Glottolog ngun1267 | ||
Linguistic classification Niger–CongoAtlantic–CongoBenue–CongoSouthern BantoidBantuSouthern BantuNguni Subdivisions Zunda languagesTekela languages | ||
The Nguni languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni people. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Swati, Hlubi, Phuthi, Bhaca, Lala, Nhlangwini and the three languages called Ndebele: Southern Transvaal Ndebele, Zimbabwean Ndebele and Sumayela Ndebele (the last two sometimes referred to as "Northern Ndebele"). The appellation "Nguni" derives from the Nguni cattle type. Ngoni (see below) is an older, or a shifted, variant.
Contents
- Classification
- Zunda languages
- Tekela languages
- Characteristics
- Comparative data
- Proto Nguni
- Writing system
- References
It is sometimes argued that use of Nguni as a generic label suggests a historical monolithic unity of the peoples in question, where in fact the situation may have been more complex. The linguistic use of the label (referring to a subgrouping of Bantu) is relatively stable.
Classification
Within a subset of Southern Bantu, the label "Nguni" is used both genetically (in the linguistic sense) and typologically (quite apart from any historical significance).
The Nguni languages are closely related, and in many instances different languages are mutually intelligible; in this way, Nguni languages might better be construed as a dialect continuum than as a cluster of separate languages. On more than one occasion, proposals have been put forward to create a unified Nguni language.
In scholarly literature on southern African languages, the linguistic classificatory category "Nguni" is traditionally considered to subsume two subgroups: "Zunda Nguni" and "Tekela Nguni." This division is based principally on the salient phonological distinction between corresponding coronal consonants: Zunda /z/ and Tekela /t/ (thus the native form of the name Swati and the better-known Zulu form Swazi), but there is a host of additional linguistic variables that enables a relatively straightforward division into these two substreams of Nguni.
Zunda languages
Tekela languages
Maho (2009) also lists S401 Old Mfengu†
Characteristics
The following aspects of Nguni languages are typical:
Comparative data
Compare the following sentences:
Note: Xhosa ⟨tsh⟩ = Phuthi ⟨tjh⟩ = IPA [tʃʰ]; Phuthi ⟨tsh⟩ = [tsh]; Zulu ⟨sh⟩ = IPA [ʃ], but in the environment cited here /ʃ/ is "nasally permuted" to [tʃ]. Phuthi ⟨jh⟩ = breathy voiced [dʒʱ] = Xhosa, Zulu ⟨j⟩ (in the environment here following the nasal [n]). Zulu, Swazi, Hlubi ⟨ng⟩ = [ŋ].
Note: Phuthi ⟨kg⟩ = IPA [x].
Proto-Nguni
Proto-Nguni is the reconstructed ancestor of the Nguni languages.
Writing system
The sintu writing system, Isibheqe Sohlamvu (also known in Sotho as Ditema tsa Dinoko), for Southern Bantu languages, is used to represent all Nguni languages consistently under one orthography. This includes Tekela languages, which, with the exception of Swati, are unstandardised in the Latin alphabet. For example, it contains a specific grapheme indicating vowel nasality – a feature which only occurs phonemically in Tekela languages: