| Northern Sotho | |
| Nativename: | Pedi; Sepedi; Northern Sotho: Sesotho sa Leboa |
| States: | South Africa |
| Region: | Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga |
| Speakers: | million |
| Date: | 2022 Census |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Speakers2: | 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)[1] |
| Familycolor: | Niger-Congo |
| Fam2: | Atlantic–Congo |
| Fam3: | Volta-Congo |
| Fam4: | Benue–Congo |
| Fam5: | Bantoid |
| Fam6: | Southern Bantoid |
| Fam7: | Bantu |
| Fam8: | Southern Bantu |
| Fam9: | Sotho–Tswana |
| Agency: | Pan South African Language Board |
| Script: | Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko |
| Sign: | Signed Northern Sotho |
| Iso2: | nso |
| Lc1: | nso |
| Ld1: | Pedi, Northern Sotho, Sepedi |
| Lc2: | brl |
| Ld2: | Birwa |
| Lc3: | two |
| Ld3: | Tswapong |
| Guthrie: | S.32,301–304 |
| Glotto: | nort3233 |
| Lingua: | 99-AUT-ed |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Ethnicity: | Pedi Lobedu Pulana Tlôkwa |
| Map: | South Africa Northern Sotho speakers proportion map.svg |
| Standards: | Pedi |
| Map2: | South Africa Northern Sotho speakers density map.svg |
| Mapcaption: | Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home. |
| Mapcaption2: | Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho home-language speakers |
| Ancestor: | Tswaniac |
| Ancestor2: | Hurutshe |
| Ancestor3: | Kgatla |
| People: | Bapedi |
| Person: | Mopedi |
| Language: | Sepedi |
| Root: | Pedi |
Sepedi is one of South Africa’s twelve official languages and belongs to the Bantu language family, specifically the Sotho-Tswana group.[2] The language is spoken mainly in Limpopo Province, and to a lesser extent in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West.[3] [4]
Sepedi refers to the dialect spoken by the Pedi people. Northern Sotho is the umbrella term for a group of related dialects. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but technically Sepedi is one dialect of Northern Sotho.
As of the 2022 South African Census, approximately 6.2 million people, or 10.0% of the national population, speak Sepedi as their first language. Sepedi ranks as the fifth most spoken first language.
According to Chapter 1, Section 6 of the South African Constitution, Sepedi is one of South Africa's 12 official languages.[5] There has been significant debate about whether Northern Sotho should be used instead of Pedi.[6] The English version of the South African Constitution lists Sepedi as an official language, while the Sepedi or Northern Sotho version of the Constitution of South Africa lists Sesotho sa Leboa as an official South African language.[7]
South Africa's official language policy refers to the twelve official languages of South Africa (i.e., Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English, and South African Sign Language (SASL)), as specified in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.[8]
The Northern Sotho written language was based largely on the Sepedi dialect. German missionaries from the Berlin Missionary Society studied this dialect the most closely and first developed the orthography in 1860, with notable contributions from Alexander Merensky, Carl Knothe,[9] Grützner, and Gerlachshoop.[10] This subsequently provided a common writing system for 20 or more varieties of the Sotho-Tswana languages spoken in the former Transvaal, and also helped lead to "Sepedi" being used as the umbrella term for the entire language family. However, there are objections to this synecdoche by other Northern Sotho dialect speakers, such as speakers of Modjadji's Lobedu dialect.
Northern Sotho can be subdivided into Highveld-Sotho, which consists of comparatively recent immigrants mostly from the west and southwest parts of South Africa, and Lowveld-Sotho, which consists of a combination of immigrants from the north of South Africa and Sotho inhabitants of longer standing. Like other Sotho-Tswana people, their languages are named after totemic animals and, sometimes, by alternating or combining these with the names of famous chiefs.
The group consists of the following dialects:
The group consists of Lobedu, Narene, Phalaborwa (Malatji), Mogoboya, Kone, Kgaga, Pulana, Pai, Ramafalo, Mohale and Kutswe.
Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family. Although Northern Sotho shares the name Sotho with Southern Sotho, the two groups also have a great deal in common with their sister language Setswana.[11] Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardized variety, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects. Northern Sotho is also spoken by the Mohlala people and Malata People.
Most Khelobedu speakers only learn to speak Sepedi at school, such that Sepedi is only their second or third language. Khelobedu is a written language. Lobedu is spoken by a majority of people in the Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba, and BaPhalaborwa municipalities, and a minority in Greater Giyani municipality, as well as in the Limpopo Province and Tembisa township in Gauteng. Its speakers are known as the Balobedu.
Sepulana exists in unwritten form and forms part of the standard Northern Sotho. Sepulana is spoken in Bushbuckridge area by the MaPulana people.
Sepedi is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter š is used to represent the sound [{{IPA|ʃ}}] ("sh" is used in the trigraph "tsh" to represent an aspirated ts sound). The circumflex accent can be added to the letters e and o to distinguish their different sounds, but it is mostly used in language reference books. Some word prefixes, especially in verbs, are written separately from the stem.[12]
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ | |
| Close-mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /o/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /a/ | ||
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lateral | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Plosive | ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Affricate | ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Other consonant sounds include fricative-combinations pronounced as //pʃʼ pʃʰ fʃ βʒ// and pronounced as //psʼ psʰ fs//.
Within nasal consonant compounds, the first nasal consonant sound is recognized as syllabic. Words such as nthuše "help me", are pronounced as pronounced as /[n̩tʰuʃe]/. /n/ can also be pronounced as pronounced as //ŋ// following a velar consonant.[13]
Urban varieties of Northern Sotho, such as Pretoria Sotho (actually a derivative of Tswana), have acquired clicks in an ongoing process of such sounds spreading from Nguni languages.[14]
Like most other Niger–Congo languages, Sesotho is a tonal language, spoken with two basic tones, high (H) and low (L).
Some examples of Northern Sotho words and phrases:
| English | Northern Sotho | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Kamogelo (noun) / Amogela (verb) | |
| Good day | Dumela (singular) / Dumelang (plural) / Thobela and Re a lotšha (to elders) | |
| How are you? | O kae? (singular) Le kae? (plural, also used for elders) | |
| I am fine | Ke gona.Ke tsogile(singular). Re tsogile(plural). | |
| I am fine too, thank you | Le nna ke gona, ke a leboga. | |
| Thank you | Ke a leboga (I thank you) / Re a leboga (we thank you) | |
| Good luck | Mahlatse | |
| Have a safe journey | O be le leeto le le bolokegilego | |
| Good bye! | Šala gabotse (singular)/ Šalang gabotse (plural, also used for elders)(keep well) / Sepela gabotse(singular)/Sepelang gabotse (plural, also used for elders)(go well) | |
| I am looking for a job | Ke nyaka mošomô | |
| No smoking | Ga go kgogwe (/folwe) | |
| No entrance | Ga go tsenwe | |
| Beware of the steps! | Hlokomela disetepese!/ditepisi | |
| Beware! | Hlokomela! | |
| Congratulations on your birthday | Mahlatse letšatšing la gago la matswalo | |
| Seasons greetings | Ditumedišo tša Sehla sa Maikhutšo | |
| Merry Christmas | Mahlogonolo a Keresemose | |
| Merry Christmas and Happy New Year | Mahlogonolo a Keresemose le ngwaga wo moswa wo monate | |
| Expression | Gontsha sa mafahleng | |
| yes | ee/eya/eye | |
| no | aowa | |
| please | hle | |
| thank you | ke a leboga | |
| help | thušang/thušo | |
| danger/accident | kotsi | |
| emergency | tšhoganetšo | |
| excuse me | ntshwarele | |
| I am sorry | Ke maswabi | |
| I love you | Ke a go rata | |
| Questions / sentences | Dipotšišo / mafoko | |
| Do you accept (money/credit cards/traveler's cheques)? | O amogela (singular) / Leamogela (tshelete/.../...)? | |
| How much is this? | Ke bokae e? | |
| I want ... | Ke nyaka... | |
| What are you doing? | O dira eng? | |
| What is the time? | Ke nako mang? | |
| Where are you going? | O ya kae? | |
| Numbers | Dinomoro | |
| 1 | tee | |
| 2 | pedi | |
| 3 | tharo | |
| 4 | nne | |
| 5 | hlano | |
| 6 | tshela | |
| 7 | šupa | |
| 8 | seswai | |
| 9 | senyane | |
| 10 | lesome | |
| 11 | lesometee | |
| 12 | lesomepedi | |
| 13 | lesometharo | |
| 14 | lesomenne | |
| 15 | lesomehlano | |
| 20 | masomepedi | |
| 21 | masomepedi-tee | |
| 22 | masomepedi-pedi | |
| 50 | masomehlano | |
| 100 | lekgolo | |
| 1000 | sekete | |
| Days of the week | Matšatši a beke | |
| Sunday | Lamorena | |
| Monday | Mošupologo | |
| Tuesday | Labobedi | |
| Wednesday | Laboraro | |
| Thursday | Labone | |
| Friday | Labohlano | |
| Saturday | Mokibelo | |
| Months of the year | Dikgwedi tša ngwaga | |
| January | Pherekgong | |
| February | Dibokwane | |
| March | Hlakola | |
| April | Moranang | |
| May | Mopitlo | |
| June | Ngwatobošego / Phupu | |
| July | Mosegamanye | |
| August | Phato | |
| September | Lewedi | |
| October | Diphalane | |
| November | Dibatsela | |
| December | Manthole | |
| Computers and Internet terms | Didirishwa tsa khomphutha le Inthanete | |
| computer | sebaledi / khomphutara | |
| imeile | ||
| e-mail address | aterese ya imeile | |
| Internet | Inthanete | |
| Internet café | khefi ya Inthanete | |
| Website | weposaete | |
| Website address | aterese ya weposaete | |
| Rain | Pula | |
| To understand | Go kwešiša | |
| Reed pipes | Dinaka | |
| Drums | Meropa | |
| Horn | Lenaka | |
| Colours | Mebala | |
| Red/orange | Hubedu/Khubedu | |
| Brown | Sotho | |
| Green | Talamorogo | |
| Blue | Talalerata | |
| Black | Ntsho | |
| White | šweu | |
| Yellow | Serolwana | |
| Gold | Gauta | |
| Grey | Pududu | |
| Pale | Sehla or Tshehla | |
| Silver | Silifere |
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
