Swati language - Citizendia

Swati siSwati
Spoken in:	Swaziland South Africa Lesotho Mozambique
Total speakers:	1,706,924 (Ethnologue)
Language family:	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Narrow Bantu Central S group Nguni (S. The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country located in Southern Africa centred at approximately 26o49'S 31o38'E The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Lesotho (lɪˈsuːtuː) officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a Landlocked country and Enclave — entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Moçambique or República de Moçambique, ʁɛ'publikɐ d musɐ̃'bik is a country in southeastern Africa List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number In the classification of African languages, Atlantic-Congo constitutes the core of the Niger-Congo family, with the Noun class systems stereotypical In the classification of African languages Volta-Congo is a hypothetical major branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family both in terms of sheer number of languages of which 880 are known (per Ethnologue In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum In the classification of African languages, Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid is one of the two branches of the Bantoid subfamily of the Niger-Congo In the classification of African languages, Narrow Bantu is a term commonly used to designate the branch of Niger-Congo containing the numerous Bantu languages 40) Swati
Official status
Official language in:	Swaziland South Africa
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`ss`
ISO 639-2:	`ssw`
ISO 639-3:	`ssw`

Swati (siSwati in the language itself; isiSwazi in Zulu) is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa. The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country located in Southern Africa centred at approximately 26o49'S 31o38'E The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country located in Southern Africa centred at approximately 26o49'S 31o38'E The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 1. 5 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools. Swati is an official language of Swaziland, (along with English), and is also one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. The Kingdom of Swaziland is a country located in Southern Africa centred at approximately 26o49'S 31o38'E English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa

Although often referred to as Swazi, this is the form of the noun stem indicating the language or its speakers taken from Zulu, which many Swati-speakers also speak. Zulu (called isiZulu in Zulu is a Language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers the vast majority (over 95% of whom live in South Swati is most closely related to Phuthi (the other larger 'Tekela' Nguni language), spoken in southern Lesotho and the northern Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Phuthi ( Síphùthì)is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho and areas in South Africa adjacent to the same border Nguni languages are mostly spoken by Nguni people, which are group of clans and nations living in south-east Africa Lesotho (lɪˈsuːtuː) officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a Landlocked country and Enclave — entirely surrounded by the Republic of South The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Swati is also closely related to the 'Zunda' Nguni languages: Zulu (immediately adjacent to the south and east), Ndebele (immediately adjacent to the west, and further north in Zimbabwe), and Xhosa (spoken to the south of Lesotho in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa). Zulu (called isiZulu in Zulu is a Language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers the vast majority (over 95% of whom live in South The Northern Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken Xhosa (ˈkǁʰoːsa ( isiXhosa) is one of the Official languages of South Africa. The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho. The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa.

Dialects

siSwati spoken in Swaziland can be divided into four dialects corresponding to the four administrative regions of the country: Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini, and Shiselweni. Hhohho is a district of Swaziland, located in the northwest of the country Lubombo may refer to Lubombo District, Swaziland Lubombo Mountains, Southern Africa Manzini is a Market town in central Swaziland and is the nation's largest city and main industrial centre. Shiselweni is a District of Swaziland, located in the southwest of the Country.

siSwati has at least two varieties: the standard, prestige variety spoken mainly in the north, centre and southwest of the country, and a less prestigious variety spoken elsewhere.

In the far south, especially in towns such as Nhlangano and Hlathikhulu, the variety of the language spoken is significantly influenced by Zulu. Nhlangano is the fourth largest town in Swaziland. It is the largest town in the southern district of Shiselweni. Many Swazis, including those in the south who speak this variety, do not regard it as 'proper' Swati. This is what may be referred to as the second dialect in the country. The sizeable number of Swati-speakers in South Africa (mainly in the Mpumalanga province, and in Soweto) are considered by Swaziland Swati-speakers to speak a non-standard form of the language. Mpumalanga, (umˈpuːməlɑŋɡə – name changed from Eastern Transvaal on 24 August 1995) is a province of South Africa Soweto is an urban area in the City of Johannesburg, in Gauteng, South Africa.

Unlike the variant in the south of Swaziland, the Mpumalanga variety appears to be less influenced by Zulu, and is thus considered closer to standard siSwati. However, this Mpumalanga variety is distinguishable by distinct intonation, and perhaps distinct tone patterns. In Linguistics, intonation is variation of pitch whilst speaking which is not used to distinguish words Intonation patterns (and informal perceptions of 'stress') in Mpumalanga Swati are often considered discordant to the Swati ear. This South African variety of siSwati is considered to exhibit influence from other South African languages spoken in close proximity to siSwati.

A feature of the standard prestige variety of siSwati (spoken in the north and centre of Swaziland) is the royal style of slow, heavily stressed enunciation, which is anecdotally claimed to have a 'mellifluous' feel to its hearers.

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