Kos (khosa, isikos) is one of the official languages of South Africa . It is spoken by about 7.9 million people (about 18% of the population), which makes it the second (after Zulu ) in the number of native speakers in the country. His closest relatives are the Zulu , Swazi , Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele languages; people who speak the spit language often understand the speakers of these languages.
| Scythe | |
|---|---|
| Self name | isiXhosa |
| Countries |  Republic of South Africa |
| Regions | mainly Western and Eastern Cape |
| Official status | Republic of South Africa |
| Total number of speakers | 7 907 156 people (census 2001) |
| Classification | |
| Category | African languages |
Benue Congolese family
| |
| Writing | latin |
| Language Codes | |
| GOST 7.75–97 | koa 340 |
| ISO 639-1 | xh |
| ISO 639-2 | xho |
| ISO 639-3 | xho |
| WALS | |
| Ethnologue | |
| Linguasphere | |
| ABS ASCL | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
| 0–20% 20–40% 40-60% | 60–80% 80-100% |
Content
- 1 General
- 1.1 History
- 1.2 Geographical distribution
- 1.3 Wikipedia in the language of the braid
- 2 Linguistic characteristic
- 2.1 Phonetics and phonology
- 3 notes
- 4 References
General information
History
The people of the braid are called in this language amaXhosa , and the language is isiXhosa . As the presence of clicking sounds in the braid shows, its speakers were in close contact with native speakers of Khoisan languages . The spit language is located on the southwestern periphery of the distribution of Bantu languages , closest to the places of traditional habitat for native Khoisan languages. The Bible was translated into the spit language in 1859 by Henry Heah Dagmore .
Geographical distribution
Mostly the spit carriers live in the Eastern Cape of South Africa (even the official name of this province in the Zulu language sounds like KwaXhosa, cf. the name of the province is KwaZulu-Natal). Spit is also spoken in the Western Cape , including Cape Town , Gauteng and throughout South Africa .
Wikipedia in the braid language
There is a Wikipedia section in the braid language (“ Wikipedia in the braid language ”), the first revision was made in 2003 [1] . As of 8:57 ( UTC ) on September 17, 2019, the section contains 1,027 articles (total number of pages is 3,581); 8467 participants are registered in it, one of them has administrator status; 18 participants have performed any actions in the last 30 days; the total number of edits during the existence of the section is 30 982 [2] .
Linguistic characteristic
Phonetics and Phonology
The phonological system of the braid is characterized by the presence of many sounds and contrasts, which are not too common for other Bantu languages . In particular, in the braid, there are a lot of clicking sounds due to extensive contacts with native speakers of Khoisan languages (since all the peoples of the Nguni group are strictly exogamous , usually Bantu men took many wives from Khoisan tribes). Scythe (along with Zulu ) is the language most affected by Khoisan influence (according to some estimates, up to a third of the words in these languages contain clicking sounds). In addition, a number of deaf , pre- nasalized clicks are present in the braid, which is absent in the Khoisan languages: its appearance is probably due to the fact that the braid carriers reinterpreted the nasalization of the previous vowel in front of the deaf clicking one, as a sign of the most consonant . In addition, the braid has a rich lateral row, including a relatively rare sound [ɮ̈] . Deaf consonants are pronounced with weak glottalization . There is a contrast in aspirations .
| Spelling | MFA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a | [a] | |
| b | [ɓ] | |
| bh | [bʱ] | (after m it is written as b ) |
| c | [kǀ] | (after n it is written as kc ) |
| ch | [kǀʰ] | |
| d | [dʱ] | |
| dl | [ɮ̈] | (after n is pronounced [dɮʱ] ) |
| dy | [dʲʱ] | |
| dz | [dz] | Rare |
| e | [ɛ] | |
| f | [f] | |
| g | [ɡʱ] | |
| gc | [ɡǀʱ] | |
| gq | [ɡǃʱ] | |
| gr | [ɣ̈] | |
| gx | [ɡǁʱ] | |
| h | [h] | |
| hh | [ɦ̤] | (often spelled h ) |
| hl | [ɬ] | (written as tl , after n it is pronounced [tɬ '] ) |
| i | [i] | |
| j | [d̠ʒʱ] | |
| k | [k '] | |
| kh | [kʰ] | |
| kr | [kx '] | |
| l | [l] | |
| lh | [l̤] | |
| m | [m] | |
| mh | [m̤] | |
| n | [n] | (Before k is pronounced like [ŋ] ) |
| n ' | [ŋ] | |
| nc | [ŋǀ] | |
| ngc | [ŋǀʱ] | |
| ngq | [ŋǃʱ] | |
| ngx | [ŋǁʱ] | |
| nh | [n̤] | |
| nq | [ŋǃ] | |
| nx | [ŋǁ] | |
| ny | [nʲ] | |
| nyh | [n̤ʲ] | |
| o | [ɔ] | |
| p | [p '] | |
| ph | [pʰ] | |
| q | [kǃ] | (After n it is written as kq ) |
| qh | [kǃʰ] | |
| r | [r, r̤] | (borrowing only) |
| rh | [x] | |
| s | [s] | |
| sh | [ʃ] | |
| t | [t '] | |
| th | [tʰ] | |
| ths | [tsʰ] | (sometimes spelled tsh ) |
| tl | [tɬ '] | (Option hl after n ) |
| ts | [ts'] | |
| tsh | [tʃ '; tʃʰ] | (two phonemes; [tʃʰ] sometimes spelled as thsh ) |
| ty | [tʲ '] | |
| tyh | [tʲʰ] | |
| u | [u] | |
| v | [v̤] | |
| w | [w] | |
| wh | [w̤] | |
| x | [kǁ] | (after n it is written as kx ) |
| xh | [kǁʰ] | |
| y | [j] | |
| yh | [j̈] | |
| z | [z̤] |
After some clicking and aspirating sounds, vowels are pronounced as whispering.
Like many other Bantu languages, the braid is a tone language. He distinguishes between two tones - high and low. Voiced consonants affect the implementation of the high tone: after them, it is implemented as a sharp ascendant.
Notes
- ↑ Wikipedia in the braid language: first edit
- ↑ Spit in Wikipedia: statistics page
Links
- Ethnologue reference information about the scythe Data is not completely accurate
- A very brief scythe-English dictionary
- A small braid course