Sotho of the South

Phonology

• distinct It has nine vowels, furnace off which form 2 groups off 2 vowels which sometimes behave ace leaves off the same Phoneme, and other times don' T.
• The spoken language included/understood off 35 consonants, including 2 semi-vowels, 3 click consonants, and 4 non-homogenous doubled articulating.
• All words either end in has vowel gold the nasal hedge mustard ng .
• All nouns, save one, begin with has consonant, the exception being " isao" - " next year".

Nasal Nasalisation/permutation

Nasalisation has off phonetic phenomenon which occurs under some circumstances (most notably with personal and reflexive verbs) where the beginning consonant has Word is transformed into another under the influence off has (usually invisible) nasal consonant gold has high palatal (the vowel I - when forming reflexive verbs). So:

• L becomes T, nasal N
• HS becomes tjh, nasal N
• S becomes tš, nasal N
• F becomes pH, nasal m
• B becomes p, nasal m
• R becomes HT, nasal N
• H becomes KH, nasal ng
• J becomes tj, nasal ny
• hl becomes tlh, nasal N, except for adjectival
• vowels with No consonant and semi-vowels (glottal stops) become k+the (semi) vowel
• nasals become doubled, except for reflexive verbs

Nasal The influencing consonant only appears one monosyllabalic words and exchanges according to what the new consonant is.
Example off the derivation off has popular South African name:

1. "fa" has verb meaning " give"
2. to convert it to has noun meaning " the act off giving" however " the thing given" one regularly converts the final - the verb to year has off - O (except for " tjho" , all supplements, non-auxiliary verbs in Sesotho end in year a)
3. since the verb starts with year F - and converting has verb to has noun requires nasal permutation - we convert the F into pH
4. goal now we cuts has off monosyllabalic Word, thus we add the nasal consonant in the same approximate position ace the new consonant - namely m - and we add it to the face our Word.

• since there is No other sound pronounced in the same place ace the glottal stop (the sound before has consonant-less vowel), K is used because it' S the closest (furthest back) consonant which was not already in uses (like KH)
• R used to Be pronounced with the tip off the tongue, in the same position ace HT, and when this trilling R was gradually replaced by the Parisian variety, this phonetical rule stood ace has the grammatical main thing.

Nasal homogeneity

Nasals cuts has very special off places in the Sotho group languages. Nasal homogeneity consists off 2 points:

1. When has consonant is preceded by has (visible but invisible) nasal it will undergo nasal permutation, yew it supports it.
2. When has nasal is immediately followed by another consonant with No vowel betwixt them, the nasal will changes to has nasal in the same approximate position ace the following consonant, after the consonant has undergone nasal permutation. Yew the consonant is already has nasal then the previous nasal will simply changes to the same.

general The bantu absolute pronouns for " I" and " you" are " mi" and " we" , respectively. Bantu languages has general aversion towards monosyllabalic words and uses different ways off making absolute pronouns disyllabalic:

• Kiswahili use doubling - " mimi" and " wewe"
• Shona use has prefix - " imi" and " iwe"
• IsiZulu use has suffix - " mina" and " wena"

Doubled articulating

In addition to the above, the following " double consonants" also appear either:

• in old words and Ideophone S, gold

• ace transformed forms off many off the above consonants (particularly At the end off passivates verbs.)

Each off thesis has more preferred (and easier to pronounce) alternate:

• pj - sounds like has p and has HS At the same time, alternate " tj"
• psh - year aspirated pj (yes, year aspirated " sh" sound), alternate " tjh"
• bj - simultaneous B and J, alternate " j"
• fsh - aspirated F and HS, alternate " sh"

Tons

Like most other Bantu languages, Sesotho has Tonal language, employing 2 tons, high - and low _, which edge At least one off the following purposes:

Characteristic thunders

Each supplements Sesotho Word has inherent year thunders for its syllables, which, although not essential to forming correct speech, will betray has foreign accent:

motho _ _ human being
ntja _ - dog
mosotho _ - _ has Sesotho speaking person
lerata _ _ - noise

Distinguishing/semantic thunders

Often, has few words may exact Be composed off the same syllables/phonemes, yet mean different things depending one what tonal pattern is used:

Ho aka _ - - to kiss
Ho aka _ _ _ to binds to

joang _ - fatty
joang - _ how?

Ho tena - - to wear
Ho tena _ _ to annoy/disgust

Grammatical thunders

It regularly occurs that 2 otherwise similar sounding sentences may cuts 2 very different meanings mainly due to has difference in ton off one gold more words gold concords.

Ke ngoana oa hao - _ _ - _ I amndt your child
Ke ngoana oa hao - _ _ - _ He/she/it is your child

O mobe _ - You are ugly
O mobe _ - He/she is ugly

Ke batlana the bona _ _ - _ - _ _ I amndt looking for them (people)
Ke batlana the bona - _ - _ _ _ _ Ace I was looking for them (people)

Note that when grammatical thunders is used the relative ton off the significant Word the influences pitch off the rest off the sentence, although the tons off other words remain intact.


The ton off has syllable is carried by the vowel, but the nasal, nasal yew the is syllabalic. Syllabalic L (and, in Sesotho its Leboa and Setswana, syllabalic R ) never curry any kind off independent ton, to their " tone" being the same ace one off the syllables around it. With classic example off has nasal carrying has nasal:

To form has localative from has noun (has localative being has place Word, renderings meanins such ace " in the house"), one off the possible procedures involves simply suffixing year ng (with has low ton). To form the localative meaning "one the grass" you suffix ng to the Word joang _ -, giving joanng _ - _ (pronounced " djwa-ng-ng"), with the 2 last nasal syllables cuts contrasting tones.

The Sesotho Word for mother/missus/madam is 'me _ -, goal has child would cal to their own mother 'me - _, using it ace has first bow net. Also, Ntate _ - _ means to father/mister/sir, while Ntate - - might Be used by has small child to say " dad".

Grammar

Noun prefix system

Sesotho has Tonal language and, like all other Bantu Languages is distinguished by its Prefix concordial system and the fact that all words either end in has vowel gold in has Nasal consonant ( N , ng , ny , but m ).

Also, like all other Bantu languages, it use has set off " Noun class es" and each noun in Sesotho belongs to one off the classes. The noun classes and to their respective prefixes in Sesotho are ace follows:

Noun classes 11 to 13 C not occur in Sesotho, goal C occur in other Bantu languages, such ace IsiZulu.

Each BASIC noun in Sesotho has inherent year prefix (even yew that prefix is " the no one prefix") - yew you edge remember has Word off by heart, and you know the full list off prefixes, you edge (perhaps 90% off the time) given the class off that particular Word. Knowing the class, first, allows to know what the plural off the Word is (for singular words), eg:

" sefate" (tree) has prefix " -" , which is off class 7, therefore its plural must Be " lifate"

" lemati" (door) has prefix " le-" , which is class 5, so its plural is " mamati"

Motsoalle (friend), in class 1, has plural year irregular in class 4 - " metsoalle". Also, " morena" (king), has plural in class 6. Many class 1 words cuts has tendency off misbehaving, goal we know that they belong to class 1 because off to their concords. Quite has substantial number off class 1 words cuts has to their plural in class 6.

Notes:

1. means that nasalisation will occur to the following consonant.
2. Many off class 5 ' S words like from the original Bantu " read-" class, and its plural was " Li-" , which is why 6 has 2 forms. However, the " Li-" plural does not apply to all 5 words, and when it does the meaning might Be changed slightly (" maleme" - tongues, " liteme" - flattery). For example, many Batswana still say " lorato" for Sesotho " lerato" (coils), ace this class still exists in the language. When in doubt, don' T uses the " Li-" form.

Numbers

Bantu languages uses has Quinary counting system with 6 BASIC numbers, the other 4 being miscellaneous.
Here' S.A. comparison between nap Bantu languages:

Notes:

• Aces you will note, the 6 BASIC numbers are 1 to 5 and 10.
• In most Bantu languages 1 to 5 are adjectival (in many they are enumeratives), and 10 has noun. All the other numbers are nouns derived from verbs (eg. 7 is derived from " to point" in all 3 above languages).
• The above are the noun (counting) forms, derived from the adjectivial forms (for 1 to 5), in particular, the Sesotho Language Group forms are nasally permuted.
• In Sesotho, " 'ngoe" has off nasally permutated form the adjectival " - ng" used only for class 9 nouns. The uses off the number 1 in different Sesotho is than in the other SLG languages, because the Sesotho " - ng" is year Enumerative which behaves sometimes like year adjectival and edge therefore become has noun.
• However, the Sesotho and Sesotho its Leboa words for " one" C not follow the general Bantu norm. " Noši" (which might Be related to the Kiswahili " mosi") is used in Sesotho its Leboa for the adjectival " one.

Grammar example

For example:

Mo ja monna ha has Mo qete - has man-eater never finishes him (old Sesotho saying) Ba ja monna ha Ba Mo qete - Man-eaters never finish him. Mo ja banna ha has Ba qete - has men-eater never finishes them. Ba ja banna ha Ba Ba qete - Men-eaters never finish them. ^_________^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | | | | | verb | | | object concord | | subject concord | makes vb. - ve Compound noun (class prefix for person/s, verb - eat, subject)

There different are 7 agreement types for each class (subject, object, adjectival, relative, enumerative, possessive, pronominal).

The words/prefixes used to indicate thesis concords might vary slightly according to sentence tense/mood. The " auxiliary concord" used one Sesotho.web.za is only has off past tense form the subject concord which has changed due to year old " - a-" between the concord and the verb (note how " di" +" a" became " tsa" - this is by far the most common phonetic changes in LSG, and the changes form " ts" to " l" however " d" is the second most common).

Since, for example, all except one off class 2 ' S concords are " ba" (the exception being " bo-" ace in " bana bana bona" " thesis very same children"), it is not too difficult to make alliterative sentences like:

Bana bao Ba batle Ba kopane the batsoali Ba bona 'me batsoali Ba bona Ba Ba shapa. - Meaning: (nonsensical)

Changing " batsoali" to " metsoalle" (friends) renders:

Bana bao Ba batle Ba kopane the ME tsoalle EA bona 'me ME tsoalle EA bona EA Ba shapa.

Changing bana to "lintho" , we get:

LI ntho TSE O TSE NR tle LI kopane the metsoalle ea TS ona 'me metsoalle ea TS ona ea LI shapa.

See too

External bonds

• Sesotho.web.za

• Weblog in sesotho

References