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The Sotho language is spoken conjunctively yet written disjunctively (that is, the spoken phonological words are not the same as the written orthographical words). [7] 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 ...
Ditema tsa Dinoko (Sesotho for "Ditema syllabary"), also known as ditema tsa Sesotho, is a constructed writing system (specifically, a featural syllabary) for the siNtu or Southern Bantu languages (such as Sesotho, Setswana, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, SiSwati, SiPhuthi, Xitsonga, EMakhuwa, ChiNgoni, SiLozi, ChiShona and Tshivenḓa).
In Sesotho, nngwe is a variant (allomorph) of the adjective stem -ng used only for Class 9 nouns. The use of the number "one" in Sesotho is different from the other Sotho–Tswana languages, because the Sesotho -ng is an irregular enumerative which behaves sometimes like an adjective and can therefore become a noun.
Many Sesotho nouns (and other parts of speech) stem from contact with speakers of Indo-European languages, primarily French missionaries, Orange Free State Afrikaners, and, in modern times, English people. The very alien phonetics and phonologies of these languages mean that words are to be imported rather irregularly with varying phonetic ...
Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family. Although Northern Sotho shares the name Sotho with Southern Sotho, the two groups also have a great deal in common with their sister language Setswana. [citation needed] [12] Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardized variety ...
A classic example of a nasal carrying a tone: To form a locative from a noun, one of the possible procedures involves simply suffixing a low tone [ŋ̩] to the noun. To form the locative meaning "on the grass" one suffixes -ng to the word [ʒʷɑŋ̩] jwang ‡ [_ ¯ ], giving jwanng ‡ [_ ¯ _ ] [ʒʷɑŋ̩ŋ̩], with the two last syllabic nasals having contrasting tones.
Probably the most radical sound innovation in the Sotho–Tswana languages is that the Proto-Bantu prenasalized consonants have become simple stops and affricates. [2] Thus isiZulu words such as entabeni ('on the mountain'), impuphu ('flour'), ezinkulu ('the big ones'), ukulanda ('to fetch'), ukulamba ('to become hungry'), and ukuthenga ('to buy') are cognates to Sesotho [tʰɑbeŋ̩] thabeng ...
Sesotho (or Southern Sesotho), a Southern Bantu language, is the national language of Lesotho, [2] [3] [note 1] and is spoken by most Basotho. [note 2] It was recognized as the national language by the National and Official Languages Bill, ratified by the National Assembly of Lesotho on 12 September 1966, which also established Sesotho and English as the country's two official languages.