Xhosa language

Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by 7.6 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet. Henry Hare Dugmore helped translate the entire Bible in Xhosa language. Xhosa has ten vowels.

Xhosa
isiXhosa
Native toSouth Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho
RegionEastern Cape, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Free State
EthnicityXhosa people
Native speakers
8.2 million (2011 census)[1]
11 million L2 speakers (2002)[2]
Niger–Congo
Latin (Xhosa alphabet)
Xhosa Braille
Signed Xhosa[3]
Official status
Official language in
 South Africa
 Zimbabwe
Language codes
ISO 639-1xh
ISO 639-2xho
ISO 639-3xho
Glottologxhos1239
Guthrie code
S.41[4]
Linguasphere99-AUT-fa incl.
varieties 99-AUT-faa
to 99-AUT-faj +
99-AUT-fb (isiHlubi)
Proportion of the South African population that speaks Xhosa at home
  0–20%
  20–40%
  40–60%
  60–80%
  80–100%

Xhosa is well known for its set of three major clicks.

References
Xhosa edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  1. Xhosa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78
  3. Aarons & Reynolds, 2003, "South African Sign Language", in Monaghan, ed., Many Ways to be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities
  4. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
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