Section One - Grammar and Spelling
1. Gender: There are few cases in Xhosa where a particular conventional form
is adopted, except for actual names of animals/living
things. There is no grammatical gender in
Xhosa. For example, if I say, "Umntwana
uyagula" - the child (he/she) is sick
- the u- represents both he and she,
and the gender will depend on the noun.
There is absolutely no differentiation in
sex when writing - for example in pronouns,
etc. The only difference between u- meaning
you (singular) and u- meaning he/she
is in the tone of voice. You is said
in a lower tone while he/she is said
in a higher tone. Also, ndi- which
means I and u- which means
you are not separate words which
can stand on their own, as in English. They
are always attached to the verb and they
are an equivalent of the English pronoun.
Also, in English, there are several ways of expressing the present
tense - this is not the case in Xhosa. It
requires the speaker to develop a feel for
the language, for example: 'Ndifunda ukuthetha
isiNgesi' which means: 'I am learning to
speak English/ I learn to speak English/
I do learn to speak English', etc. There is also the suffix - kazi that can denote
the feminine gender, for example: inkosi (chief) - inkosikazi; inja (male
dog) - injakazi (female dog); utitshala (male teacher) - utitshalakazi (female
teacher), etc.
Since the Xhosa nation has a paradoxical history of a deep-rooted
patriarchal tradition, anything that has
to do with 'men' is dealt with in a very
respectful manner. Xhosa refer to sex differentiation
where it bears more importance to the content
of the message. Furthermore, certain words
which are acceptable in the Western culture
pose a problem for translation into Xhosa
because they are taboo when translated into
equivalent terms. An example of this can
be found in sex and sexual related discourses,
systemic vilification of homosexuals (homophobia),
loss of virginity, human genitalia, HIV/AIDS
and related diseases which are regarded
as a very private matter in the Xhosa culture
and a taboo subject for discussions in general
public, particularly for women.
2. Clicks: Another notable difference in the Xhosa language are the clicks which originate from the Khoisan (a commonly used term to denote
people formerly known as 'Hottentot' and
'Bushmen'). The three primary clicks are: c, q, x. Basically, Xhosa is a phonetic language,
i.e. the letters correspond to the sounds.
3. Plural: The form of indicating plural words is varied and not uniform, hence
Xhosa has 15 noun classes. For example,
nouns beginning with a particular letter
will adopt a certain letter to turn plural.
E.g. "umntu" = (person) will become "abantu" = (people). Plural words
normally end with 's' in English but in
Xhosa we have 'umama' (mother) then
oomama (mothers), which also depends
on noun classes. There is an exception for
nouns like, for example, inja. This
is 'a dog' in English but the plural is
'izinja'. However, where Xhosa has a borrowed word like ikhompyutha
(computer) - it will be iikhompyutha for 'computers', and
ifestile (window - borrowed from Afrikaans 'venster') will be iifestile for
'windows'.
Section Two - Measurements and Abbreviations
1. Measurements: As a substantially underdeveloped language like Sesotho, Xhosa tends
to follow the English system of measurement.
Thus any item of measurement that is adopted
in English is directly applicable and exactly
compatible in our language regardless of
whether it is for volume, length, height, density, etc. All we do is localise the language.
Numbers: The South African system uses commas to separate decimals
for thousands, millions, billions etc. The
dot is used for the lesser units (eg. R1, 589.00) = One thousand, five hundred and eighty nine rands.
Time: We use both 12 and 24 hour clock depending on the preference
(am/pm and e.g. 24:00 for 12 o'clock midnight).
We have no abbreviations of our own language at this stage.
Date: We again have a tendency to simply adopt the English style
for expediency. We would, however, write
out our date in a more verbal form (e.g.
01/01/2001 would be written out as "1 Januwari
2004"). Of course we have our own names
for the months although nothing differs
for the numerals.
We do not use a space between figure and measurement abbreviation
(20cm). However, it would be too insignificant
a difference to argue either way because
we do not have an original format derived
from our own language rules.
2. Abbreviations:
Equivalent abbreviations:
We have a pathetic dearth of formularised language for the reasons
given above, therefore most of the abbreviations
taken for granted in English still create
problems for us in that we have to literally
write out the message within such abbreviations.
However, there are a few established ones
which are given below:
Njl-njl. (njalo-njalo) = etc.
Nomb. = Number
Dkt. = Doctor
Umz. (umzekelo) = for example
Mnu. (Mnumzana) = Master
Nksk. (Nkosikazi) = Madam
Nksz. (Nkosazana) = Lady
The remaining abbreviations - especially other forms of address
- are left as they are in English, e.g.
Prof for professor, Messrs, etc.
The same goes for acronyms - we leave them as they are in English,
e.g.
Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), UNISA, UCT, UWC, etc.
In general, the Xhosa language is not as yet sufficiently amenable
to abbreviations owing to its low level
of development.
Section Three - Hyphenation
Hyphens are used to link compound terms and verb pronouns, e.g.
umabonwa-kude, which literally means something that can be seen all over (TV).
As in English, a hyphen is also used to indicate the division of
a word at the end of a line or to indicate
a missing or implied element, e.g. man-
(mankind). There are no specified rules for this division.
Section Four - Miscellaneous Peculiarities
Many common Xhosa expressions have more than one meaning: the literal
or obvious one and a figurative or symbolic
one. The latter enrich the language making
it more interesting. Often the arrangement
of words in Xhosa cannot be translated literally
or directly into English and remain meaningful.
When one is aware of this aspect of the
language, one starts to get a feel for the
Xhosa of the mother-tongue speaker. For
example, 'Utyebile' - meaning 'she is fat', also means 'she is rich'.
Giving a child a name is a great event. The child may be named after
someone (an ancestor or some other important
person) or after any event that coincided
with the birth, for example, there are many
people named 'Nodemokrasi', for those born
after the first democratic elections in
SA. Very often the name reflects what the
birth of that child means to the parents,
e.g. Themba for hope, Sipho for gift, etc.
Some masculine/feminine names are derived
from the same stem, eg. Themba for a male,
Thembeka for a female; Sipho (male) - Siphokazi
(female). Feminine names often prefix 'No-':
Noxolo (peace); Nosipho (gift); Nomhle (beauty), etc.
Another interesting aspect of Xhosa names is the compounding of
words: Thembalethu (our hope), Ntombekhaya
(Girl of the home), etc. Surnames are mostly
derived from certain words, e.g. Mhlaba
(earth), Mfazwe (war), etc. Clan names are
also of great importance in the Xhosa culture.
A clan is a conceptual kinship group. Members
trace their kinship to a common male ancestor.
The name of this male ancestor is the clan
name - isiduko - and members
are usually called by this name. It is a
friendly and respectful address used among
family and friends. It shows the family
into which someone was born, and can be
traced back to the oldest male ancestor
remembered, e.g. 'Madiba' (Nelson Mandela's
clan name) and 'Tshawe' (most of these people are chiefs).
A further aspect of the Xhosa nation is that it was and still is
a Xhosa custom for grandmothers and grandfathers
to tell their grandchildren folktales. These
are told for the purpose of enforcing or
supporting some point of family discipline
or custom. They uphold conduct that is for
the good of society or the welfare of the community.
Section Five - Geographic Distribution
Xhosa belongs to the numerous languages of the Sub-Saharan Bantu
family. Within the Bantu family of languages,
Xhosa belongs to the Nguni group which also
includes Zulu, Swati and Ndebele. The Word
XHOSA (isiXhosa: the language, umXhosa:
a Xhosa person; amaXhosa: Xhosa people)
was the name of a legendary chief. Xhosa
is a very heterogeneous and complex language,
originating from a large and diversif ied
group with many chiefdoms and clans. Xhosa
pronunciation and vocabulary were enriched
and modified as a result of early and intimate
contact with other groups, especially Khoisan
tribes.
The Scottish missionaries like John Bennie laid the foundation for
the Xhosa orthography, which is still used.
Together with Zulu, Xhosa is the most widely
spoken language in South Africa. In the
Western and Eastern Capes and the Border
region, it is the main language spoken.
It is also spoken in some parts of the Free
State province (where Sesotho is the main
language), the Western Transvaal, the Northern
Cape, KwaZulu-Natal (where Zulu predominates) and a bit in Gauteng.
The influence of the Khoi and San, the indigenous herders and hunters
of Southern Africa is noticeable in sounds
like 'r' and 'rh' (pronounced like the German
'ch' in 'nach'). There are numerous other
differences when you compare Xhosa with
other African languages, especially the
Sotho Group.
Section Six - Character Set
