| Northern Sotho | |
|---|---|
| Sesotho sa Leboa | |
| Spoken in | South Africa |
| Region | Gauteng Limpopo Mpumalanga |
| Native speakers | 4.1 million (2006) |
| Language family | |
| Dialects | |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | South Africa |
| Regulated by | Pan South African Language Board |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | nso |
| ISO 639-3 | nso |
| Linguasphere | [listing the following inner languages within outer language 99-AUT-e (seSotho-seTswana):] 99-AUT-ea (kheLobedu) + 99-AUT-eb (thiPulana) + 99-AUT-ec (Khutswe) + 99-AUT-ed (sePedi), incl. 99-AUT-eab & -egh (southeast & northwest Tlokwa varieties)= transition to 99-AUT-eg (seTswana); + 99-AUT-ff (Pai)= transition from 99-AUT-fg (isiZulu) |
Northern Sotho is a designation in English, rendered officially and among indigenous speakers as Sesotho sa Leboa. Also confusingly known by the name of its major variety, "Pedi" or "sePedi", Northern Sotho is a designated official language of South Africa, spoken by 4,208,980 people (2001 Census) in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
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Northern Sotho is a language - or a number of neighbouring languages - within the Sotho branch of Zone S (S.30) of the Bantu family (classified in the Niger–Congo language phylum). Northern Sotho is thus most closely related to seSotho or Southern Sotho, seTswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It comprises several distinct languages and/or dialects.
Northern Sotho has often been equated with its major component sePedi, and continued to be known as Pedi or sePedi for some years after the new South African constitution appeared. However, the Pan South African Language Board and the Northern Sotho National Lexicography Unit now specifically prefer and endorse the names "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa".
The original confusion arose from the fact that the (now official) Northern Sotho written language was based largely on sePedi (for which missionaries first developed the orthography), but has subsequently provided a common writing system for 20 or more varieties of the Sotho-Tswana languages spoken in the former Transvaal (including dialects of sePedi). The name "sePedi" thus refers specifically to the language of the Pedi people, while "Northern Sotho" refers to the official language of that name and to all the speech varieties it has been taken to cover. (It should be noted that the ethnic name "Pedi" also refers to a ruling group which established its dominance over other communities in the eighteenth century, and to the culture and lifestyle of that group and of those over whom it ruled.)
Apart from sePedi itself, the other languages or dialects covered by the term "Northern Sotho" appear to be a diverse grouping of communal speech-forms within the Sotho-Tswana group. They are apparently united by the fact that they are classifiable neither as Southern Sotho nor as Tswana.[1]
Very little published information is available on these other dialects of Northern Sotho, however, which have been reported to include: kheLobedu (khiLobedu or seLobedu), seTlokwa, seBirwa, thiPulana (or sePulana), Khutswe, seTswapo and also Pai (transitional between Sotho-Tswana and Zulu). The morphological and possible lexical variation among these dialects has led to the above assertion that 'Northern Sotho' is no more than a holding category for otherwise unclassified Sotho-Tswana varieties spoken in northeastern South Africa. Their precise classification would appear to be a matter for further research.
Audio files in Pedi at Wikimedia Commons
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