ZUS 1AA1

Lecture 1
Lecturer: Dr. Dlamini
 Announcements/notifications
• Competency test
• Study guide & manual
• Tutorials
• Assessments
 Unit 1
The languages of South Africa and
language study
 Lesson Objectives:
After a thorough study of this unit, you should be able
to:
• Identify the Bantu languages of South Africa and list
them according to their categories.
• Explain the disciplines of language study.
 THE BANTU LANGUAGES OF SOUTH
AFRICA
THE BANTU
LANGUAGES
OF SA

TSONGA NGUNI VENDA SOTHO

Zulu Northern Sotho

Xhosa Tswana

Swazi South Sotho

S. Ndebele
 Zulu as a dominant language
Language group Percentage of 1st language speakers

Zulu 23,8
Xhosa 17,6
Afrikaans 13,3
Northern Sotho 9,4
Tswana 8,2
English 8,2
South Sotho 7,9
Tsonga 4,4
Swazi 2,7
Venda 2,3
Southern Ndebele 1,6
Other & Unspecified 0,5
 Some of the reasons why isiZulu is a
dominant language in South Africa
• It has a wide geographical spread.
• The Nguni languages are closely related with
isiZulu. Xhosa, Swazi, and Southern Ndebele
speakers have a good knowledge of isiZulu.
• IsiZulu is related to Zimbabwean Ndebele and
Ngoyi (spoken in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania)
 The disciplines of language
study
• Semantics- The study of meaning
• Morphology- Focuses on how words are formed
by certain morphemes.
• Syntax- The way words are put together to form
sentences.
• Phonology- The study of speech sounds
Riddle
The Speech Sounds of
Zulu
Unit 10
Phonetic features
 1. Vowels
• Vowels are voiced sounds and are pronounced by air
moving freely from the lungs through the centre of
the mouth.
• Zulu has five basic vowels, namely: a,e,i,o,u.
- a: Pronounced more or less like the a in the word man
e.g : Umama ‘mother’, Idada ‘duck’
- e: Pronounced more or less like e in the word bed
e.g : Sebenza ‘work’, Sekela ‘support’
- i: Pronounced more or less like the i in the English
word ink
e.g Mina ‘I’, Thina ‘us’
- o: Pronounced more or less like the word sop
e.g Xola ‘forgive’, Sola ‘suspect’
- u: Pronounced more or less like the word uhuru
e.g Umuntu, Umfula ‘a river’
 2. Semi-vowels
• Semi-vowels have more vowel-like characteristics than
consonantal characteristics.
- w: Pronounced more or less like wh in the English word
whiskey,
e.g.: -wa ‘fall’
- y: Pronounced more or less like the y in the English word yet,
e.g.: -ya ‘go’
- h: h may be whispered as in the English word hear,
e.g.: -hamba ‘walk/travel/go’
- hh: hh is pronounced with a breathy voice, more or less like
the h sounds in the word hair. e.g Ihhashi ‘a horse’
 3. Consonants
- The rest of the alphabets are consonants. Some
scholars argue that Zulu does not have an ‘r’
- bh, mb, b, p, ph, d, t, th, g, k, kh, v, f, z, s, hl, dl, sh, tsh,
j, kl, I, m, n,
• We categorise consonants according to how they are
pronounced using different parts of mouth.
 3.1 Bilabials
• Examples: b, bh, p, ph, mp, m, w
Ubaba ‘father’, ubhuti ‘brother’, iphupho ‘dream’
 3.2 Dentilabials
• Examples: f, v, mf, mv
Umfana ‘a boy’, imvula ‘rain’
 3.3. Alveolar sounds
• Examples: t, th, nt, d, nd, s, z
• Intaba ‘mountain’, idada ‘a duck’
 3.4. Palatals
• Example: sh, ny, tsh, ntsh, j, nj,
• Umfanyana ‘small boy’
 3.5. Velars

• Examples: k, kh, g, ng, h, kl

 3.6. Glottal sound
• Examples: h, hh
 3.7 Click sounds
• They are also regarded as consonants
- c: The tip of the tongue is sucked into the palate just behind
the front tooth while at the same time the back of the tongue
is pressed against the soft palate, right at the back of the
mouth.
e.g -cela ‘request/ask’, -cula ‘sing’, -cabanga ‘think’
- ch: Pronounced like the ‘c’ above but immediately followed
by an air stream.
e.g –chitha ‘spill’, -chaza ‘explain’
- gc,: this is a voiced c
e.g –gcina ‘end’
- q,: the tip of the tongue is sucked into the roof of the mouth
e.g –qala ‘begin’
- qh,: pronounced more or less the same with q but
immediately followed by an additional air stream
e.g -qhubeka ‘continue’
- x: the tongue blade is sucked into the palate with the sides of
the tongue pressed against the molars
e.g -xoxa ‘chat’
- Refer to your manual for other click sounds.
 4. Syllables
• Syllables in Zulu end on a vowel except when the vowel
following m is omitted.
e.g a-ba-ntu ‘people’, u-m-fu-la ‘river’

isikebhe ‘boat’, amaqanda ‘eggs’, umuntu ‘a person’

How many syllables are in these words?

Prosodic features
 5.1 Length
- The syllable that comes before the last one always has
full length
e.g ngifu.nda ‘I read/study/learn’, ngitha.nda ‘I
like/love’
 5.2 Tone
• The are words in Zulu that are written in the same
way but carry different meanings.
• Tone is used to distinguish them.
e.g
-bóna 'see'
-boná 'they'