Swazi language

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File:South Africa Swati speakers proportion map.svg
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Swazi at home. Template:Legend-col
File:South Africa Swati speakers density map.svg
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: density of Swazi home-language speakers. Template:Legend-col

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.[2]

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 Script error: No such module "Lang"., singular Script error: No such module "Lang".), 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 Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Mid Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link
Open Template:IPA link

Consonants

Swazi does not distinguish between places of articulation in its clicks. They are dental (as Script error: No such module "IPA".) or might also be alveolar (as Script error: No such module "IPA".). 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
plain nasal plain nasal
Click plain Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
aspirated Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
breathy Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link~Script error: No such module "IPA".
Plosive ejective Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
aspirated Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
breathy Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
implosive Template:IPA link
Affricate voiceless Script error: No such module "IPA". Template:IPA link~Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
voiced Script error: No such module "IPA". Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Fricative voiceless Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
voiced Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Approximant Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

The consonants Script error: No such module "IPA". each have two sounds. Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". can both occur as ejective sounds, Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA"., and their other common allophones are Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA".. The sound Script error: No such module "IPA". differs when at the beginning of stems as Script error: No such module "IPA"., and commonly as Script error: No such module "IPA". 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:

  • When a stem with non-high tone receives a prefix with underlying high tone, this high tone moves to the antepenult (or to the penult, when the onset of the antepenult is a depressor).
  • High spread: all syllables between two high tones become high, as long as no depressor intervenes. This happens not only word-internally, but also across a word boundary between a verb and its object.

The depressor consonants are all voiced obstruents other than Script error: No such module "IPA".. The allophone Script error: No such module "IPA". of Script error: No such module "IPA". appears to behave as a depressor for some rules but not others.[6]

Orthography

Template:Cleanup lang

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

Vowels

  • a - [a]
  • e - [ɛ~e]
  • i - [i]
  • o - [ɔ~o]
  • u - [u]

Consonants

  • b - [ɓ]
  • bh - [bʱ]
  • c - [ᵏǀ]
  • ch - [ᵏǀʰ]
  • d - [dʱ]
  • dl - [ɮ]
  • dv - [dv]
  • dz - [dz]
  • f - [f]
  • g - [gʱ]
  • gc - [ᶢǀʱ]
  • h - [h]
  • hh - [ɦ]
  • hl - [ɬ]
  • j - [dʒʱ]
  • k - [kʼ, k̬]
  • kh - [kʰ]
  • kl - [kɬ]
  • l - [l]
  • m - [m]
  • mb - [mb]
  • n - [n]
  • nc - [ᵑǀ]
  • nch - [ᵑǀʰ]
  • ndl - [ⁿɮ]
  • ng - [ŋ, ŋɡ]
  • ngc - [ᵑǀʱ]
  • nhl - [ⁿɫ]
  • p - [pʼ]
  • ph - [pʰ]
  • q - [kʼ, k̬]
  • s - [s]
  • sh - [ʃ]
  • t - [tʼ]
  • tf - [tf]
  • th - [tʰ]
  • tj - [tʃʼ]
  • ts - [tsʼ, tsʰ]
  • v - [v]
  • w - [w]
  • y - [j]
  • z - [z]
  • zh - [ʒ][7]

Labialised consonants

  • dvw - [dvʷ]
  • khw - [kʰʷ]
  • lw - [lʷ]
  • nkhw - [ᵑkʰʷ]
  • ngw - [ᵑ(g)ʷ]
  • sw - [sʷ]
  • vw - [vʷ]

Grammar

Nouns

The Swazi noun (Script error: No such module "Lang".) consists of two essential parts, the prefix (Script error: No such module "Lang".) and the stem (Script error: No such module "Lang".). 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.

Class Singular Plural
1/2 um(u)-Template:Efn ba-, be-
1a/2a Ø- bo-
3/4 um(u)-Template:Efn imi-
5/6 li- ema-
7/8 s(i)-Template:Efn t(i)-Template:Efn
9/10 iN-Template:Efn tiN-Template:Efn
11/10 lu-, lw- tiN-Template:Efn
14 bu-, b-, tj-
15 ku-
17 ku-

Template:Notelist

Verbs

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

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

Months

Swazi month names
English Swazi/Swati
January Script error: No such module "Lang".
February Script error: No such module "Lang".
March Script error: No such module "Lang".
April Script error: No such module "Lang".
May Script error: No such module "Lang".
June Script error: No such module "Lang".
July Script error: No such module "Lang".
August Script error: No such module "Lang".
September Script error: No such module "Lang".
October Script error: No such module "Lang".
November Script error: No such module "Lang".
December Script error: No such module "Lang".

Sample text

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

Script error: No such module "Lang".[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]

References

Template:Reflist

External links

Template:Sister project Template:Sister project Template:Wikivoyage

Software

Script error: No such module "Navbox". Template:Languages of Swaziland Template:Languages of Mozambique Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones N–S)

Template:Authority control

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named e26
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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