Tswana language

Tswana
Setswana or Sitswana
Spoken in
Region	southern Africa
Total speakers	4,521,700[1]
Language family	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho-Tswana Tswana
Official status
Official language in	Botswana South Africa
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tn
ISO 639-2	tsn
ISO 639-3	tsn
Linguasphere
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Geographical distribution of Setswana in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Setswana at home.

0–20%      20–40%      40–60%

60–80%      80–100%      No population

Geographical distribution of Setswana in South Africa: density of Setswana home-language speakers.

<1 /km²      1–3 /km²      3–10 /km²      10–30 /km²      30–100 /km²

100–300 /km²      300–1000 /km²      1000–3000 /km²      >3000 /km²

Tswana (Setswana or Sitswana), is a language of Southern Africa, spoken by more than 4 million people and written in the Latin alphabet. Tswana is a Bantu language, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to two other languages in the Sotho language group, (Southern) Sotho and Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa). It has also been known as Beetjuans, Chuana (hence Bechuanaland), Coana, Cuana, and Sechuana.

Distribution

Tswana is spoken by a majority of people in Botswana^[2], although Botswana's official language is English. In total, Botswana has just over a million^[2] native Tswana speakers.

In South Africa, about 3.4 million people^[3] speak Tswana. It is one of the eleven official languages nationwide. Until 1994, South African Tswana people were notionally citizens of Bophuthatswana, one of the few bantustans that actually became reality as planned by the Apartheid regime.

As opposed to the Northern and Southern Ndebele languages spoken in Zimbabwe and South Africa, respectively, there are no significant differences between standard Tswana as spoken in South Africa and standard Tswana as spoken in Botswana.

Apart from Botswana and South Africa, there are also (smaller) groups of Tswana speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Phonology

Consonants

Tswana has the following consonant inventory.^{[nb 1]}

Vowels

Tswana has nine vowel sounds, which can be resolved into seven phonemes:

• The close lax vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ open and tense slightly to provide allophones [e] and [o] in stressed position; e.g. koloi [kʊˈlo.i] "wagon".
• The mid vowels can be distinguished from the close lax vowels in writing by use of the circumflex, so <e> is /ɪ/ while <ê> is /ɛ/. Unfortunately for the learner, this distinction is not usually maintained in modern writing, except in some dictionaries and learning materials, or if there would otherwise be confusion.

Tone

Tswana is a tonal language, with a distinction between high tone and the more common "null" or low tone. Tone is phonemic, distinguishing between words on a lexical level, as well as having a grammatical function.

Stress

Tswana is a fixed-stress language, with stress always falling on the penultimate syllable of a word.

Syllables must end in a vowel (unless they are syllabic consonants), and there are no diphthongs: thus dia "to delay" is bisyllabic [ˈdi.a]; and dintshi "eyelashes" is trisyllabic [diˈn.tsʰi].

Some simple Tswana phrases

• Dumela, rra/mma - Hello, Sir/Madam.

Formal inquiry after health:

• O tsogile jang?—How are you? (literally, 'how did you awake?').
• Ke tsogile sentle, rra/mma. Wena, o tsogile jang?—I'm well, Sir/Madam. How are you? OR I'm well/okay. How are you?

(Replace tsogile with tlhotse for afternoon greetings.)

Informal inquiry after health:

• Le kae?—How are you? (literally translated Le kae? also means Where are you? when referring to more than one person)
• Re teng, rra/mma—We're well, Sir/Madam. (Ke teng, rra/mma for I am well.)

Casual slang:

• O a re eng? (pronounced wah-reng)—How's it going?
• Ga ke re seppe. (pronounced hah kay ray seppay)—It goes well.
• Eitha (pronounced ate-uh)—Hey
• Go jwang? (pronounced hoe jwang)—what's up?
• Mari ke sharp (pronounced mare keh shap)—I'm good.
• Sharp! (pronounced shup)—Bye
• A re vaye (pronounced a re vae)-Let's go
• Exhe!! (pronounced ekse)- Hi!!

Other useful phrases:

• Ke a leboga, rra/mma.—Thank you, Sir/Madam (formal)
• Ke itumetse, rra/mma." and "tanki" (slang)—Thanks, Sir/Madam (informal)
• Ke _____—I'm _____.
• Leina la me ke _______.—My name is _____.
• Leina la gago ke mang?—What is your name? (formal)
• O mang?—What's your name? (informal)
• Ke tshwerwe ke tlala.—I'm hungry (literally, I'm held by hunger)
• Ke tshwerwe ke lenyora.—I'm thirsty (literally, I'm held by thirst)
• Ke rata ___.—I like ___.
• Ga ke rate___.—I don't like ___.
• Ke batla ___.—I want ___.
• Ga ke batle ____—I do not want ____
• Dijo tse di monate!—This food is good!
• Lekgolo—One Hundred
• A re tsamaye!—Let's go!
• Kokelwana e ko kae? —Where is the clinic?
• Ke nako mang?—What time is it?
• Ke kopa thuso, tswee-tswee.—I need help, please.
• A nka go thusa?—May I help you?
• A o ya ko ____?—Are you going to _____?
• ____ ke eng ka Setswana?—What is _____ in Setswana?
• Tswee-tswee gake batle go bua.-Please I don't want to talk.
• Ke itlhaganetse.- I am in a hurry.

Farewells:

• Robala sentle.—Sleep well.
• Boroko!—Good night!
• Tsamaya sentle.—Go well (said to the person/group leaving).
• Sala sentle—Stay well (said to the person/group staying).

Food:

• Merogo—Vegetables
• Morogo—Spinach
• Motogo—Soft Porridge
• Bogobe—Porridge (Pap)
• Nama—Meat
• Dinawa—Beans

External links

• Tswana language at Ethnologue
• PanAfrican L10n page on Tswana
• African Languages page on Setswana (Tswana)

Software

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

Notes

References

Languages of Botswana Bantu Birwa · Gciriku · Herero · Ikalanga · Kgalagadi · Kuhane · Mbukushu · Nambya · Northern Ndebele · Tswana (official) · Tswapong · Yeyi · Zezuru Khoisan ǁAni · Gǁana · Gǀwi · ǂHõã · Juǀʼhoan · Khwe · Kua · ǂKxʼauǁʼein · Nama · Naro · Shua · Taʼa · Tsoa Indo-European Afrikaans · English (official)

Languages of South Africa Official Afrikaans · English · isiNdebele · Northern Sotho · Sesotho · siSwati · Xitsonga · Setswana · Tshivenda · isiXhosa · isiZulu Non-official Portuguese · Greek · Italian · Dutch · German · Yiddish · French · Yue Chinese · Hakka Chinese · Telugu · Tamil · Gujarati · Hindi · Urdu · South African Sign Language  · Haiǁom · Kung-Ekoka · Shona · Birwa · Khwe · Nama · Oorlams · Phuthi · Ronga · Swahili · Tswa No native speakers (sub-cultures and lingua francas) Angloromani · isiCamtho/Tsotsitaal · Gail · IsiNgqumo · Fanagalo Extinct Korana · Xiri · ǀXam · ǁXegwi · Seroa · Nǀu