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SA Language Info Wanted
I will be going on a Tauck escorted tour of South Africa in April. I'll
be visiting Cape Town, Pilgrims Rest, Sabi Sabi, Johannesburg, and Victoria Falls. When I visit a country I like to buy a foreign language phrase book and make some attempt to speak to people in their own language. When I went to Australia I even learned some "Strine" (Australian slang for their dialect). In researching SA, I learned that eleven languages are spoken there. Which one(s) would be most useful to learn a few phrases in? I saw a listing of phrases in Afrikaans and isiXhosa. The Afrikaans looked learnable (I speak a little German). The isiXhosa looked almost unpronounceable for an English speaker. BTW, why do the names of SA native languages begin with a lower case letter? I'm not ridiculing them; I'm just curious. |
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Odysseus wrote:
BTW, why do the names of SA native languages begin with a lower case letter? I'm not ridiculing them; I'm just curious. As I recall colonialism, we brought the capital letters with us. I'm not ridiculing you; I'm just reminding all of us why some things seem unusual that really aren't. |
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Odysseus wrote:
BTW, why do the names of SA native languages begin with a lower case letter? I'm not ridiculing them; I'm just curious. As I recall colonialism, we brought the capital letters with us. I'm not ridiculing you; I'm just reminding all of us why some things seem unusual that really aren't. |
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#6
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Afrikaans is the most widely spoken language in South Africa (Now I
lean back and wait for the flames...) Many people don't realize that Afrikaans is understood (although sometimes only poorly) by the majority of South Africans. While Zulu and Xhosa speakers are numerically in the majority, the two languages are not generally understood throughout the country. Learning some phrases in Afrikaans might be advantageous, and somewhat appreciated by some of us locals ;-) If you speak German, you will very little trouble learning a lot of Afrikaans. I'd also learn simple phrases in isiZulu and isiXhosa such as "Thank you", "good morning" etc. One thing I must mention is that you should be aware that Afrikaans is widely considered to be the language of the oppressor, and is the most enduring (and ubiquitous) relic of apartheid. You could anger people if you used Afrikaans in an inapropriate manner. (For example, if you instructed an English speaking person in Afrikaans, or spoke Afrikaans instead of English to a Zulu/English speaker in kwaZulu Natal.) I'm afraid I can't authoritatively answer your question about the lower case spelling of languages, but as far as I understand the situation, the tribal affilliation is capitalised (Zulu, Xhosa etc) because it is important. The language of the tribe, or the geographical location of the tribe etc. (isiZulu, kwaZulu) is of less importance, and therefore no capitalised. However, AFAIK the languages of the Sotho and Tswana people speak Sesotho and Setswana, both with capital letters. Marc On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:18:21 GMT, Odysseus wrote: I will be going on a Tauck escorted tour of South Africa in April. I'll be visiting Cape Town, Pilgrims Rest, Sabi Sabi, Johannesburg, and Victoria Falls. When I visit a country I like to buy a foreign language phrase book and make some attempt to speak to people in their own language. When I went to Australia I even learned some "Strine" (Australian slang for their dialect). In researching SA, I learned that eleven languages are spoken there. Which one(s) would be most useful to learn a few phrases in? I saw a listing of phrases in Afrikaans and isiXhosa. The Afrikaans looked learnable (I speak a little German). The isiXhosa looked almost unpronounceable for an English speaker. BTW, why do the names of SA native languages begin with a lower case letter? I'm not ridiculing them; I'm just curious. |
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In researching SA, I learned that eleven languages are spoken there. Which
one(s) would be most useful to learn a few phrases in? English should be no problem in tourist-crowded areas, but don't mind if you are looked at as nothing more but a tourist then. The Coloured people from the Cape will be glad to hear you use their mother tongue, Afrikaans. Some Zulu phrases could be handy in Johannesburg, though English would do it. The native language spoken in the eastern Transvaal region is AFAIK rather Tsonga than Zulu or Xhosa. BTW, why do the names of SA native languages begin with a lower case letter? I'm not ridiculing them; I'm just curious. These languages use a "class" system to classify words, and the classes and numbers within that classes are identified by prefixes. The prefix is always written in lower case, while proper names are written upper case, as in most other languages. So "isi" is just the singular prefix for the class that is used for language names, and "Zulu" the actual word stem which is written uppercase because it is a proper name. Hope this helps somewhat. Sinisterius |
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English should be no problem in tourist-crowded areas, but don't mind if you
are looked at as nothing more but a tourist then. The Coloured people from the Cape will be glad to hear you use their mother tongue, Afrikaans. Some Zulu phrases could be handy in Johannesburg, though English would do it. The native language spoken in the eastern Transvaal region is AFAIK rather Tsonga than Zulu or Xhosa. Thank you to everybody who helped. I will go to my local library and get the Afrikaans tapes. I would like to buy a small pocket Afrikaans phrase book but cannot find one even at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Maybe I can find one in SA. These languages use a "class" system to classify words, and the classes and numbers within that classes are identified by prefixes. The prefix is always written in lower case, while proper names are written upper case, as in most other languages. So "isi" is just the singular prefix for the class that is used for language names, and "Zulu" the actual word stem which is written uppercase because it is a proper name. Hope this helps somewhat. I think I understand now. It's like writing the-language-of-the-French. |
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