Section One - Grammar and Spelling
1. Tone: Zulu has two phonological tones, namely high and low. These tones
sometimes cluster to form the high-low tone
cluster. It is these phonological tones
that we normally employ for indicating tone
in Zulu. We use signs like ˆ,
? DQG_? to indicate the "high-low tone",
the "low tone" and the "high tone" respectively.
There are also those tones we call gliding tones. The rising tone
results when a high tone is co-articulated
with a depressor. Regular depressors in
Zulu are the following consonants: bh, pronounced like in Ben, Isabel;
d; g, pronounced like in dog, guilty; gc, you put your tongue and
press it hard on your palate while pronouncing; gq, you roll your tongue hard
on your palate while pronouncing; gx, you put your tongue and produce sound
as if it comes from your palate and push down so it comes through your teeth,
like v in vest; hh, you depress your h to produce a gliding tone; etc, etc.
2. Gender: We have a masculine and feminine gender. If there is no proper noun
used, they cannot be easily recognized,
especially in the use of pronouns. Unlike
in English where there is a 'she' and a
'he' /'him' /'her' /'his'/ 'hers', Zulu
has no gender specifics.
3. Articles: We do not have a way of differentiating between definite and indefinite
articles like in English. For instance if
English says: He is a God & He is the God. In Zulu we can only say "UnguNkulunkulu", without
a clear definite article; whereas in English "the" is the definite article
referring to the only true God.
4. Accents: Accents also appear on upper case characters.
5. Plurals: The plural form is always recognized in the prefix rather than in
the suffix.
| E.g. English would say: |
dog - dogs. |
In Zulu: inja - izinja |
| |
cat - cats. |
In Zulu: ikati - amakati |
| |
bread. |
In Zulu: isinkwa - Izinkwa |
Section Two - Punctuation
Zulu follows English style in punctuation.
1. Full stops: We do not use full stops at the end of headings, addresses, dates,
number of pages, titles etc.
2. Speech marks: We use opening and closing quotes and follow English style in most
cases, but would normally differ in English
in the sense that with the following sentences this is what we would do:
1. "Give me more work!", shouted Chloe.
1. UChloe wamemeza: "Nginike omunye umsebenzi."
2. "Would anyone like some tea?" asked George.
2. U"George wabuza: "Ukhona ofuna itiye?"
3. "I'm bored - can I go home now?", Michala said.
3. UMichala wathi: "Ngicikekile - sengingabuyela ekhaya manje?"
3. Apostrophe: The apostrophe will be used to indicate elision, which occurs mainly
in poetry and dialogue. e.g. - "Ngob'
isab' izul' eladum' eSandlwane!" In prose literature for the primary school, words will be written
in full. Common elided forms may be written
in full without the apostrophe - e.g. Mntanami, instead of Mntwana wami.
4. Colons, semi-colons and ellipsis: These are used as in English.
5. Brackets: Brackets & text within them is treated the same way as English would do.
6. Capital letters: Yes, some words are in-capped, i.e. words like "Your Majesty": Ndabezitha!;
Sir: Mnumzane; Doctor: Dokotela;
Professor: Profesa; etc. Capital letters will also be used in the following instances:
The first letter after the initial vowel in the middle of the sentence
shall be capitalized in case of personal nouns of class 1 (a), including
compounds of ka-, ma-, no-, so-, etc, e.g.
uNtombenhle; uMboniseni; uKaMagagula; uMaXaba; uNozizwe; uSobantu.
Deity: uNkulunkulu (God); uMenzi (Creator); uMelusi Olungileyo (Good Shepherd);
etc.
Days of the week: iSonto (Sunday); uMsombuluko (Monday); uLwesibili (Tuesday), etc.
National & Tribal Designations: umXhosa; umZulu; amaNdiya, amaNgisi etc.
Months of the year: Januwari; Febhruwari; Mashi; Ephreli, Meyi, Juni; etc.
Geographical Names: KwaDukuza; EThekwini; KwaNongoma; KwaDlangezwa; etc.
Sentences: We begin sentences with capital letters.
Proper Names: We cap proper names; e.g. uSipho, uXolani, uLeonard, u- Arthur;
uWentzel; u-Eddie etc.
Headings: We cap every first letter of the heading.
Section Three - Measurements and Abbreviations
1. Measurements: Zulu uses loan words for measurements, e.g. kilometre - ikhilomitha;
metre - imitha; litre - ilitha; etc. There
are some measurements which are specific
to the language, i.e. ibanga letshe,
meaning a distance of a stone (like when
one throws a stone, and a distance such
a stone would take).
A comma and a space would be used to denote decimals and to separate
thousands, respectively.
Time: this is written according to the examples below:
10.30 am / noon / 4.30 pm / midnight
10:30 ekuseni / emini / 4:30 ntambama / phakathi kwamabili
Date: the format is as follows:
20 February 2004 - 20 Febhuwari 2004
20th February 2004 - Zingu-20 kuFebhuwari 2004
20/02/2004 - 20/02/2004
February 20 - Febhuwari 20
There should always be a space between a figure and a measurement
abbreviation; e.g. 20 kg. No there should
not be a space before a % symbol.
There should also not be a space between °C.
Currency: This is written according to the examples below:
£250 / 250 pounds sterling / €45 / 45 euro / $98 billion
/ 98 billion Dollars = R250 / opondo abangu-250 / ama-euro angu-45 / amaDola ayizigidi
ezingu-98.
A three letter currency code would be confusing in our language,
unless well known by the target audience.
2. Abbreviations:
N/A - N/A
No. - INo.
e.g. - isib.
WxLxHxD - WxLxHxD
1st /
2nd / 3rd / 4th - 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th
Mr. / Mrs. - Mnu. / Nkk.
Messrs. - Nkosikazi
Miss - Nkz.
Dear Sir / Madam - Mnu. / Nkosazana Othandekayo
m (for metre) - m
cm (for centimetre) - cm
lb (for pound weight) - lb
g (for gram) - g
km (for kilometre) - km
yr (for year) - -nyaka
k (for 1000) - -nkulungwane
EMEA (Europe, Middle-East & Asia) - YMEA
Days of the week: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun - Mso., Lwesib.,
Lwesith., Lwesin., Lwesihl., Mgq., Sont.
Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
- Jan. Feb. Mas. Ephr. Mey. Jun. Jul. Aga.
Sepht. Okht. Nov. Dis.
Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter (not normally abbreviated
in English. Intwasahlobo; Ihlobo; Ikwindla,
Ubusika
Section Four - Hyphenation
Hyphens are used to separate two vowels coming together with a glottal
stop in between them, e.g. ama-apula,
ama-altare, i-engela; u-inki etc. Also
when words are split over lines, they should
be broken down by the use of a hyphen.
When joining concords to numerals; e.g. umbuzo we-10; izimbuzi ezingu-10
Prefixes can be joined to some words with
a hyphen, like in cases of um- Israyeli
(an Israelite), because of the possible
ambiguous articulation, but not in words
like umJuda. In suffixes, hyphenation is
used in enclitics, e.g. sebenza-ke.
In combination of characters, hyphens should never be used if it
is a proper noun, e.g. USigwinyanansimbi
- meaning 'a swallower of metal'. (uSigwinya
na insimbi).
We use both short and long dashes, depending on the contextual need
of a dash as in English.
Section Five - Miscellaneous Peculiarities
Tonal marks may be used to distinguish tense in some instances.
In most cases a sentence can give two meanings
which would not have been grasped had it not been for the present of accent marks. e.g. Abantu
abavunyelwe ukungena lapha - People are not allowed here. Versus: Ábantu
abavunyelwe ukungena lapha - It is the people that are allowed here.
Surnames are given after the first name, e.g. Leonard Moloi. Surnames
are not all written in upper case, only
the first letter in upper case.
Stylistic forms are written in English pattern.
Section Six - Geographic Distribution
English; Afrikaans; IsiZulu; IsiXhosa; TshiVenda; Xitsonga; Setswana;
Sepedi; Sesotho; IsiNdebele; IsiSwati. (The
languages highlighted in Yellow are used
in the following contexts: legal, financial,
media, written, spoken etc.) Those not highlighted
are used in the following contexts: Media,
written, spoken.
Most of these languages are capable of functioning as media of higher
education; i.e. in Sociology, Psychology;
Social Work; Nursing; Public Administration & Primary School Teaching.
Language and Economy: There has been a growing relationship between
language and Economic Development. More
specifically between language and production.
Zulu is a language of the majority in Southern Africa. The whole
African community living in KwaZulu Natal
communicate in Zulu and there has been a
growing need of undertaking translation
work in business sectors, education and
media, etc. Gauteng (Johannesburg) and surrounding
cities, are also majoring in Zulu. Immigrants
who come to South Africa to this place find
it easier to communicate with people of
South Africa in Zulu, hence all learn Zulu first as they come to South Africa.
Section Seven - Character Set
[ ] = Alt key codes
