Tsonga language

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Tsonga
Spoken in:	Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Region:	Limpopo, Mpumalanga
Total speakers:	1,646,000
Language family:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Southern       Narrow Bantu        Tsonga
Official status
Official language of:	South Africa
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ts
ISO 639-2:	tso
ISO 639-3:	tso
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan.

Contents 1 Classification 2 Geographic distribution 2.1 Official status 2.2 Dialects 3 Grammar 3.1 Personal Pronouns 3.2 Verbs 4 External links 4.1 Software

[edit] Classification

Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. They are sometimes called Shangaans, which according to them (Tsongas) is wrong as they use that denominator for Shangaans who live in Mozambique. Most of the Tsongas now live in Giyani, a place in Limpopo province in South Africa.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Tsonga is spoken by about 1,646,000 people in South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as 1.5 million people in Mozambique, and 19,000 people in Swaziland. There are also 100 000 speakers in Zimbabwe.

[edit] Official status

Tsonga is an official language in South Africa.

[edit] Dialects

Various dialects of Tsonga are spoken as far north as the Save River in Zimbabwe to the as far south as KwaZulu/Natal. While most dialects are mutually intelligible, they do have distinct differences that are geographical as well as based on influence of the colonial era. The three most distinct dialects are Xironga which is spoken in Maputo, Mozambique, and the surrounding areas, the second being Xitshwa/Chihlengwe spoken in Zimbabwe and in Mozambique, and finally xiTsonga spoken in South Africa.

These dialects differ in pronunciation. For example, in South African Tsonga the use of the prefix "xi" is pronounced "shi" in Xikwembu (God). In Zimbabwe this prefix is pronounced "chi", as in "Chikwembu"(God). South African Tsonga also uses double consonants like "nk", "mp", "ns" as in nkhensa (thank), nyimpi (war), and nsiha (vein). In Zimbabwe the equivalent would be khesa, nyipi, and siha.

All dialects have been influenced to different degrees by Zulu and in Zimbabwe by Ndebele and so now contains click consonants. These words are not indigenous to the language but are understood when used. Unlike in Zulu and Ndebele where there are distinct clicks, in Tsonga one need only make a clicking sound for any click word adopted. Examples of imported click words are: ngqondo (mind), gqoka (wear/dress), ncingo (phone), qamba (compose) Mugqivela (Saturday).

[edit] Grammar

The grammar is generally typical of Bantu languages with a subject/object/verb order

Tsonga	English
Na ku rhandza	I love you
Wa ni rhandza	you love me
Ha ku tiva	we know you
Va ni tiva	they know me

[edit] Personal Pronouns

These are very similar to many other Bantu languages with a few variations

Tsonga	English
Ni/Ndzi	I
U	You
U	He/She
Hi	We
Mi	You (plural)
Va	They

Hina

 us

tana haleno-come here

[edit] Verbs

All verbs have the prefix "ku" and end with an 'a' in the infinitive, with a couple of exceptions:

Tsonga	English
ku chava	to fear
ku tsaka	to be happy
ku rhandza	to love

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue on Tsonga

[edit] Software

• Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Tsonga
• Translate.org.za Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Tsonga