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Wikipedia / Northern Sotho

Northern Sotho is one of South Africa's twelve official languages and belongs to the Bantu language family, specifically the Sotho-Tswana group. The language is spoken mainly in Limpopo Province, and to a lesser extent in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West.

Northern Sotho is the umbrella term for a group of certain dialects.

As of the 2022 South African Census, approximately 6.2 million people, or 10.0% of the national population, speak Northern Sotho as their first language. Northern Sotho ranks as the fifth most spoken first language.

Official language status

Sepedi vs Northern Sotho

According to Chapter 1, Section 6 of the South African Constitution, Sepedi is one of South Africa's 12 official languages. There has been significant debate about whether Northern Sotho should be used instead of Pedi. The English version of the South African Constitution lists Sepedi as an official language, while the Sepedi or Northern Sotho version of the Constitution of South Africa lists Sesotho sa Leboa as an official South African language.

South Africa's official language policy

South Africa's official language policy refers to the twelve official languages of South Africa (i.e., Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English, and South African Sign Language (SASL)), as specified in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.

Name

The written standard of Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa) was imposed by the apartheid regime, Sepedi is a language which was extensively documented by missionaries of the Berlin Missionary Society during the nineteenth century. Scholars generally acknowledge the contributions of missionaries such as Alexander Merensky, Carl Knothe, Grützner, and Gerlachshoop in developing an orthography and written tradition for the language. The resulting standardized writing system was later applied to numerous related Sotho-Tswana varieties spoken across the former Transvaal region. This has led to ongoing debate regarding the use of "Sepedi" as a label for the entire language, with speakers of other varieties, including Khelobedu (Lobedu), arguing that the broader designation "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa" more accurately reflects the linguistic diversity of the language community. Recent studies have highlighted the sociolinguistic and identity-related implications of this naming controversy in post-apartheid South Africa.

Other varieties of Northern Sotho

Northern Sotho can be subdivided into Highveld-Sotho and Pedi people, which consists of comparatively recent immigrants mostly from the west and southwest parts of South Africa, and Lowveld-Sotho, which consists of a combination of immigrants from the north of South Africa and Sotho inhabitants of longer standing. Like other Sotho-Tswana people, their languages are named after totemic animals and, sometimes, by alternating or combining these with the names of famous chiefs.

The Highveld-Sotho/Pedi

The group consists of the following dialects:

Bapedi

  • Marota (in the narrower sense)

  • Batau (Matlebjane, Masemola, Marishane, Manganeng - Nkadimeng, Kgaphola, Diphofa, Nchabeleng, Mogashoa, Phaahla, Sloane, Mashegoana, Mphanama, Malata a Manyane)

  • Bakone

  • Baphuthi

  • Baroka

  • Bakgaga (Mphahlele)

  • Thobejane (Ga-Mafefe)

  • Batswapong

  • Batlokwa (Ba-bopedi)

  • Bapulana (not mapulana)

  • Batlou

  • Chuene

  • Mathabatha

  • Maserumule

  • Tlou (Ga-Molepo)

Batlokwa

  • Batlokwa Ba Lethebe

  • Makgoba

  • Bahananwa (Ga-Mmalebogo)

  • Moremi

  • Motlhatlhana

  • Babirwa

  • Mmamabolo

  • Bakwena ba Moletjie (Moloto)

  • Batlhaloga

  • Bahwaduba, BaGaMagale, and many others

The Lowveld-Sotho

The group consists of Lobedu, Narene, Phalaborwa (Malatji), Mogoboya, Kone, Kgaga, Ramafalo and Mohale.

Classification

Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family. Although Northern Sotho shares the name Sotho with Southern Sotho, the two groups also have a great deal in common with their sister language Setswana. Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardized variety, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects. Northern Sotho is also spoken by the Mohlala people and Malata People.

Khelobedu is a written language. Lobedu is spoken by people in the Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba municipalities, and a minority in Greater Giyani municipality, as well as in the Limpopo Province and Tembisa township in Gauteng. Its speakers are known as the Balobedu.

Writing system

Northern sotho is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter š is used to represent the sound [] ("sh" is used in the trigraph "tsh" to represent an aspirated ts sound). The circumflex accent can be added to the letters e and o to distinguish their different sounds, but it is mostly used in language reference books. Some word prefixes, especially in verbs, are written separately from the stem.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Other consonant sounds include fricative-combinations and .

Within nasal consonant compounds, the first nasal consonant sound is recognized as syllabic. Words such as nthuše "help me", are pronounced as . /n/ can also be pronounced as following a velar consonant.

Urban varieties of Northern Sotho, such as Pretoria Sotho (actually a derivative of Tswana, and Pedi), have acquired clicks in an ongoing process of such sounds spreading from Nguni languages.

Tones

Like most other Niger–Congo languages, Sesotho is a tonal language, spoken with two basic tones, high (H) and low (L).

Vocabulary

Some examples of Northern Sotho words and phrases:

Sample text

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

See also

Notes

Software