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Zulu or Xhosa? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Gallo1801 Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 4903 days ago 164 posts - 248 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Croatian, German, French | Message 1 of 7 18 June 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged |
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Help me understand the two largest Bantu languages of RSA - differences, similarities,
borrowings, hard aspects, culture, etc. If you had to choose one to study to a relative degree, which one and why? (Not planning on studying either for a long time; just curious to learn more about the Bantu languages, especially these two large ones) Edited by Gallo1801 on 18 June 2012 at 6:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5730 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 2 of 7 18 June 2012 at 7:09pm | IP Logged |
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I guess it matters which part of South Africa you're interested in.
I talked to some people who lived in the RSA last year. The two languages they were interested in were Tswana and Zulu, but they said Zulu was more prevalent in the area they were in. I know nothing about the RSA and its languages, so unfortunately I can't say much. Either way, you'll end up studying a language that begins with x or z, so that's pretty cool, LOL. Edit: I heard both languages are mutually intelligible to some degree, so if you learn one, learning the other one probably won't be so hard. Edited by Michael K. on 18 June 2012 at 7:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5179 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 3 of 7 21 June 2012 at 2:04pm | IP Logged |
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I happen to have read a book on it, few days ago, and what I can tell is that they are actually one language, they even attempted to make an unified written standard for all 'isi' (isiXhosa, IsiZulu IsiNdebele) languages - but it failed due to the opposition from the people, so they speak very closely related dialects/languages (I on't know how cose they may be), but simply don't agree on being one nation, just like Serbians and Bosniaqs.
Anyway Zulu seems more prestigious, many non-Zulu South Africans would learn Zulu than Xhosa. I may be wrong, so don't take my words too seriously, but this is just what I understood from the lecture. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jacbulpin Newbie South AfricaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5530 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 4 of 7 20 August 2012 at 9:22am | IP Logged |
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Hi there,
I am from south africa, though I cannot speak either language fluently, I did do Xhosa in school for some time. I would recommend going with Zulu if you had to choose because Xhosa has a lot of different click sounds and zulu does not, its easier to pronounce the language if you want to study Xhosa because you like the way it sounds then by all means go for a clicking language :) Zulu is also more widely known in SA. Best of luck 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 7 20 August 2012 at 4:37pm | IP Logged |
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Although I have limited experience with Zulu and Xhosa, I know three people from South Africa who are native speakers. Two are native Zulu speakers, and the other is a native Xhosa speaker. When I asked them how closely related their languages are, they replied that they are extremely close, and generally mutually intelligible, although there are some differences. As someone pointed out earlier, they are not considered one "language" mainly because of political reasons, rather than linguistic reasons.
That being said, Zulu (at least where I live) has more resources than Xhosa, so that seems like the best option to start with if you're in the same situation. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 6 of 7 20 August 2012 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
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I recommend the most beautiful language: Tsonga (which is co-official in South Africa, but it has more speakers in Mozambique, Tsonga and its dialects are spoken in the southernmost third of Mozambique, including the capital: Maputo).
You can get the dictionary here: http://www.tsongaonline.co.za/ A radio station: http://www.munghanalonenefm.co.za Speakers of Zulu call Tsonga ''a very beautiful language'' ;) Tsonga has no clics, and its less tonal than the surrounding Bantu languages (meaning: you can pronounce it easily). Wiki in Tsonga: http://ts.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlukankulu Edited by Medulin on 20 August 2012 at 7:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 7 of 7 21 August 2012 at 3:28pm | IP Logged |
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I have the South African Phrasebook and indeed several of those co-official bantu languages in South Africa look extremely similar. So I'd pick whichever has more resources as a start, and it seems to be Zulu.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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