Sesotho language: Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... In the classification of African languages, Volta-Congo is the major branch (in terms of number of languages) of the Niger-Congo phylum. ... The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family, both in terms of sheer number of languages, of which 938 are known (not counting mere dialects), and in terms of speakers, numbering perhaps 550 million. ... In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum. ... In the classification of African languages, Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid) is one of the two branches of the Bantoid subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum. ... In the classification of African languages, Narrow Bantu is a term commonly used to designate the branch of Niger-Congo containing the numerous Bantu languages as recognized by Guthrie (1948) in his seminal classification of the Bantu languages. ... The Sotho-Tswana language group is a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in Southern Africa, including Tswana (Setswana), Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa), Sotho (Southern Sotho or Sesotho), and Lozi (Silozi or Rozi). ... The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) was established in South Africa to promote multilingualism and language rights as well as to develop the official languages of South Africa. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ...

Phonology Tonology Parts of speech Nouns Concords Verbs

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Sesotho (Sotho, Southern Sotho or Southern Sesotho^[1]) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages, and in Lesotho, where it is the national language. It is an agglutinative language which uses numerous affixes and derivational and inflexional rules to build complete words. Template:Sotho language Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ... Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. ... Geographical distribution of South African languages. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... It has been suggested that Agglutination be merged into this article or section. ... An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme to form a word. ...

Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

Classification

Sotho is a Bantu language, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to three other major languages in the Sotho-Tswana language group: Tswana, the Northern Sotho languages (Sesotho sa Leboa), and Silozi (or Serotse). Sesotho is, and has always been, the name of the language in the language itself, and this term has come into wider use in English and other non-Bantu languages since the 1980s, especially in South African English and in Lesotho. It is also referred to as Southern Sotho, principally to distinguish it from Northern Sotho. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu vs. ... Map showing the distribution of Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the worlds major language families, and Africas largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. ... The Sotho-Tswana language group is a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in Southern Africa, including Tswana (Setswana), Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa), Sotho (Southern Sotho or Sesotho), and Lozi (Silozi or Rozi). ... Tswana (Motswana, plural Batswana) is the name of a Southern African people. ... Northern Sotho, Sepedi, or Sesotho sa Leboa, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people (2001 Census Data), mostly in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga. ... Lozi, also known as Silozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language (of the Niger-Congo language family) that is spoken by the Lozi people primarily in southwestern Zambia and also, to a lesser extent, in surrounding countries. ... South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. ...

The Sotho-Tswana languages are in turn closely related to other Southern Bantu language groups, including the Venda, Tsonga, and Nguni languages. Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo province. ... Contents // Categories: Bantu languages | Languages of Mozambique | Languages of South Africa | Languages of Swaziland | Languages of Zimbabwe | Language stubs ... Nguni is a group of languages spoken in southern Africa including isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, and isiNdebele. ...

Dialects

Standard Sotho is remarkable in having little to no distinctive dialectal variation. Except for faint lexical variation within the territory of Lesotho, and except for marked lexical variation between the Lesotho/Free State variety, and that of the large urban townships to the north (e.g. Soweto) due to heavy borrowing from neighbouring languages, there is no discernible dialect variation in this language. For the term free state as it arises in United States history, see: Free state. ... Johannesburg, including Soweto, from the International Space Station Soweto is an urban area in the City of Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa. ...

Geographic distribution

Areas in which significant proportions of the population are Sesotho mother tongue speakers

According to 2001 census data, there were almost four million first language Sotho speakers recorded in South Africa, approximately eight per cent of the population. Sotho is also the main language spoken by the people of Lesotho, where, according to 1993 data, it was spoken by about 1,493,000 people, or 85% of the population. The census fails to record the at least five million further South Africans for whom Sotho is a second or third language. Such speakers are found in all major residential areas of greater Johannesburg, Soweto and Pretoria, where multilingualism and polylectalism are very high. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 578 pixelsFull resolution (1146 × 828 pixel, file size: 15 KB, MIME type: image/gif) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Sotho language Languages of South Africa... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 578 pixelsFull resolution (1146 × 828 pixel, file size: 15 KB, MIME type: image/gif) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Sotho language Languages of South Africa... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Johannesburg, including Soweto, from the International Space Station Soweto is an urban area in the City of Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa. ... Motto: Praestantia Praevaleat Pretoria (May Pretoria Be Pre-eminent In Excellence) Country South Africa Province Gauteng Established 1855 Area  - City 1,644 km²  (634. ...

Official status

Sotho is one of the eleven official languages of South Africa, and one of the two official languages of Lesotho. Geographical distribution of South African languages. ...

Derived languages

Sotho is one the languages from which the pseudo-language Tsotsitaal is derived. Tsotsitaal is not a proper language, as it is primarily a unique vocabulary and a set of idioms but used with the grammar and inflexion rules of another language (usually Sotho or Zulu). It is a part of the youth culture in most Southern Gauteng "townships" and is the primary language used in Kwaito music. Tsotsitaal, or (isi)Camtho, is a patois mainly spoken in the townships of the Gauteng province in South Africa, such as Soweto. ... Languages Zulu Religions Christian, African Traditional Religion Related ethnic groups Bantu Nguni Basotho Xhosa Swazi Matabele Khoisan The Zulu (South African English and isiZulu: amaZulu) are a South African ethnic group of an estimated 17-22 million people who live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. ... Categories: South Africa stubs | Provinces of South Africa | Gauteng Province ... Children in a township near Cape Town in 1989 In South Africa, the term township usually refers to the (often underdeveloped) urban residential areas that, under Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and Coloureds, who were put into separate townships or locations) who lived near or worked... Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa in the early 1990s. ...

Phonology

Main article: Sotho phonology

Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ...

Tonology

Main article: Sotho tonology

Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ...

Formatives

Bantu languages are agglutinative — words are constructed by combining discrete formatives (or "morphemes") according to specific rules, and sentences are constructed by stringing together words according to somewhat less strict rules. Formatives alone cannot constitute words. A study of the formatives is a study of the component parts of words. An agglutinative language is a language in which the words are formed by joining morphemes together. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ...

These formatives may be divided generally into roots, stems, prefixes, concords, suffixes, verbal auxiliaries, enclitics, and proclitics.

Roots

Roots are the most basic irreducible elements of words and are immutable (except under purely phonetic changes). Entire words are built from roots by affixing other formatives around the root as appendages;^[2] each word (except with contractions and compounds) contains exactly one root, from which it derives its most basic meaning. Roots are the basis of the parts of speech. The root is the primary lexical unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents. ... Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

The following words:

1. ho ruta to teach
2. ba le rutile they taught y'all
3. re a rutana we teach one another
4. ha ba le rutisise they do not teach y'all properly/intensely
5. morutehi an academic
6. thuto education
7. moithuti learner (lit. "one who teaches herself")

are all formed from the root -rut-.

Although in some cases various phonetic processes may ultimately change the root's form in predictable ways (such as the nasalization in the last two examples) the root itself stays exactly the same.

There can be no doubt that words never emerged simply as roots. The root is a dead thing — the study of roots is primarily to aid the compilation of dictionaries, to further the study of comparative Bantu linguistics, and to help trace the evolution and connections of different languages. Many roots are shared by a wide range of Bantu languages.^[3]

Some further examples of roots:

• -tho (Ur-Bantu *-ntu) ⇒ motho person (especially a member of a Bantu language speaking culture)
• -itsi (Ur-Bantu *-iɣî) ⇒ metsi water
• -rwa (Ur-Bantu *-twa) ⇒ morwa a Khoisan person, Borwa South(ern)
• -tsheh- (Ur-Bantu *-kek-) ⇒ ho tsheha to laugh
• -j- (Ur-Bantu *-ly-) ⇒ ho ja to eat, dijo food
• -holo (Ur-Bantu *-kulu) ⇒ -holo large, boholo size, lekgolo one hundred
• -rithi ⇒ morithi shade/shadow, serithi shadow of a human being (also their spirit, which becomes one of the ancestors when they die, or dignity/reputation; this is a very important concept in African Traditional Religion)
• -kgadi (Ur-Bantu *-ŋkalî) ⇒ rakgadi elder aunt — an important matriarchal figure in African Traditional Religion
• -re (Ur-Bantu *-ti) ⇒ ho re to say
• -dimo ⇒ Modimo God (traditionally never used in the plural^[4]), badimo ancestors (does not exist in the singular), ledimo cannibal/ogre
• -simo ⇒ tshimo field
• -edi (Ur-Bantu *-elî) ⇒ ngwedi moonlight
• -tja (Ur-Bantu *-βwa) ⇒ ntja dog
• -hlano (Ur-Bantu *-tano) ⇒ -hlano five
• -rem- ⇒ ho rema to cut/chop down a tree

Khoisan (increasingly commonly spelled Khoesan or Khoe-San) is the name for two major ethnic groups of southern Africa. ... African traditional women and male priests, Togo, West Africa, 2006. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

Stems

The distinction between roots and stems is fairly arbitrary. Though all roots are also stems, verbal stems often include suffixes, which roots never include. Additionally, the ending -a is included in the verb stem but not in the root (if it was truly part of the core root then it wouldn't be replaced in verb derivations and conjugations). In-Silico Modeling and Conformational Mobility of String Pointer Reduction System (SPRS) Based on DNA Computers ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

For example, from the verb root -bon- one may derive the following stems:

1. -bona ⇒ ho bona to see
2. -bontsha ⇒ ho bontsha to show
3. -bontsho ⇒ pontsho proof
4. -bonahala ⇒ ho bonahala to be visible

and these may all be listed under the same headword in a dictionary. A headword (or head word) is the word under which a set of related dictionary definitions will be listed. ...

Prefixes

Prefixes are affixes attached to the beginning of words. These are distinct from concords, since changing the prefix of a word (such as the class prefix of a noun stem) may radically alter its meaning, while changing the concord attached to a stem does not change that stem's meaning. In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Ke lenaneo It is a programme

Concords

Concords are similar to prefixes in that they appear before the word stem. Verbs and qualificatives used to describe a noun are brought into agreement with that noun by using the appropriate concords. In languages, agreement is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. ...

There are seven basic types of concords in Sotho. In addition, there are two immutable prefixes used with verbs which are akin in function with concords. Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

Ba tlo e rala They shall design it

Suffixes

Suffixes appear at the end of a word. There are numerous suffixes in Sesotho serving varied functions. For example, verbs may be derived from other verbs through the employment of several verbal suffixes. Diminutives, augmentatives, and locatives may all be derived from nouns through the use of several suffixes. Look up Suffix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

Strictly speaking the final vowel -a in verb stems is a suffix, as it is often regularly replaced by other vowels in the derivation and inflexion of verbs and nouns.

Re a tsebana We know each other

Verbal auxiliaries

Verbal auxiliaries are not to be confused with auxiliary or deficient verbs. They may appear as prefixes or as infixes.^[5]

These include prefixes such as ha- used to negate verbs, and infixes such as -ka- used to form potential tenses.

The infix -a- used to form the past subjunctive (not to be confused with the infix -a- used to form the present indicative positive and the perfect indicative negative) merges with the subjectival concord resulting in what is often termed the "auxiliary concord." Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

Ke a tla I am coming

Ha ke no tla I shall not come

Enclitics

Enclitics (leaning-on words) are usually suffixed to verbs and convey a definite meaning. They were probably once separate words. In linguistics, a clitic is a morpheme that functions syntactically like a word, but does not appear as an independent phonological word; instead it is always attached to a following or preceding word. ...

They may be divided into two categories: those which draw forward the stress (as normal suffixes), and those which don't alter the word's stress. The second type may result in words which don't have the stress on the penult (as is usual with Sotho words). Generally speaking, the penult is the next to the last item in a series but it most specifically means the next to the last syllable in a word. ...

Ha a sa le yo He is no longer there (stress on the penult)

Thola bo! Please keep quiet! (stress on the antepenultimate syllable)

Proclitics

There is only one proclitic in Sotho. le- is normally prefixed to nouns as a conjunction, to convey the same meaning as English "and" when used between substantives. Many Indo-European languages have a post-clitic with a similar meaning (for example Latin -que and Sanskrit च -ca). In linguistics, a clitic is a morpheme that functions syntactically like a word, but does not appear as an independent phonological word; instead it is always attached to a following or preceding word. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ...

It may also be used to express the idea of "together with" and "even."

Ntate le mme My mother and father

Ke kopane le yena I met with her

Le bona ha ba kgolwe Even they do not believe

The Sotho word

The Sotho language is spoken conjunctively yet written disjunctively (that is, the spoken phonological words are not the same as the written orthograpical words).^[6] In the following discussion, the natural conjunctive word division will be indicated by joining the disjunctive elements with the symbol • in the Sesotho and the English translation.

Batho ba•lelapa la•hae ba•a•mo•ahlola The•people of•the•family of•his they•judge•him (His family members judge him)

Certain observations about the Sotho word (and those of other Bantu languages in general) may be made:

1. Each word has one part of speech, which usually appears at the end of the word, unless suffixed by enclitics. Not counting compounds and contractions, the word begins with zero or more proclitics, infixes,^[5] and prefixes, followed by a stem, followed by zero or more suffixes and enclitics. For example, in the word Ke•a•le•dumedisa (I•greet•y'all) the stem is the verb stem -dumel(a) (agree) surrounded by the subjectival concord ke- (first person singular), the present definite positive indicative infix marker -a-, the objectival concord -le- (third person plural), and the verb suffix -isa (causative, but in this case it gives the idiomatic meaning of "greet"). The phonological interactions can be quite complex:

   O•a•mpontsha (He•shows•me) subject concord o- + marker -a- + objectival concord -[N]- + verb stem -bon(a) (see) + causative suffix -isa

   Here the formatives are distorted by two instances of nasalization.

   Ha•re•a•kgona ho•mo•eletsa hobane o•ne a•le manganga^‡ (We•failed to•advise•him because he•PAST he•COPULATIVE stubborn "he was stubborn")

   Re•tla•ya ha o•tjho^‡ (We•shall•go if you•say.so)

   Note the monosyllabic conjunctive ha. In linguistics, a clitic is a morpheme that functions syntactically like a word, but does not appear as an independent phonological word; instead it is always attached to a following or preceding word. ... In linguistics, a clitic is a morpheme that functions syntactically like a word, but does not appear as an independent phonological word; instead it is always attached to a following or preceding word. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ...

2. Each word has one main stressed syllable. No matter how many prefixes, suffixes, enclitics, and proclitics are appended to the word stem the complete word only has one main stressed syllable. This stress is most prominent on the final word in the sentence.
   • Word stress ( file info) — play in browser (beta)
     • Audio sample of the examples
     • Problems listening to the file? See media help.

Note that, unlike the Nguni languages, Sotho does not have rules against juxtaposing strings of vowels: Template:Sotho language Notes: All examples marked with ‡ are included in the audio samples. ... Image File history File links Sesotho_word_stress. ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Nguni is a group of languages spoken in southern Africa including isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, and isiNdebele. ...

Ha•a•a•apara^‡ (He•is•not•dressed) although the sequence -a•a- (class 1 negative subjectival concord followed by present definite positive indicative marker) is usually pronounced as a long a with a high falling tone, or simply as a short high tone a.

Certain situations may make the word division complex. This can happen with contractions (especially with deficient verb constructions), and in some complex verb conjugations. In all these situations, however, each proper word has exactly one main stressed syllable. Image File history File links Sesotho_word_juxt. ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ...

Parts of speech

Main articles: Sotho parts of speech, Sotho nouns, and Sotho verbs

Each complete Sesotho word is composed of some part of speech. Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

In form, some parts of speech (adjectives, enumeratives, some relatives, and all verbs) are radical stems which need affixes to form meaningful words; others (possessives and copulatives) are formed from full words by the employment of certain formatives; the rest (nouns, pronouns, adverbs, ideophones, conjunctives, and interjectives) are complete words themselves which may or may not be modified with affixes to form new words. Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

The difference between the four types of qualificatives is merely in the concords used to associate them with the noun or pronoun they qualify. Since the simplest copulatives do not use any verbs whatsoever (zero copula), entire predicative sentences in Sesotho may be formed without the use of verbs. Zero copula is a linguistic phenomenon whereby the presence of the copula is implied, rather than stated explicitly as a verb or suffix. ...

Orthography

Sotho is written in the Latin alphabet with a few diacritics used in Lesotho writing. Like most languages written using the Latin alphabet, it does not use all the letters and several digraphs and trigraphs represent single sounds. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

As with almost all other Bantu languages, although the language is tonal, tone is unfortunately never indicated, and ambiguities in print are often mitigated by elaborating in a way that would have been unnecessary in speech (such as using absolute pronouns in addition to concords).

Lesotho versus South African writing

One issue which complicates the written language is the two divergent orthographies used by the two countries with the largest number of first language speakers. The Lesotho orthography is older than the South African one and differs from it not only in the choice of letters and the marking of initial syllabic nasals, but also (to a much lesser extent) in written word division and the use of diacritics on vowels to distinguish some ambiguous spellings.

When the symbol "š" is unavailable electronically, people who write in Lesotho Sesotho often use ts' to represent the aspirated alveolar affricate tš.

In word-initial positions,^[7] a syllabic nasal followed by a syllable starting with the same nasal is written as an n or m in South Africa but as an apostrophe in Lesotho.

Note that, when not word-initial, Lesotho orthography uses an n or m just like South African orthography.

In order to distinguish between the concords of class 1(a) and the 2nd. person singular, Lesotho orthography (mis-)uses u to represent phonetic o and w for the 2nd. person, even when there is no chance of ambiguity.

U motle You are beautiful

O motle He/she is beautiful

Le uena ke u elelitse I did advise you too

Le eena ke mo elelitse I did advise him/her too

In Lesotho, ò (for the two mid back vowels), ō (for the near-close near-back vowel), è (for the two mid front vowels), and ē (for the near-close near-front vowel) are sometimes used to avoid spelling ambiguities. This is never done in South African writing.

ho tšèla to pour — ho tšēla to cross

ho ròka to sing a praise poem — ho rōka to sew

These examples also have differing tone patterns.

Although the two orthographies tend to use similar written word divisions, they do differ on three points:

1. More often than not compounds that are written as one word in South African Sotho will be written with dashes in Lesotho Sotho

moetapele — moeta-pele leader

1. The prosodic penultimate e- that is sometimes affixed to monosyllabic verbs is written with a dash in Lesotho

eba! — e-ba! be!

1. The indicative marker -a- is inserted between the subject concord and the verb stem in different ways in the two orthographies. This is probably the most commonly encountered difference between the word divisions of the two orthographies

Dikgomo di a fula — Likhomo lia fula The cows are grazing

1. The class 2a prefix is usually simply attached to the class 1a noun in South Africa but Lesotho orthography uses a dash

ntate father ⇒ bontate (South African), bo-ntate (Lesotho)

Very often South Africans with recent ancestors from Lesotho have surnames written in Lesotho orthography, preserving the old spellings.

Gloria Moshoeshoe, South African actor and talk show host

Aaron Mokoena, South African and European soccer player

Word division

Like all other Bantu languages Sotho is an agglutinative language spoken conjunctively; however, like many Bantu languages it is written disjunctively. The difference lies in the characteristically European word division used for writing the language, in contrast with some Bantu languages such as the south African Nguni languages. Nguni is a group of languages spoken in southern Africa including isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati, and isiNdebele. ...

This issue is investigated in more detail in The Sotho word above.

Roughly speaking the following principles may be used to explain the current orthographical word division:

1. Prefixes (except noun class prefixes) and infixes are written separately on their own, and the root and all following suffixes are written together. This is most obvious in the writing of the verb complex. One exception is the 1st. pers. sg objectival concord, and another is the in the writing of the concords used with the qualificative parts of speech.
2. With the exception of class 15, noun class prefixes are directly attached to the noun stem. These are an essential part of the lexicon, and not merely functional morphemes.
3. Words which have been fossilised/lexicalised with historical prefixes are written as one word. This most frequently occurs with adverbs.

Of course, there are exceptions to these rough rules. Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ...

Notes

1. ^ or Suto, or Suthu, or Souto, or Sisutho, or Sutu, or Sesutu etc. by various authors and sources during various periods. The language's name has not changed, though.
2. ^ Bantuists do it with multiple appendages.
3. ^ Including the Ur-Bantu root *-ntu whence the name "Bantu languages" comes.
4. ^ It is interesting to note that although there has historically always been a general belief among Westerners that African religions are polytheist, the plural of this word — medimo — was specifically invented by Christian missionaries to aid in translating the Bible (which regularly speaks of "gods" — a concept foreign to Sesotho ATR). Additionally, the noun is traditionally in class 1, but is used in class 3 by Christians and the Bible. There is, and has never been, any confusion among Basotho that the class 2 Badimo may be the plural of the class 1 Modimo since, in the same way that Modimo was never used in the plural, Badimo is never used in the singular (an ancestor is referred to as "one of the ancestors").
5. ^ ^{a b} The use of this term in Bantu linguistics means "formatives placed in the middle of a word" and not the more common "formatives placed in the middle of a morpheme." Bantu languages, being agglutinative, construct words by placing affixes around a stem, and if an affix is always placed after other affixes but before the stem (such as in the verbal complex) then it is usually called an "infix."
6. ^ This is a common situation in many (written) Bantu languages, as their orthographies were invented by Europeans who spoke isolating languages. Notice how the class 10 prefix ho- is written separated from the verb stem (contrary to how the other class prefixes are indicated) because this is how infinitives are indicated in their languages. Zulu and other Nguni languages are written conjunctively, primarily due to the efforts of Doke and others. Consider the following example:

   Ke tla o thusa

   I will help you (I•FUT.+VE.INDIC•you•help)

   This would be Ngizakusiza in Zulu. The English free morphemes may usually be moved around to make valid statements, with some change in meaning:

   Help you I will

   Will I help you(?)

   But this is absolutely impossible to do with the Sesotho bound morphemes.

   *Thusa o ke tla

   *Tla ke o thusa

7. ^ "Word" meaning the separately written elements in the disjunctive orthography — not proper Sotho words.

In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Notes: The orthography used in this and related articles is that of South Africa, not Lesotho. ... An analytic language (or isolating language) is a language in which the vast majority of morphemes are free morphemes and considered to be full-fledged words. By contrast, in a synthetic language, a word is composed of agglutinated or fused morphemes that denote its syntactic meanings. ... Clement Martyn Doke (1893-1980) was a South African linguist. ... In linguistics, free morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone, unlike bound morphemes, which only occur as parts of words. ... Bound morphemes can only occur when attached to root morphemes. ...

See also

• South African Translators' Association

The South African Translators Institute (SATI) is the largest association in South Africa representing professional, academic and amateur translators and other language practitioners. ...

References

• Demuth, K. 1992. Acquisition of Sesotho. In D. Slobin (ed.), The Cross-Linguistic Study of Language Acquisition.

• Demuth, K. In press. Sesotho speech acquisition. In S. McLeod (ed), The international guide to speech acquisition, pp 526-538. Clifton Park, NY: Thomas Delmar Learning.

• Doke, C. M., and Mofokeng, S. M. 1974. Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar. Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, 3rd. impression. ISBN 0 582 61700 6.

• Schadeberg, T.C. 1994-5. Spirantization and the 7-to-5 Vowel Merger in Bantu. In Marc Dominicy & Didier Demolin (eds), Sound Change. Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 73-84.

Clement Martyn Doke (1893-1980) was a South African linguist. ...

External links

Sotho language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sotho language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

• Ethnologue report for Sesotho
• Sesotho.web.za A gentle introduction to the Sesotho language and Basotho culture.
• Weblog on Sesotho
• Translate.org.za Project translating Free and Open Source Software into South African languages, including Sesotho.
• PanAfrican L10n page on Sesotho Information on the language and localization.
• Sesotho language tutorial A beginner's language text, designed for the US Peace Corps.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ...

Software

• Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Sesotho.

v • d • e

 Official languages of the Republic of South Africa

Afrikaans · English · isiNdebele · Northern Sotho · Sesotho · Siswati · Xitsonga · Setswana · Tshivenḓa · isiXhosa · isiZulu Image File history File links Flag_of_South_Africa. ... Geographical distribution of South African languages. ... Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. ... The Southern Ndebele language (isiNdebele or Nrebele in Southern Ndebele) is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele (the Ndebele people of South Africa). ... Northern Sotho, Sepedi, or Sesotho sa Leboa, is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people (2001 Census Data), mostly in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga. ... Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ... Swati (siSwati in the language itself; Swazi in Zulu) is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa. ... The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan. ... Tswana (Setswana), is a Bantu language. ... Venda, also known as Tshivenda, or Luvenda, is a Bantu language. ... For the Xhosa people, see Xhosa. ... Zulu (isiZulu in Zulu), is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ...