

The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. They are pronounced like so:

Click sounds

In Ndebele, there are three click sounds. They are shown with the letters c, q and x.

c is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the front upper teeth and gums, the centre of the tongue is pressed down and the tip of the tongue is moved backwards. The resulting sound is like the sound used in English to express annoyance, called a "clucking sound." Some words with this sound are [cina] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (end), and [cela] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (ask)

The q sound is made by raising the back of the tongue to touch the soft palate and touching the gums with the sides and tip of the tongue. The centre of the tongue is pressed down and the tip moved quickly away from the gum. The resulting sound is like the "pop" heard when quickly removing a cork from a bottle. Some words with this sound are [qalisa] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (start) and [qeda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (finish).

The x sound is made by placing the tongue so that the back of the tongue touches the soft palate and the sides and tip of the tongue touch the gums. One side of the tongue is quickly pulled away from the gums. Some words with this sound are [xoxa] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (discuss) and [ixoxo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (frog).

Basic phrases

These are basic phrases in Ndebele.

Related pages

• Zulu language

• "Northern Ndebele for Beginners"

See also

In Spanish: Idioma ndebele septentrional para niños