- Official language in
- South Africa
- Script
- Latin
- Speakers
- 4.6M (2011)
Where it's spoken
Sepedi is one of the official languages of South Africa. In the national census, the province of Limpopo is where just over half of the people were reported to speak Sepedi as a first language. The language is also called Northern Sotho, and it belongs to the Sotho group together with Southern Sotho and Setswana.
Sources
- South African Government, "South Africa's people" (official languages) — List of South Africa's official languages
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (as amended, 2012 revision) — Section 6(1)
- Statistics South Africa (2012). "Census 2011 Census in Brief." Report No. 03-01-41 — Table 2.5 (Sepedi row, national "SA" column total) and the summary bullets under it
- Peace Corps South Africa (n.d.). "An Introduction to Sepedi Language" (language lessons) — Introduction (Sotho group, noun classes and concords); Lessons 1, 10, 11 and 13
Script & pronunciation
The first writers of Sepedi used the Roman alphabet as the basis for its spelling, supplementing it with Greek letters or a variety of diacritics where the Roman symbols were not enough. The Peace Corps lessons use the letter š, an s with a cap, as part of the spelling, and it is written together with other letters: a Peace Corps lesson gives thuša ("help"), tšhaba ("run away") and letšatši ("day" or "sun") as examples, and describes tš and tšh as two separate sounds. This app's cards keep the š as it is: the card for "Goodbye (to the person staying)" is Šala gabotse, and the card for "I want to withdraw money from the ATM" has tšhelete ("money") in Ke nyaka go ntšha tšhelete go ATM. The cards show only the ordinary spelling, with no separate romanization line.
Sources
- Esterhuyse, C.J. and Groenewald, P.S. (1999). "Geskiedenis van die Sepediskryfwyse." Journal for Language Teaching 33(4), 316-330 — p.317, on the Roman alphabet as the basis of Sepedi spelling
- Peace Corps South Africa (n.d.). "An Introduction to Sepedi Language" (language lessons) — Introduction (Sotho group, noun classes and concords); Lessons 1, 10, 11 and 13
Grammar essentials
Sepedi is written disjunctively. In a study comparing it with isiZulu, a Northern Sotho sentence such as ke a ba rata ("I like them") is written as separate words, where the isiZulu equivalent ngiyabathanda is a single word, and the authors say that the small elements of one verb are written as separate entries in Northern Sotho. The same habit is visible in this app: the card for "Thank you" is written Ke a leboga, as three words.
Peace Corps lessons say that the structure of the Sotho languages is based on a system of noun classes and a system of concords. They give the present tense as Ke a bala ("I am reading"), and they note that the a stays the same for every person. A negative is made with ga: Ga ke nyake means "I do not want", and the lessons note that the last letter of the verb, usually a, changes to e in this negative present. The card for "I don't understand" starts with the same word, Ga ke kwešiše. Wanting something is Ke nyaka ("I want"), as in the card Ke nyaka go ya musiamong ("I want to visit the museum").
Sources
- Taljard, E. and Bosch, S.E. (2006). "A Comparison of Approaches to Word Class Tagging: Disjunctively vs. Conjunctively Written Bantu Languages." Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(4), 428-442 — Table 4 (ke a ba rata / ngiyabathanda) and the discussion of disjunctive writing
- Peace Corps South Africa (n.d.). "An Introduction to Sepedi Language" (language lessons) — Introduction (Sotho group, noun classes and concords); Lessons 1, 10, 11 and 13
Politeness & etiquette
A university course on Northern Sotho says that the singular greeting Dumêla is nowadays regarded as too commanding and impolite, and that the plural Dumêlang is preferred even when one person is addressed. The same course says that Dumêlang can be used at any time of the day or night, and that it is considered ill-mannered not to greet either a friend or a stranger in passing. This app's card Dumelang is glossed "Hello (to several people or one elder)", and its card Thobela is glossed as being said to one person.
The question Le kae? ("How are you?") is described in the course as actually a plural form that inquires about the person and the family, and as an indication of respect. The reply Re gona is explained there as "We are here", meaning "We are fine". This app has both as cards. For requests, the app's card Ka kgopelo ("Please") says in its usage note that the softener hle is added in casual requests, as in the card Ema, hle ("Please wait").
Sources
- University of South Africa. "Learn online Northern Sotho", Theme 1: Greetings and Courtesies — Dumêla / Dumêlang, Le kae?, Re gôna