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Quick Facts: Xhosa
| Native Name | isiXhosa |
|---|---|
| Speakers | 8.2 million native speakers |
| Language Family | Niger-Congo, Bantu branch |
| Writing System | Latin |
| Primary Regions | Eastern Cape, Western Cape (South Africa) |
| Official In | South Africa (one of 11 official languages) |
| ISO Code | xh |
About Xhosa
Xhosa (pronounced with an initial click consonant: /วอกosa/ in linguistic notation, approximately "KOH-sa" in English approximation) is one of South Africa's eleven official languages and the second most widely spoken Bantu language in South Africa after Zulu. With approximately 8.2 million native speakers concentrated in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces, Xhosa is the home language of many of South Africa's most prominent historical figures โ Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Steve Biko, and Desmond Tutu all grew up speaking Xhosa as their mother tongue. The language is immediately recognizable globally because of its extensive use of click consonants โ sounds produced by drawing air inward against different parts of the mouth โ that have been borrowed from the neighboring Khoisan languages and make Xhosa phonologically one of the most distinctive-sounding languages on Earth.
History and Origins
Xhosa belongs to the Nguni branch of the Bantu language family, which includes Zulu, Swati, and Ndebele. The Xhosa people's southward migration through Africa over many centuries brought them into sustained contact with the Khoisan peoples โ the San (Bushmen) and Khoekhoe (Hottentots) of southern Africa โ whose click consonants were borrowed into Xhosa, creating the distinctive phonological profile of the modern language. The Xhosa-speaking people of the Eastern Cape were the first Bantu-speaking South Africans to come into sustained contact with European settlers โ Dutch and British colonists โ beginning in the 17th century. This contact produced a series of devastating frontier wars (the Cape Frontier Wars, 1779โ1879) and eventually the subjugation of Xhosa political independence. Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries in the 19th century developed the Xhosa writing system and translated the Bible, establishing the foundations of a Xhosa literary tradition. The Nongqawuse cattle-killing prophecy of 1856โ1857 โ in which Xhosa people killed their cattle and burned their crops in response to a teenage girl's prophecy that the ancestors would return and drive out the colonizers โ resulted in the deaths of 40,000 people by starvation and the collapse of independent Xhosa society.
Writing System
Xhosa is written in a Latin-based alphabet developed by missionaries in the 19th century, principally John Bennie and John Ross of the Glasgow Missionary Society. The click consonants are represented by letters borrowed from the alphabet of the neighboring Zulu language: c for the dental click, q for the palatal click, and x for the lateral click. These basic click letters can be combined with other letters to indicate voiced, nasal, and aspirated click variants โ gc, gq, gx (voiced), nc, nq, nx (nasal), and xh (aspirated) โ giving Xhosa a rich system for representing its extensive click inventory in writing. The orthography is largely phonemic and has been standardized through the work of the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).
Phonology and Pronunciation
Xhosa has one of the largest consonant inventories of any language in the world, primarily because of its extensive click consonant system. There are three basic click types: dental (c), palatal (q), and lateral (x), each of which can be produced in voiced, aspirated, nasal, and other modified forms, creating a total of approximately 18 distinct click consonants. Non-click consonants include the full Bantu inventory plus some sounds borrowed from Khoisan. Xhosa is also a tonal language with two basic tones โ high and low โ that distinguish word meanings. The combination of clicks, other consonants, and tonal distinctions gives Xhosa its extraordinary phonological complexity and its immediately distinctive sound to outside listeners.
Famous Texts and Cultural Works
The first Xhosa-language book was a spelling primer published by missionaries in 1823. The most significant literary figure in Xhosa is S.E.K. Mqhayi (1875โ1945), known as the Imbongi (praise singer) of the Xhosa nation, who wrote poetry, prose, and autobiography in Xhosa and is considered the father of Xhosa literature. His poem welcoming the Prince of Wales to South Africa in 1925, which included a devastating critique of British colonialism, is one of the most celebrated moments in South African literary history. A.C. Jordan's novel Ingqumbo Yeminyanya (The Wrath of the Ancestors, 1940) is the masterwork of Xhosa fiction. In popular culture, the fact that the Marvel film Black Panther (2018) and its sequel used Xhosa as the language of Wakanda โ spoken by Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa โ brought the language to global awareness.
How to Learn Xhosa Today
Xhosa is a challenging language for English speakers primarily because of its click consonants and tonal system. The click consonants require entirely new articulatory gestures that most English speakers take weeks to months to produce naturally. The tonal system must be learned from the beginning as tones are lexically distinctive. The noun class system typical of Bantu languages โ with 15 to 16 classes in Xhosa, each with its own agreement prefixes โ requires learning a complex paradigm of prefixes that permeate the entire sentence. Resources for English speakers include materials produced by the Xhosa language departments at South African universities, Peace Corps learning materials, and an increasing body of online resources produced by the Xhosa diaspora community. The BBC and other media organizations have produced some introductory Xhosa content.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are click consonants in Xhosa?
Click consonants are sounds made by drawing air inward against different parts of the mouth, creating a clicking sound. Xhosa has three types: dental clicks (c, made against the teeth), palatal clicks (q, made against the roof of the mouth), and lateral clicks (x, made at the sides of the mouth). Each type can be produced in voiced, aspirated, and nasal variants. Clicks were borrowed from neighboring Khoisan peoples and are also found in Zulu and some other southern African languages.
Did Nelson Mandela speak Xhosa?
Yes. Xhosa was Nelson Mandela's mother tongue โ he was born into the Thembu royal family of the Xhosa people in the Eastern Cape. He spoke Xhosa, Sesotho, Afrikaans, and English fluently. His Xhosa name was Rolihlahla, meaning "one who pulls the branch of a tree" or colloquially "troublemaker." The name Nelson was given to him by a teacher, following the common practice of the time.
Why was Xhosa used in Black Panther?
Marvel Studios chose Xhosa as the language of Wakanda in Black Panther (2018), partly because Chadwick Boseman and other cast members were willing to learn it, and partly because it has the distinctive clicking sounds that gave Wakandan speech an immediately recognizable African but not nationally specific quality. South African dialect coach Xolile Zungu taught the cast. The film's use of Xhosa brought unprecedented global attention to the language.
How many people speak Xhosa?
Approximately 8.2 million people speak Xhosa as their native language, primarily in South Africa's Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces. Xhosa is one of South Africa's eleven official languages and is widely understood in the Cape Town metropolitan area, where it coexists with Afrikaans and English as a dominant language.