Northern Ndebele language

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This article is about the Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe. For the Ndebele language spoken in South Africa, see Southern Ndebele language.
Northern Ndebele
Native to Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa
Region Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe; North-East District in Botswana
Native speakers
2 million  (2012)[1]
Official status
Official language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1 nd
ISO 639-2 nde
ISO 639-3 nde
Glottolog nort2795[2]
Linguasphere 99-AUT-fk incl.
varieties 99-AUT-fka
to 99-AUT-fkd
The Ndebele Language
Person umNdebele
People amaNdebele (prev. Matebele)
Language isiNdebele





Pronunciation of Ndebele words is relatively easy in comparison to many languages because the vowels are quite constant, with each vowel having basically one sound, and the accent is usually on the penultimate syllable.

Pronunciation of vowels[edit]

There are five basic vowel sounds; a, o, u are very constant and e and i have only slight variation


Click consonants[edit]

In Ndebele there are three click consonants c, q and x.

c is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the front upper teeth and gums, the centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip of the tongue is drawn backwards. The resulting sound is similar to the sound used in English to express annoyance.[4] Some examples are cina (end), cela (ask)

The q sound is made by raising the back of the tongue to touch the soft palate and touching the gums with the sides and tip of the tongue. The centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip drawn quickly away from the gum. The resulting sound is like the "pop" heard when quickly removing the cork from a bottle.[4] Some examples are qalisa (start), qeda (finish)

The x sound is made by placing the tongue so that the back of the tongue touches the soft palate and the sides and tip of the tongue touch the gums. One side of the tongue is quickly withdrawn from the gums.[4] Some examples are xoxa (discuss), ixoxo (frog)

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Northern Ndebele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "North Ndebele". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  4. ^ a b c Shenk, J.R. A New Ndebele Grammar

External links[edit]