Setswana
Setswana
Spoken in	Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia
Native speakers	3.4 million in South Africa (2006) 1.1 million in Botswana  (1993)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho–Tswana Setswana
Official status
Official language in	Botswana  South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tn
ISO 639-2	tsn
ISO 639-3	tsn
Linguasphere	99-AUT-eg incl. varieties 99-AUT-ega to 99-AUT-egn
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Tswana or Setswana is a language spoken in Southern Africa by about 4.5 million people.^[1] It is a Bantu language belonging to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S (S.30), and is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi language and the Lozi language.

Tswana is an official language and lingua franca of Botswana spoken by almost 1.1 million of its inhabitants. However, the majority of Tswana speakers are found in South Africa where 3.4 million people speak the language. Until 1994, South African Tswana people were notionally citizens of Bophuthatswana, one of the few bantustans that actually became reality as planned by the Apartheid regime. A small number of speakers are also found in Zimbabwe and Namibia, where 29,400 and 12,300 people speak the language, respectively.^[1]

History[link]

The first person in history to describe the Tswana language was the German traveller H. Lichtenstein who lived among the Tswana people Batlhaping in 1806, although his work was not published until 1930. He mistakenly regarded Tswana as a dialect of the Xhosa language, and the name he used for the language "Beetjuana" may also have covered the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages.

The first major work on the Tswana language was carried out by the British missionary Robert Moffat who had also lived among the Batlhaping, and published Bechuana Spelling Book and A Bechuana Catechism in 1826. In the following years he published several other books of the Bible and in 1857 he was able to publish a complete translation of the Bible.^[2]

The first grammar of the Tswana language was published in 1833 by the missionary James Archbell, although it was modelled on a Xhosa grammar. The first grammar of Tswana which regarded it as a separate language from Xhosa (but still not as a separate language from the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages) was published by the French missionary E. Casalis in 1841. It should be noted though that he changes his mind later, and in a publication from 1882, he notes that the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages are distinct from Tswana.^[3]

In 1876 the South African intellectual and linguist Solomon Plaatje was born, and he became one of the first writers to extensively write in and about the Tswana language.^[2]

Phonology[link]

Vowels[link]

The vowel inventory of Tswana can be seen below.^[4]

Some dialects have two additional vowels, the close-mid vowels /e/ and /o/.^[5]

Consonants[link]

The consonant inventory of Tswana can be seen below.^[6]

It should be noted that the consonant /d/ is merely an allophone of /l/, when the latter is followed by the vowels /i/ or /u/.^[7]

Tswana also has three click consonants, but these are only used in interjections or ideophones, and tend only to be used by the older generation, and are therefore falling out of use. The three click consonants are the dental click /ǀ/, orthographically ⟨c⟩; the lateral click /ǁ/, orthographically ⟨x⟩; and the palatal click /ǃ/, orthographically ⟨q⟩.^[8]

There are some minor dialectal variations among the consonants between speakers of Tswana. For instance, /χ/ is realized as either /x/ or /h/ by many speakers; /f/ is realized as /h/ in most dialects; and /tɬ/ and /tɬʰ/ are realized as /t/ and /tʰ/ in northern dialects.^[9]

Stress[link]

Stress is fixed in Tswana and thus always falls on the penult of a word, although some compounds may receive a secondary stress in the first part of the word. It should also be noted that the syllable on which the stress falls is lengthened. Thus, mosadi is realized as [mʊ̀ˈsáːdì].^[10]

Tone[link]

Tswana has two tones, high and low, although the latter has a much wider distribution in words than the former. Tones are not marked orthographically which may lead to ambiguity.^[11]

go bua /χʊ búa/ "to speak"

go bua /χʊ bua/ "to skin an animal"

o bua Setswana /ʊ́búa setswána/ "He speaks Setswana"

o bua Setswana /ʊbúa setswána/ "You speak Setswana"

An important feature of the tones is the so-called spreading of the high tone. If a syllable bears a high tone, the following two syllables will also get high tones, unless they are at the end of the word.^[12]

simolola /símʊlʊla/ > /símʊ́lʊ́la/ "to begin"

simologêla /símʊlʊχɛla/ > /símʊ́lʊ́χɛla/ "to begin for/at"

Grammar[link]

Nouns[link]

Nouns in Tswana are grouped into nine noun classes and one sub-class, each having different prefixes. The nine classes and their respective prefixes can be seen below, along with a short note regarding the common characteristics of most nouns within the respective class.^[13]

Some nouns may be found in several classes. For instance, many nouns of the class 1 are also found in class 1a, class 3, class 4 and class 5.^[14]

References[link]

Notes[link]

General[link]

• Cole, Desmond (1955), An Introduction to Tswana Grammar 
• Janson, Tore; Tsonope, Joseph (1991), Birth of a National Language: The History of Setswana, ISBN 0-435-91620-3 
• University of Botswana (2001), The Sound System of Setswana, ISBN 99912-71-21-X 

External links[link]

Tswana language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Map of Tswana language from the LL-Map Project
• Information on Tswana language from the MultiTree Project
• Peace Corps Botswana: An Introduction to the Setswana Language
• Setswana: Grammar Handbook. Peace Corps Language Handbook Series

v t e Languages of Botswana Bantu Birwa Gciriku Herero Ikalanga Kgalagadi Kuhane Mbukushu Nambya Northern Ndebele Tswana (official) Tswapong Yeyi Zezuru Khoisan ǁAni Gǁana Gǀwi ǂHõã Juǀʼhoan Khwe Kua ǂKxʼauǁʼein Nama Naro Shua Taʼa Tsoa Indo-European Afrikaans English (official)

v t e Languages of South Africa Official West Germanic Afrikaans English Southern Bantu Sotho-Tswana Northern Sotho (Sepedi) Sesotho Tswana (Setswana) Nguni Southern Ndebele (isiNdebele) Swazi (siSwati) Xhosa (isiXhosa) Zulu (isiZulu) Venda (Tshivenda) Tsonga (Xitsonga) PanSALB1 Khoi Nama San SASL German Greek Gujarati Hindi Portuguese Tamil Telegu Urdu Arabic Hebrew Sanskrit 1 unofficial languages mentioned in the 1996 constitution

v t e Languages of Zimbabwe Dombe English Fanagalo Kalanga Kunda Lozi Manyika Nambya Ndau Northern Ndebele Nsenga Nyanja Shona Tonga Tsoa Tsonga Tswa Tswana Venda Zimbabwe Sign Language/Zimsign

v t e Languages of Namibia Official English Recognized regional Oshiwambo (Kwanyama/Ndonga) Afrikaans German Other Bantu languages Otjiherero Rukwangali Setswana Zemba Gciriku Fwe Kuhane Thimbukushu Shiyeyi Khoisan Nama/Damara Naro ǃXóõ Kung-Ekoka ǂKxʼauǁʼein Kxoe

Matshediso Florence Mholo is a South African artist and activist and a member of the multi-platinum Afro-pop group Malaika.

Musical career[link]

Mholo met fellow group members Bongani Nchang and the late Jabulani Ndaba in a church choir in 2003, while teaching music and drama at the Mabana Cultural Centre in Mmabatho.

Charity work[link]

Mholo has been involved in a number of campaigns on behalf of orphans (especially AIDS orphans) and abused women. She is also an Aids activist and was voluntarily tested for HIV in October 2006 an attempt to set an example. ^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.women24.com/Women24v2/ContentDisplay/w24v2_ArticleCapture/0,,11312,00.html
• http://www.malaikasa.co.za
• http://www.kaizerchiefs.com/default.asp?des=article&aid=245813
• http://www.unicef.org/southafrica/media_4450.html
• http://www.5sm.co.za/bands_malaika.htm

This article about a South African musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e