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Khoisan (/ ˈ k ɔɪ s ɑː n / KOY-sahn) or Khoe-Sān (pronounced [kxʰoesaːn]) is a catch-all term for the indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen and the Sān peoples.
At least thirty-five languages are spoken in South Africa, twelve of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, South African Sign Language, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, and English, which is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all official languages are equal in legal status.
In Central and East Africa, drum patterns represent the stresses, syllable lengths and tone of the particular language. In tone languages, where syllables are associated with a certain tone, some words are distinguished only by their suprasegmental profile. Therefore, syllable drum languages can often transfer a message using the tonal phonemes ...
South Africa's unique social and political history has generated a rich variety of literatures, with themes spanning pre-colonial life, the days of apartheid, and the lives of people in the "new South Africa". Many of the first black South African print authors were missionary-educated, and many wrote in either English or Afrikaans.
The term San is now standard in South African, and used officially in the blazon of the national coat-of-arms. The "South African San Council" representing San communities in South Africa was established as part of WIMSA in 2001. [27] [28] The term Basarwa (singular Mosarwa) is used for the San collectively in Botswana.
The Pedi / p ɛ d i / or Bapedi / b æ ˈ p ɛ d i / - also known as the Northern Sotho, [2] Basotho ba Lebowa, bakgatla ba dithebe, [3] Transvaal Sotho, [4] Marota, or Dikgoshi [5] - are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group native to South Africa, Botswana, and Lesotho that speak Pedi or Sepedi, [6] which is one of the 12 official languages in South Africa. [7]
Southern Transvaal Ndebele is one of the eleven official languages in the Republic of South Africa. The language is a Nguni or Zunda classification (UN) spoken mostly in the Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northwest. The expression isikhethu can be loosely translated to mean 'the Southern Ndebele way of doing or saying'.
The following slang words used in South African originated in other parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and subsequently came to South Africa. bint – a girl, from Arabic بِنْت. Usually seen as derogatory. buck – the main unit of currency: in South Africa the rand, and from the American use of the word for the dollar.