Northern Sotho language

The Northern Sotho written language was based largely on the Sepedi dialect. Missionaries studied this dialect the most closely and first developed the orthography in 1860 by Alexander Merensky, Grutzner and Gerlachshoop.[5] 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 the 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.

Before Moshoeshoe and his Basotho nation of Lesotho, the Basotho people were there. Moshoeshoe didn't found Basotho, but he was born in a Sotho-speaking nation. Moshoeshoe tried to put together some of the vulnerable and scattered Sotho clans from the present day Free State and Lesotho but his kingdom was later destroyed by the Boers who warred with him over the land in his kingdom in the Senekal Wars and Seqiti Wars that saw him defeated and losing his land in the present day Free State to the Boers. The British gave him a small land and called it Basutoland, which later became Lesotho. Other Sotho-speaking people who were never part of Moshoeshoe kingdom founded what is now KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo; these were incorporated into what became part of the present-day South Africa.

There were several Sotho clans before Mokhachane of another Basotho clan of the Bamokoteli of Bakwena fathered him. Moshoeshoe didn't unite all the Sotho-speaking people but just a handful of smaller and vulnerable families of Basothos under his Bakwena clan leadership during the Shaka wars of difaqane after other Basothos have migrated to different directions from their cradle in Ntswanatsatsi. Moshoeshoe, his Bakwena clan, and the rest of Basotho clans originate from Ntswanatsatsi in present-day South Africa. Families moved away from each other in Ntswanatsatsi. The Sotho-speaking people started clans using a totem as a symbol of their line (like a crocodile, which Moshoshoe's ancestors used), and different families moved to different directions within pre-colonial South Africa under different leadership. Under different leadership, some settled in the Western side, present-day North West Province, while others spread around Ntswanatsatsi to the present-day Free State and Lesotho; others to present-day Botswana others to present-day Zambia, others moved to the present-day Gauteng in South Africa, and they became patriarchs of the founding fathers of Bakgatla, which also gave birth to Northern Sotho, which, in turn, gave birth to different Northern clans with their dialects like BaPedi, Batlokwa, Babirwa, etc. and others ended up in intermarrying with other tribes. They moved next to and mingled with like Swatis, Vendas, Tsongas and Ngunis, and, in some places, these Northern Basotho' Sotho was diluted by the influence of these tribe they found in the area they moved into and lived alongside. This happened to a Northern Basotho subgroup who ended up becoming Mapulana with their Sesotho influenced by Swati. Also, some of the Northern Basotho have a common denominator of "apa" (meaning talk) with Vendas, i.e. Balovedu, BaGubu, and Babirwa of Bobirwa in the Southern part of Botswana near the Zimbabwean border. All these Northern Sotho clans had chief leaders, but did not have a paramount king and were never part of the Pedi kingdom.

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 have less in common with each other than they have with Setswana.[6]

Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardised dialect, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects.

Most Khelobedu speakers only learn to speak Sepedi at school, with Sepedi taught as a second or third language, similar to English or Afrikaans. Khelobedu is a written language. Khilovedu dictionary, Thalusamandwi ya KhiLovedu, was published in 2018 by Kgothatso Seshayi. The first KhiLovedu novel, Lekhekhesha, was published in 2018 by Eliya Monyela. The first KhiLovedu poetry book, Zwireto Zwa Khelobedu, was published and launched in 2020 by KhiLovedu poet Makgwekgwe Waa-Mampeule. As of October 2021 a translation of the Christian Bible is being undertaken by Valodagoma Society, a BaLobedu think tank, and PANSALB (Pan South African Languages Board).

The monarch associated with this language community is Queen Modjadji (also known as the Rain Queen). 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 (also sePulane) exists in unwritten form and forms part of the standard Northern Sotho. Sepulana is spoken in Bushbuckridge area by the MaPulana people.

Northern Sotho is also spoken by the Mohlala people.

Sepedi is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter š is used to represent the sound [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.[7]

Some examples of Sepedi words and phrases:

• Pedi people
• Lebowa
• Sekhukhuneland

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northern Sotho language.

Northern Sotho edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northern Sotho language". World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Northern Sotho language
• Online Northern Sotho – English dictionary
• Online Northern Sotho explanatory dictionary
• Pan South African Language Board
• Audio files in Pedi at Wikimedia Commons