Swazi language

Bantu language spoken in Eswatini and South Africa

Swazi
siSwati
Pronunciation	[sísʷaːtʼi]
Native to	Eswatini, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique
Native speakers	L1: 2.3 million (2013–2019)^[1] L2: 2.4 million (2013)^[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Tekela Swazi
Writing system	Latin (Swazi alphabet) Swazi Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed forms	Signed Swazi
Official status
Official language in	South Africa Eswatini
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`ss`
ISO 639-2	`ssw`
ISO 639-3	`ssw`
Glottolog	`swat1243`
Guthrie code	`S.43`^[2]
Linguasphere	`99-AUT-fe`

Swati (Swazi)
Person	liSwati
People	emaSwati
Language	siSwati
Country	eSwatini

Swazi or siSwati is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 4.7 million including first and second language speakers.^[1] The language is taught in Eswatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Siswati is an official language of Eswatini (along with English), and is also one of the twelve official languages of South Africa.

The official term is "siSwati" among native speakers; in English, Zulu, Ndebele or Xhosa it may be referred to as Swazi. Siswati is most closely related to the other Tekela languages, like Phuthi and Northern Transvaal (Sumayela) Ndebele, but is also very close to the Zunda languages: Zulu, Southern Ndebele, Northern Ndebele, and Xhosa.

Dialects

Siswati spoken in Eswatini can be divided into four dialects corresponding to the four administrative regions of the country: Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni.

Siswati has at least two varieties: the standard, prestige variety spoken mainly in the north, centre and southwest of the country, and a less prestigious variety spoken elsewhere.

In the far south, especially in towns such as Nhlangano and Hlatikhulu, the variety of the language spoken is significantly influenced by isiZulu. Many Swazis (plural emaSwati, singular liSwati), including those in the south who speak this variety, do not regard it as 'proper' Swazi. This is what may be referred to as the second dialect in the country. The sizeable number of Swazi speakers in South Africa (mainly in the Mpumalanga province, and in Soweto) are considered by Eswatini Swazi speakers to speak a non-standard form of the language.

Unlike the variant in the south of Eswatini, the Mpumalanga variety appears to be less influenced by Zulu, and is thus considered closer to standard Swazi. However, this Mpumalanga variety is distinguishable by distinct intonation, and perhaps distinct tone patterns. Intonation patterns (and informal perceptions of 'stress') in Mpumalanga Swazi are often considered discordant to the Swazi ear. This South African variety of Swazi is considered to exhibit influence from other South African languages spoken close to Swazi.

A feature of the standard prestige variety of Swazi (spoken in the north and centre of Eswatini) is the royal style of slow, heavily stressed enunciation, which is anecdotally claimed to have a 'mellifluous' feel to its hearers.

Phonology

Vowels

Swazi vowels
	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	ɛ~e	ɔ~o
Open	a

Consonants

Swazi does not distinguish between places of articulation in its clicks. They are dental (as [ǀ]) or might also be alveolar (as [ǃ]). It does, however, distinguish five or six manners of articulation and phonation, including tenuis, aspirated, voiced, breathy voiced, nasal, and breathy-voiced nasal.^[3]

Swazi consonants
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar		Lateral	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
		Labial	plain	nasal	Lateral	Post- alveolar	Velar	plain	nasal
Click	plain		ᵏǀ	ᵑǀ
	aspirated		ᵏǀʰ	ᵑǀʰ
	breathy		ᶢǀʱ	ᵑǀʱ
Nasal		m	n			ɲ	ŋ~ŋɡ
Plosive	ejective	pʼ	tʼ				kʼ~k̬
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ				kʰ
	breathy	bʱ	dʱ				ɡʱ
	implosive	ɓ
Affricate	voiceless	tf	tsʼ~tsʰ			tʃʼ	kxʼ
Affricate	voiced	dv	dz			dʒʱ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		ɬ	ʃ		h	h̃
Fricative	voiced	v	z		ɮ	ʒ		ɦ	ɦ̃
Approximant		w			l	j

The consonants /ts k ŋɡ/ each have two sounds. /ts/ and /k/ can both occur as ejective sounds, [tsʼ] and [kʼ], but their common forms are [tsʰ] and [k̬]. The sound /ŋɡ/ differs when at the beginning of stems as [ŋ], and commonly as [ŋɡ] within words.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Tone

Swazi exhibits three surface tones: high, mid and low. Tone is unwritten in the standard orthography. Traditionally, only the high and mid tones are taken to exist phonemically, with the low tone conditioned by a preceding depressor consonant. Bradshaw (2003) however argues that all three tones exist underlyingly.

Phonological processes acting on tone include:

When a stem with non-high tone receives a prefix with underlying high tone, this high tone moves to the antepenult (or to the penult, when the onset of the antepenult is a depressor).
High spread: all syllables between two high tones become high, as long as no depressor intervenes. This happens not only word-internally, but also across a word boundary between a verb and its object.

The depressor consonants are all voiced obstruents other than /ɓ/. The allophone [ŋ] of /ŋɡ/ appears to behave as a depressor for some rules but not others.^[6]

Orthography

Vowels

a - [a]
e - [ɛ~e]
i - [i]
o - [ɔ~o]
u - [u]

Consonants

b - [ɓ]
bh - [bʱ]
c - [ᵏǀ]
ch - [ᵏǀʰ]
d - [dʱ]
dl - [ɮ]
dv - [dv]
dz - [dz]
f - [f]
g - [gʱ]
gc - [ᶢǀʱ]
h - [h]
hh - [ɦ]
hl - [ɬ]
j - [dʒʱ]
k - [kʼ, k̬]
kh - [kʰ]
kl - [kɬ]
l - [l]
m - [m]
mb - [mb]
n - [n]
nc - [ᵑǀ]
nch - [ᵑǀʰ]
ndl - [ⁿɮ]
ng - [ŋ, ŋɡ]
ngc - [ᵑǀʱ]
nhl - [ⁿɫ]
p - [pʼ]
ph - [pʰ]
q - [kʼ, k̬]
s - [s]
sh - [ʃ]
t - [tʼ]
tf - [tf]
th - [tʰ]
tj - [tʃʼ]
ts - [tsʼ, tsʰ]
v - [v]
w - [w]
y - [j]
z - [z]
zh - [ʒ]^[7]

Labialised consonants

dvw - [dvʷ]
khw - [kʰʷ]
lw - [lʷ]
nkhw - [ᵑkʰʷ]
ngw - [ᵑ(g)ʷ]
sw - [sʷ]
vw - [vʷ]

Grammar

Nouns

The Swazi noun (libito) consists of two essential parts, the prefix (sicalo) and the stem (umsuka). Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages.

The following table gives an overview of Swazi noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.

Class	Singular	Plural
1/2	um(u)-^[a]	ba-, be-
1a/2a	Ø-	bo-
3/4	um(u)-^[a]	imi-
5/6	li-	ema-
7/8	s(i)-^[b]	t(i)-^[b]
9/10	iN-^[c]	tiN-^[c]
11/10	lu-, lw-	tiN-^[c]
14	bu-, b-, tj-
15	ku-
17	ku-

^ ^a ^b umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g. umuntfu (person).
^ ^a ^b s- and t- replace si- and ti- respectively before stems beginning with a vowel, e.g. sandla/tandla (hand/hands).
^ ^a ^b ^c The placeholder N in the prefixes iN- and tiN- stands for m, n or no letter at all.

Verbs

Verbs use the following affixes for the subject and the object:

Person/ Class	Prefix	Infix
1st sing.	ngi-	-ngi-
2nd sing.	u-	-wu-
1st plur.	si-	-si-
2nd plur.	ni-	-ni-
1	u-	-m(u)-
2	ba-	-ba-
3	u-	-m(u)-
4	i-	-yi-
5	li-	-li-
6	a-	-wa-
7	si-	-si-
8	ti-	-ti-
9	i-	-yi-
10	ti-	-ti-
11	lu-	-lu-
14	bu-	-bu-
15	ku-	-ku-
17	ku-	-ku-
reflexive		-ti-

Months

meaning of the Months in Swazi/Swati:

English	Swazi/Swati
January	nguBhimbidvwane
February	yiNdlovana
March	yiNdlovulenkhulu
April	nguMabasa
May	yiNkhwekhweti
June	yiNhlaba
July	nguKholwane
August	iNgci
September	iNyoni
October	iMphala
November	Lweti
December	yiNgongoni

Sample text

The following example of text is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Bonkhe bantfu batalwa bakhululekile balingana ngalokufananako ngesitfunti nangemalungelo. Baphiwe ingcondvo nekucondza kanye nanembeza ngakoke bafanele batiphatse futsi baphatse nalabanye ngemoya webuzalwane.^[8]

The Declaration reads in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Swazi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
^ ^a ^b Taljaard, P. C.; Khumalo, J. N.; Bosch, S. E. (1991). Handbook of siSwati. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
^ Corum, Claudia W. (1991). An Introduction to the Swazi (Siswati) Language. Indiana University.: Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics. pp. 2.7–2.20.
^ Ziervogel, Dirk; Mabuza, Enos John (1976). A Grammar of the Swati Language: siSwati. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
^ Bradshaw, Mary M. (2003). "Consonant-tone interaction in Siswati". 음성음운형태론연구. 9 (2): 277–294. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
^ "Swati alphabet, pronunciation, and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Siswati". Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
^ "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". wikisource.org. Retrieved 20 December 2018.

External links

Swati edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Look up Swazi in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Swazi.

PanAfrican L10n page on Swazi
Tinanatelo ne Tibongo tema Swati

Software

Project to translate Free Software into Swazi
Swazi edition of OpenOffice.org
Swazi spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla (basic)

Languages of South Africa

Pan South African Language Board
Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Community Rights
Department of Arts and Culture

Official

West Germanic

Southern Bantu

Sotho–Tswana	Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa) Southern Sotho (Sesotho) Tswana (Setswana)
Nguni	Southern Ndebele (isiNdebele) Swazi (siSwati) Xhosa (isiXhosa) Zulu (isiZulu)
Tswa–Ronga	Tsonga (Xitsonga)
Venda	Venda (Tshivenḓa)

Recognised
unofficial languages
mentioned in the
1996 constitution

Indigenous	Bhaca Khoe Khoisan Lala Lozi Nama Nhlangwini Northern Ndebele Phuthi Tuu
Foreign	German Greek Gujarati Hindi Portuguese Malay (historical) Tamil Telugu Urdu
Religious	Arabic Hebrew Sanskrit

Other

LGBT slang	Gayle IsiNgqumo
Other	Tsotsitaal and Camtho Oorlams Creole Fanagalo Pretoria Sotho Scamto SA Sign Language Angloromani Kaaps

v t e Languages of Eswatini
Official languages	English Swazi (Swati)
Non-official languages	Afrikaans Tsonga Zulu
Immigrant languages	Chewa (Nyanja) Shimaore Sotho (Sesotho)
Immigrant languages	English French Punjabi Spanish German Italian Hindi Arabic Chinese Portuguese Japanese Romani Russian Danish Dutch

v t e Languages of Mozambique
Official language	Portuguese
Indigenous languages	Barwe Chewa Chichopi Chitonga Chuwabu Dema Gitonga Kimwani Koti Kunda Lomwe Maindo Makhuwa Makonde Makwe Manyika Nathembo Ndau Ngoni Nsenga Nyungwe Phimbi Ronga Sena Shona Swahili Swati Tawara Tewe Tsonga Tswa Yao
Immigrant languages	English Punjabi Hindi
Sign languages	Mozambican Sign Language

Narrow Bantu languages (Zones N–S) (by Guthrie classification)

Zone N

N10	N11 Manda N12 Ngoni N13 Matengo N14 Mpoto N15 Tonga [N101 Ndendeule N102 Nindi N121 Ngoni of Malawi
N20	N21 Tumbuka [N201 Mwera of Mbamba Bay
N30	N31a Nyanja N31b Cewa N31c Manganja
N40	N41 Nsenga N42 Kunda N43 Nyungwe N44 Sena N45[44] Rue N46[44] Podzo [N441 Sena-Malawi

Zone P

P10	P11 Ndengereko P12 Ruihi P13 Matumbi P14 Ngindo P15 Mbunga
P20	P21 Yao P22 Mwera P23 Makonde P24 Ndonde P25 Mabiha
P30	P31 Makua P32 Lomwe P33 Ngulu P34 Cuabo [P311 Koti P312 Sakati P331 Lomwe of Malawi P341 Moniga

Zone R

R10	R11 Umbundu R12 Ndombe R13 Nyaneka R14 Khumbi [R101 Kuvale R102 Kwisi R103 Mbali
R20	R21 Kwanyama R22 Ndonga R23 Kwambi R24 Ngandyera [R211 Kafima R212 Evale R213 Mbandja R214 Mbalanhu R215 Ndongwena R216 Kwankwa R217 Dombondola R218 Esinga R241 Kwaluudhi R242 Kolonkadhi-Eunda
R30	R31 Herero [R311 North-West Herero R312 Botswana Herero
R40	R41 Yei

Zone S

S10	S11 Korekore S12 Zezuru S13a Manyika S13b Tebe S14 Karanga S15 Ndau S16 Kalanga
S20	S21 Venda
S30	S31a Tswana S31b Kgatla S31c Ngwatu S31d[311] Khalaxadi S32a Pedi S32b Lobedu S33 Sotho [S301 Phalaborwa S302 Kutswe S303 Pai S304 Pulana
S40	S41 Xhosa S42 Zulu S43 Swati S44 (Northern) Ndebele [S401 Old Mfengu S402 Bhaca S403 Hlubi S404 Phuthi S405 Nhlangwini S406 Lala S407 South Ndebele S408 Sumayela Ndebele
S50	S51 Tswa S52[53] Gwamba S53 Tsonga S54 Ronga [S511 Hlengwe
S60	S61 Copi S62 Tonga [S611 Lenge

Italics indicate extinct languages.
Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

The Guthrie classification is geographic and its groupings do not imply a relationship between the languages within them.

Narrow Bantu languages by Guthrie classification zone templates: Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones A–B); Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones C–D); Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones E–H); Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones J–M); Template:Narrow Bantu languages (Zones N–S)