Siswati – Swazi in South Africa
Written by Isabel Harmse Swati, Sewati, Swazi or siSwati are all names for the same language, which is part of the Nguni group. What can be termed standard Siswati has…
The Fascinating Setswana Language
Written by Isabel Harmse Setswana is an African language spoken in South Africa, Botswana, and parts of Namibia. It is the national language of Botswana, and one of the eleven…
You say Northern Sotho, I say Sepedi
Written by Isabel Harmse Also known as Northern Sotho or “Sesotho sa Laboa”, Sepedi is spoken by more than 4.2 million people and is proudly one of the official languages in South Africa. Generally,…
IsiNdebele – Another Nguni Language
Written by Isabel Harmse The isiNdebele language, of which there are variations, is part of the Nguni language group. IsiNdebele is one of the 11 official languages recognized by the…
Southern Sotho in Southern Africa
Written by Isabel Harmse Sesotho, or Southern Sotho, is a Bantu language that originated in the Bantu-Nguni era, with dialects originating from Sotho, Pedi and Tswana. However, these are all…
isiXhosa: Language of the “Red Blanket People”
Written by Isabel Harmse The Xhosa, also often called the "Red Blanket People", are of Nguni stock, like the Zulu. The first group of early Nguni immigrants to migrate to…
isiZulu
The Most Spoken Language in South Africa Written by Isabel Harmse Zulu, also referred to as isiZulu, is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa according to StatSA.…
Afrikaans in South Africa
Written by Isabel Harmse Afrikaans, with many similarities to Dutch, is a West Germanic language. This makes it easy to assume that its path from the Netherlands to becoming one…
The Origin of Xitsonga as language in South Africa
Written by Isabel Harmse For many South Africans, myself included, the importance of heritage month suddenly came back into the spotlight a couple of years ago (2005, to be exact)…
Hangeul: an alphabet for the Korean people
The invention of the Korean alphabet, known as Hangeul (in South Korea) or Chosun-gul (North Korea), is a source of pride for many Koreans. In fact, in 2013, after years…