Phuthi language
Encyclopedia
Phuthi is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho
and areas in South Africa
adjacent to the same border. The closest substantial living relative of Phuthi is Swati
(or Siswati), spoken in Swaziland
and the Mpumalanga
province of South Africa. Although there is no contemporary sociocultural or political contact, Phuthi is linguistically part of a historic dialect continuum
with Swati
. Phuthi is heavily influenced by the surrounding Sotho and Xhosa
languages, but retains a distinct core of lexicon and grammar not found in either Xhosa or Sotho, and found only partly in Swati to the north.
The documentary origins of Phuthi can be traced to Bourquin (1927), but in other oblique references nearly 200 years from the present (Ellenberger 1912). Until recently, the language has been very poorly documented with respect to its linguistic properties. The only significant earlier study (but with very uneven data, and limited coherent linguistic assumptions) is Mzamane (1949).
and Lesotho
use Phuthi as their home language, but the actual figures could be much higher. No census data on Phuthi-speakers is available from either South Africa or Lesotho. The language is certainly endangered.
Phuthi is spoken in dozens (perhaps many dozens) of scattered communities in the border areas between where the far northern Eastern Cape
meets Lesotho
: from Herschel northwards and eastwards, and in the Matatiele area of the northeastern Transkei
; and throughout southern Lesotho
, from Quthing
in the southwest, through regions south and east of Mount Moorosi, to mountain villages west and north of Qacha (Qacha's Nek
).
Within Phuthi, there are at least two dialect areas, based on linguistic criteria: Mpapa/Daliwe vs. all other areas. This taxonomy is based on a single (but very salient) phonological criterion (presence/absence of secondary labialisation). Mpapa and Daliwe (Sotho Taleoe [taliwe]) are villages in southern Lesotho, southeast of Mount Moorosi, on the dust road leading to Tosing, then on to Mafura (itself a Phuthi-speaking village), and finally Mpapa/Daliwe. Other Phuthi-speaking areas (all given in Lesotho
Sotho orthography) include Makoloane [makolwani] and Mosuoe [musuwe], near Quthing
, in south-western Lesotho; Seqoto [siǃɔtɔ] (Xhosa
Zingxondo, Phuthi Sigxodo [siᶢǁɔdɔ]); Makoae [makwai] (Phuthi Magwayi) further to the east; and a number of villages north and west of Qacha's Nek
. (Qacha is the main southeastern town in Lesotho, in the Qacha's Nek District
). Phuthi-speaking diaspora (that is, heritage) areas include the far northern Transkei
villages of Gcina [gǀina] (on the road to the Tele Bridge border post) and Mfingci [mfiᵑǀi] (across the Tele River, opposite Sigxodo, approximately).
-- just seven years older than Moorosi—whose authority in the 1830s, however, was far from covering the present-day territory of Lesotho. Until 1820, there were only "a few isolated villages of Basotho, and a small clan of Baphut[h]i, over which Moshoeshoe exercised ill-defined sovereignty". Most Phuthis, with Moorosi, were far to the south of Thaba Bosiu, south of the Orange River, well out of Moshoeshoe's way.
Moorosi was to die in unclear circumstances on Mount Moorosi (Sotho Thaba Moorosi) in 1879, after a protracted nine-month siege by the British
, Boer (i.e. Afrikaner farmers) and Basotho
forces (including the military participation of the Cape Mounted Riflemen
). This siege is often referred to as "Moorosi's Rebellion". The issue that triggered the siege was alleged livestock theft in the Herschel area. In the aftermath of the siege, Phuthi people dispersed widely over what is contemporary southern Lesotho and the northern Transkei
region, in order to escape capture by the colonial powers. It is for this reason, it has been hypothesised, that Phuthi villages (including Mpapa, Daliwe, Hlaela, Mosifa and Mafura—all to the east of Mount Moorosi, in Lesotho
) are typically found in such topographically mountainous regions, accessible only with great difficulty to outsiders).
After the siege of "Moorosi's rebellion", many Phuthi people were captured, and forced into building the bridge (now, the old bridge) at Aliwal North
that crosses the Senqu (Orange River
). Prior to 1879, it seems Moorosi had been regarded in some ways as a very threatening competitor to Chief Moshoeshoe I
. Even though currently represented to a nominal extent in the Lesotho government in Maseru
, subsequent to the 1879 uprising the Phuthi people essentially fade from modern Lesotho and Eastern Cape history.
But Phuthi is genetically—along with Zulu
, Xhosa
, Ndebele
and Swati
—certainly a Nguni language. Thus, it should be numbered in the S.40 group within Zone S, following Guthrie
's classification. Further, given the range of lexical, phonological and even low-level phonetic effects that appear to be shared almost exclusively with Swati
, Phuthi can be classified uncontroversially as a Tekela Nguni
language, that is, in the subset of Nguni that includes Swati
, some versions of Southern Ndebele
, and the Eastern Cape remnant languages, Bhaca
and Hlubi.
The contemporary lexicon and morphology of Phuthi confirms the standard claim (e.g. Mzamane 1949) that Phuthi displays very heavy contact and levelling effects from its long cohabitation with Sotho (for a period perhaps in excess of three centuries). There is, for example, a very high level of 'lexical doublets' for many items, for many speakers, e.g. -ciga "think" (Nguni-source), and -nakana "think" (Sotho-source). Phuthi noun class prefixes are nearly all of the shape CV- (that is, they follow the Sotho consonant-vowel shape, not the general Nguni VCV- shape).
There are also regional effects: the Mpapa Phuthi dialect (the only one to retain labialised coronal stops) leans much more heavily towards Sotho lexicon and morphology (and even phonology), whereas the Sigxodo dialect leans more towards Xhosa lexicon and morphology (and even phonology).
) resulted in the discovery of a surprisingly wide range of phonological and morphological phenomena (including the nine that follow here), aspects of which are unique to Phuthi (within all of the southern Bantu region).
s, typical for nearly all Nguni, at the three common articulation points: dental, alveolar and alveolateral. But the range of click release types, or 'accompaniments' is relatively impoverished, with only four: plain, aspirated, voiced, nasalised). Swati
, by comparison, has essentially only one click type (dental [|]), but five (or even six) release types. The reduced click range in Phuthi is partly related to the nearly total absence of prenasalised consonant NC sequences (as syllable onsets), e.g. <(nx-) *nkx- *ngx-> cf. *ng-, *nk-.
patterns propagate in opposite directions: perseverative superclose
vowel height harmony (left-to-right); and anticipatory ATR
/RTR tenseness harmony, invoking mid vowel
s [e o ɛ ɔ] (right-to-left). In the first, 'superclose
ness'—also a Sotho vocalic property—in root-final position triggers suffix vowels of the same supercloseness value. In the second, all mid vowels uninterruptedly adjacent to the right edge of a phonological word are lax ([RTR]); all other mid vowels are tense ([ATR]).
coronal consonants [tf tfw dv dvw], that is, consonants with distinct heterorganic (fricated) secondary articulation (generally found to be exceedingly rare in Bantu languages).
distinctions, H (high) or L (low), is possible for each syllable (and in certain limited cases rising (LH) and falling (HL) tones are possible too). There is a subtype within the L tone category: when a syllable is 'depressed' (that is, from a depressor consonant in the onset position, or a morphologically or lexically imposed depression feature in the syllabic nucleus), the syllable is produced phonetically at a lower pitch. This system of tone depression is phonologically regular (that is, the product of a small number of phonological parameters), but is highly complex, interacting extensively with the morphology (and to some extent with the lexicon). Phonologically, Phuthi is argued to display a three-way High/Low/toneless distinction. Like all Nguni languages, Phuthi also displays phonetically rising and falling syllables, always related to the position of a depressed syllabic nucleus.
, Tsonga
and Shona
), and also all Khoisan
languages of southwestern Africa), a significant subset of the consonants in Phuthi are 'depressors
' (or 'breathy voice
d'). These consonants are so named because they have a consistent depression effect on the pitch of an immediately successive H (high) tone. In addition, these consonants produce complex non-local phonological tone-depression effects. Swati
and Phuthi have similar properties in this respect, except that the parameters of the Phuthi depression effects are significantly more complex than those documented thus far for Swati.
/voice
interactions have been identified in Phuthi. This phenomenon results in what is analysed at one level as massive and sustained violations of locality requirements on a H tone domain arising from a single H tone source, e.g. surface configurations of the type HLH (in fact H L* H) are possible where all H syllables emanate from a single underlying H source, given at least one L syllable being depressed. Such tone/voice configurations lead to grave problems for any theoretical phonology that seeks to be maximally constrained in its architecture and operations.
The last two phenomena are non-tonal suprasegmental properties which each take on an additional morphological function in Phuthi:
ness' property also active in the first vowel harmony type (above) is active in at least one paradigm of the Phuthi morphological
system (the axiomatic negative polarity of the copula: "There is no..."). A morphological use for a vocalic property (here: [supercloseness]) does not appear to be recorded elsewhere for a Bantu language.
is separated from the set of consonants that typically induce it, and is used grammatically in the morphological copulative — similar to the Swati copula — and elsewhere in the grammar too (e.g. in associative prefixes formed from 'weak' class noun prefixes 1,3,4,6,9).
Very simply, examples 4 to 7 exemplify typical Bantu object noun / object pronoun agreement.
-cinga); also -nakana (cf. Sotho -nahana) : house (pl: ti-dlu) : dog (pl: ti-jha) : just (cf. Xhosa nje) : little (cf. Xhosa ka-ncinci) : carry : homestead (pl: mi-ti) : Xhosa (language/culture) (cf. "Nguni") : English (language/culture) : Phuthi (language/culture) : carry on the head : new : love (cf. Xhosa -thanda) : understand (cf. Zulu -visisa)>
vowels
There are two superclose
vowels, also found in the Sotho languages. In the Phuthi orthography they are indicated with a circumflex diacritic, thus:
consonants
The following Phuthi consonant and vowel graphs have the same values they receive in Xhosa, in Swati , and in Sotho .
Symbols in parentheses are really allophonic consonants derived from phonological context.
Most (non-labial) consonants can also occur with a secondary labial glide articulation, e.g. as , so also .
clicks
and click combinations
is dental;
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
and areas in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
adjacent to the same border. The closest substantial living relative of Phuthi is Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
(or Siswati), spoken in Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
and the Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga , is a province of South Africa. The name means east or literally "the place where the sun rises" in Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6.5% of South Africa's land area...
province of South Africa. Although there is no contemporary sociocultural or political contact, Phuthi is linguistically part of a historic dialect continuum
Dialect continuum
A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
with Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
. Phuthi is heavily influenced by the surrounding Sotho and Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
languages, but retains a distinct core of lexicon and grammar not found in either Xhosa or Sotho, and found only partly in Swati to the north.
The documentary origins of Phuthi can be traced to Bourquin (1927), but in other oblique references nearly 200 years from the present (Ellenberger 1912). Until recently, the language has been very poorly documented with respect to its linguistic properties. The only significant earlier study (but with very uneven data, and limited coherent linguistic assumptions) is Mzamane (1949).
Geography and demography
It has been estimated that around 20 000 people in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
use Phuthi as their home language, but the actual figures could be much higher. No census data on Phuthi-speakers is available from either South Africa or Lesotho. The language is certainly endangered.
Phuthi is spoken in dozens (perhaps many dozens) of scattered communities in the border areas between where the far northern Eastern Cape
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London. It was formed in 1994 out of the "independent" Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei, together with the eastern portion of the Cape Province...
meets Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
: from Herschel northwards and eastwards, and in the Matatiele area of the northeastern Transkei
Transkei
The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...
; and throughout southern Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
, from Quthing
Quthing
Quthing is the capital city or camptown of Quthing District in Lesotho. Quthing was established in 1877, abandoned in the Gun War of 1880, and then rebuilt at its present site – the southernmost town in Lesotho. It has a population of approximately 15,000 .Quthing district is home to a diverse...
in the southwest, through regions south and east of Mount Moorosi, to mountain villages west and north of Qacha (Qacha's Nek
Qacha's Nek
Qacha's Nek is, since 1888, the capital city or camptown of Qacha's Nek District in Lesotho, only two kilometers from the South African border at 1,980 meters above sea level. It has a population of approximately 8,000...
).
Within Phuthi, there are at least two dialect areas, based on linguistic criteria: Mpapa/Daliwe vs. all other areas. This taxonomy is based on a single (but very salient) phonological criterion (presence/absence of secondary labialisation). Mpapa and Daliwe (Sotho Taleoe [taliwe]) are villages in southern Lesotho, southeast of Mount Moorosi, on the dust road leading to Tosing, then on to Mafura (itself a Phuthi-speaking village), and finally Mpapa/Daliwe. Other Phuthi-speaking areas (all given in Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
Sotho orthography) include Makoloane [makolwani] and Mosuoe [musuwe], near Quthing
Quthing
Quthing is the capital city or camptown of Quthing District in Lesotho. Quthing was established in 1877, abandoned in the Gun War of 1880, and then rebuilt at its present site – the southernmost town in Lesotho. It has a population of approximately 15,000 .Quthing district is home to a diverse...
, in south-western Lesotho; Seqoto [siǃɔtɔ] (Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
Zingxondo, Phuthi Sigxodo [siᶢǁɔdɔ]); Makoae [makwai] (Phuthi Magwayi) further to the east; and a number of villages north and west of Qacha's Nek
Qacha's Nek
Qacha's Nek is, since 1888, the capital city or camptown of Qacha's Nek District in Lesotho, only two kilometers from the South African border at 1,980 meters above sea level. It has a population of approximately 8,000...
. (Qacha is the main southeastern town in Lesotho, in the Qacha's Nek District
Qacha's Nek District
Qacha's Nek is a district of Lesotho. It has an area of 2,349 km² and a population in 2006 of approximately 71,876. Qacha's Nek is the capital or camptown, and only town in the district.-Geography:...
). Phuthi-speaking diaspora (that is, heritage) areas include the far northern Transkei
Transkei
The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...
villages of Gcina [gǀina] (on the road to the Tele Bridge border post) and Mfingci [mfiᵑǀi] (across the Tele River, opposite Sigxodo, approximately).
Political history
The most famous Phuthi leader in the historical record was the powerful chief, Moorosi (born in 1795). It seems that approximately the land south of the Orange River in present-day Lesotho was Phuthi-speaking during the time of the greatest historical figure in the history of the Sotho people, Moshoeshoe IMoshoeshoe I
Moshoeshoe was born at Menkhoaneng in the Northern part of present-day Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage- a branch of the Koena clan. In his early childhood, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34...
-- just seven years older than Moorosi—whose authority in the 1830s, however, was far from covering the present-day territory of Lesotho. Until 1820, there were only "a few isolated villages of Basotho, and a small clan of Baphut[h]i, over which Moshoeshoe exercised ill-defined sovereignty". Most Phuthis, with Moorosi, were far to the south of Thaba Bosiu, south of the Orange River, well out of Moshoeshoe's way.
Moorosi was to die in unclear circumstances on Mount Moorosi (Sotho Thaba Moorosi) in 1879, after a protracted nine-month siege by the British
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, Boer (i.e. Afrikaner farmers) and Basotho
Basotho
The ancestors of the Sotho people have lived in southern Africa since around the fifth century. The Sotho nation emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho–Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century...
forces (including the military participation of the Cape Mounted Riflemen
Cape Mounted Riflemen
The Cape Mounted Riflemen were South African military units. There were two separate successive regiments of that name. Some military historians distinguish between them by labelling the first as "imperial" and the second as "colonial"....
). This siege is often referred to as "Moorosi's Rebellion". The issue that triggered the siege was alleged livestock theft in the Herschel area. In the aftermath of the siege, Phuthi people dispersed widely over what is contemporary southern Lesotho and the northern Transkei
Transkei
The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...
region, in order to escape capture by the colonial powers. It is for this reason, it has been hypothesised, that Phuthi villages (including Mpapa, Daliwe, Hlaela, Mosifa and Mafura—all to the east of Mount Moorosi, in Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
) are typically found in such topographically mountainous regions, accessible only with great difficulty to outsiders).
After the siege of "Moorosi's rebellion", many Phuthi people were captured, and forced into building the bridge (now, the old bridge) at Aliwal North
Aliwal North
Aliwal North is a town in central South Africa on the Orange River, Eastern Cape Province. Aliwal North is the seat of the Maletswai Local Municipality which falls within the Ukhahlamba District Municipality....
that crosses the Senqu (Orange River
Orange River
The Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
). Prior to 1879, it seems Moorosi had been regarded in some ways as a very threatening competitor to Chief Moshoeshoe I
Moshoeshoe I
Moshoeshoe was born at Menkhoaneng in the Northern part of present-day Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage- a branch of the Koena clan. In his early childhood, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34...
. Even though currently represented to a nominal extent in the Lesotho government in Maseru
Maseru
Maseru is the capital of Lesotho. It is also the capital of the Maseru District. Located on the Caledon River, bordering South Africa, Maseru is Lesotho's only sizable city, with a population of approximately 227,880 . The city was established as a police camp and assigned as the capital after the...
, subsequent to the 1879 uprising the Phuthi people essentially fade from modern Lesotho and Eastern Cape history.
Classification
Phuthi is a Bantu language, clearly within the southeastern Zone S (cf. Guthrie 1967-1971). But within southern Africa Phuthi is viewed ambivalently as being either a Nguni or a Sotho–Tswana language, given the very high level of hybridity displayed in all subsystems of the grammar (lexicon, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax).But Phuthi is genetically—along with Zulu
Zulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
, Xhosa
Xhosa language
Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said...
, Ndebele
Ndebele language
There are at least two languages commonly called Ndebele:*The Northern Ndebele language, a Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe*The Southern Ndebele language, classified as Nguni language or Sotho–Tswana language, spoken in South Africa, heavily influenced by surrounding Sotho–Tswana languages and...
and Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
—certainly a Nguni language. Thus, it should be numbered in the S.40 group within Zone S, following Guthrie
Malcolm Guthrie
Malcolm Guthrie , professor of Bantu languages, is known primarily for his classification of Bantu languages...
's classification. Further, given the range of lexical, phonological and even low-level phonetic effects that appear to be shared almost exclusively with Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
, Phuthi can be classified uncontroversially as a Tekela Nguni
Tekela languages
The Tekela languages are a group of related languages that, along with Zunda languages, are a subdivision of the Nguni branch belonging to the larger Bantu family.Tekela languages include:* Swazi * Phuthi * Bhaca, Hlubi, Cele and Lala....
language, that is, in the subset of Nguni that includes Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
, some versions of Southern Ndebele
Southern Ndebele language
The Southern Ndebele language is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele . There are two dialects of Southern Ndebele in South Africa:* the Northern Transvaal Ndebele or Nrebele...
, and the Eastern Cape remnant languages, Bhaca
Bhaca
The Bhaca people or amaBhaca are an ethnic group in South Africa, mainly found in the small towns of the former Transkei homeland, Mount Frere and Umzimkhulu, and surrounding areas .Their dialect, isiBhaca, is Xhosa with strong Zulu and some Swati influences. The origin of their name is unclear...
and Hlubi.
The contemporary lexicon and morphology of Phuthi confirms the standard claim (e.g. Mzamane 1949) that Phuthi displays very heavy contact and levelling effects from its long cohabitation with Sotho (for a period perhaps in excess of three centuries). There is, for example, a very high level of 'lexical doublets' for many items, for many speakers, e.g. -ciga "think" (Nguni-source), and -nakana "think" (Sotho-source). Phuthi noun class prefixes are nearly all of the shape CV- (that is, they follow the Sotho consonant-vowel shape, not the general Nguni VCV- shape).
There are also regional effects: the Mpapa Phuthi dialect (the only one to retain labialised coronal stops) leans much more heavily towards Sotho lexicon and morphology (and even phonology), whereas the Sigxodo dialect leans more towards Xhosa lexicon and morphology (and even phonology).
Phonology and morphology
Sustained field work in 1994/1995 among speech communities in Sigxodo and Mpapa (southern LesothoLesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
) resulted in the discovery of a surprisingly wide range of phonological and morphological phenomena (including the nine that follow here), aspects of which are unique to Phuthi (within all of the southern Bantu region).
Click consonants
Phuthi has a system of click consonantClick consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
s, typical for nearly all Nguni, at the three common articulation points: dental, alveolar and alveolateral. But the range of click release types, or 'accompaniments' is relatively impoverished, with only four: plain, aspirated, voiced, nasalised). Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
, by comparison, has essentially only one click type (dental [|]), but five (or even six) release types. The reduced click range in Phuthi is partly related to the nearly total absence of prenasalised consonant NC sequences (as syllable onsets), e.g. <(nx-) *nkx- *ngx-> cf. *ng-, *nk-.
Vowel harmony
Two vowel harmonyVowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
patterns propagate in opposite directions: perseverative superclose
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
vowel height harmony (left-to-right); and anticipatory ATR
Advanced tongue root
In phonetics, advanced tongue root and retracted tongue root, abbreviated ATR or RTR, are contrasting states of the root of the tongue during the pronunciation of vowels in some languages, especially in West Africa, but also in Kazakh and Mongolian...
/RTR tenseness harmony, invoking mid vowel
Mid vowel
A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel...
s [e o ɛ ɔ] (right-to-left). In the first, 'superclose
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
ness'—also a Sotho vocalic property—in root-final position triggers suffix vowels of the same supercloseness value. In the second, all mid vowels uninterruptedly adjacent to the right edge of a phonological word are lax ([RTR]); all other mid vowels are tense ([ATR]).
Vowel imbrication
Vowel imbrication is the vowel harmony-like morphophonological phenomenon found in many Bantu languages. Vowel imbrication in two-syllable verb roots is effectively fully productive in Phuthi, that is, -CaC-a verb stems become -CeC-e in the perfective aspect (or 'perfect tense'), e.g. -tfwatsha 'carry on the head' > -tfwetshe 'be carrying on the head', -mabha 'catch, hold' > -mebhe 'be holding'.Labialisation
The main Phuthi dialects—Mpapa, Taliwe, Qacha—all reflect the presence of labialisedLabialisation
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common...
coronal consonants [tf tfw dv dvw], that is, consonants with distinct heterorganic (fricated) secondary articulation (generally found to be exceedingly rare in Bantu languages).
Tone
Either of two surface toneTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
distinctions, H (high) or L (low), is possible for each syllable (and in certain limited cases rising (LH) and falling (HL) tones are possible too). There is a subtype within the L tone category: when a syllable is 'depressed' (that is, from a depressor consonant in the onset position, or a morphologically or lexically imposed depression feature in the syllabic nucleus), the syllable is produced phonetically at a lower pitch. This system of tone depression is phonologically regular (that is, the product of a small number of phonological parameters), but is highly complex, interacting extensively with the morphology (and to some extent with the lexicon). Phonologically, Phuthi is argued to display a three-way High/Low/toneless distinction. Like all Nguni languages, Phuthi also displays phonetically rising and falling syllables, always related to the position of a depressed syllabic nucleus.
Depressor consonants
In line with a number of southern Bantu languages (including all Nguni, VendaVenda language
Venda, also known as or , is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. The majority of Venda speakers live in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province, but about 10% of speakers live in Zimbabwe. The Venda language is related to Kalanga which is spoken in Botswana...
, Tsonga
Tsonga language
The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan.- Classification :Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo languages...
and Shona
Shona language
Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...
), and also all Khoisan
Khoisan
Khoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
languages of southwestern Africa), a significant subset of the consonants in Phuthi are 'depressors
Depressor consonant
A depressor consonant is a consonant that depresses the tone of its or a neighboring syllable. This is a consequence of the phonation of the consonant. The Nguni languages of South Africa are well known for the lowering effects of certain consonants on tone, as are the Wu dialects of Chinese. ...
' (or 'breathy voice
Breathy voice
Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...
d'). These consonants are so named because they have a consistent depression effect on the pitch of an immediately successive H (high) tone. In addition, these consonants produce complex non-local phonological tone-depression effects. Swati
Swati language
The Swazi or Swati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa by the Swazi people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 3 million. The language is taught in Swaziland and some South African schools in Mpumalanga and KaNgwane areas...
and Phuthi have similar properties in this respect, except that the parameters of the Phuthi depression effects are significantly more complex than those documented thus far for Swati.
Tone/voice interaction
Significantly complex toneTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
/voice
Voice (phonetics)
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate...
interactions have been identified in Phuthi. This phenomenon results in what is analysed at one level as massive and sustained violations of locality requirements on a H tone domain arising from a single H tone source, e.g. surface configurations of the type HLH (in fact H L* H) are possible where all H syllables emanate from a single underlying H source, given at least one L syllable being depressed. Such tone/voice configurations lead to grave problems for any theoretical phonology that seeks to be maximally constrained in its architecture and operations.
The last two phenomena are non-tonal suprasegmental properties which each take on an additional morphological function in Phuthi:
Morphological use of vowel height
The 'supercloseClose vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
ness' property also active in the first vowel harmony type (above) is active in at least one paradigm of the Phuthi morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
system (the axiomatic negative polarity of the copula: "There is no..."). A morphological use for a vocalic property (here: [supercloseness]) does not appear to be recorded elsewhere for a Bantu language.
Morphological use of breathy voice/depression
The vocalic property breathy voice/depressionBreathy voice
Breathy voice is a phonation in which the vocal cords vibrate, as they do in normal voicing, but are held further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes between them. This produces an audible noise...
is separated from the set of consonants that typically induce it, and is used grammatically in the morphological copulative — similar to the Swati copula — and elsewhere in the grammar too (e.g. in associative prefixes formed from 'weak' class noun prefixes 1,3,4,6,9).
Phrases
- 1. Giyakutshadza : I like/love you.
- 2. Givisisa siGoni kanci tejhe : I understand just a little Xhosa.
- 3. Giyam(u)tshadza muti whakho lom(u)tjha : I like your new homestead [Class 3].
- 4. Giyayitshadza miti yhakho lemitjha : I like your new homesteads [Class 4].
- 5. Giyasivisisa siGoni : I understand Xhosa [Class 7].
- 6. Giyayitshadza idlu yhakho letjha : I like your new house [Class 9].
- 7. Giyatitshadza tidlu takho letitjha : I like your new houses [Class 10].
Very simply, examples 4 to 7 exemplify typical Bantu object noun / object pronoun agreement.
Vocabulary
Alphabet
A Phuthi orthography has not yet been standardised. Donnelly (1999, 2007) uses a proposed alphabet based uncontroversially on that of other Nguni and Sotho languages:vowels
- a e i o u
There are two superclose
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
vowels, also found in the Sotho languages. In the Phuthi orthography they are indicated with a circumflex diacritic, thus:
- î û
consonants
- b bh d dl (dv) dz f g gr h hh hl j jh k kg kgh kh l lh m mh n ng nh ny nyh p ph r rh s t (tf) th tj tjh tl tlh ts tsh v w wh y yh z
The following Phuthi consonant and vowel graphs have the same values they receive in Xhosa
Symbols in parentheses are really allophonic consonants derived from phonological context
Most (non-labial) consonants can also occur with a secondary labial glide articulation
clicks
Click consonant
Clicks are speech sounds found as consonants in many languages of southern Africa, and in three languages of East Africa. Examples of these sounds familiar to English speakers are the tsk! tsk! or tut-tut used to express disapproval or pity, the tchick! used to spur on a horse, and the...
and click combinations
is palatal;is lateral.
- plain: c q x
- aspirated: ch qh xh
- voiced: gc gq gx
- nasalized: nc nq nx
Nouns
The Phuthi noun (as everywhere in Bantu) consists of two essential parts: the prefix and the stem. Nouns can be grouped into noun classes according to prefix, which are numbered consecutively according to the pan-Bantu system established by Meinhof and modified by DokeDoké-References:*This article was initially created from the French Wikipedia....
. The following table gives an overview of Phuthi noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.
Class Doke Number 1/2 mu- eba- 1a/2b Ø- bo- 3/4 mu- mi- 5/6 li- ema- 7/8 si- ti- 9/10 i- ti- 14 bu- 15 ku-
- Caveat for the table: as in all Nguni and Sotho–Tswana languages, "Class 8" does not reflect Proto-Bantu Class 8 *bi-; rather, it is a near copy of Class 10, barring Class 10's homorganic nasal prefix consonant. Except in monosyllabic nouns borrowed from Sotho, Phuthi entirely lacks this Class 9/10 N- - see phrases 6, 7 above. Thus, Phuthi Classes 8 and 10 are completely conflated.
External links
- Languages of Lesotho: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=LS
- Phuthi is correctly listed as a language of Lesotho. However, 'Phuthi' is also listed as an alternative name for Swati, the national language of Swaziland:
- Swati: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ssw
- This Swati information is currently inaccurate. Phuthi is no longer coherently in any obvious sort of heteronomous dialect relationship to Swati (several hundred kilometres separate the two language territories; Phuthi-speakers appear to have no conscious awareness of any relationship to Swati). Nevertheless, there are very significant linguistic elements at all levels of the grammar - not least the lexicon - that tie Phuthi closely to Swati historically, in fact indicating Swati to be the closest living relative of Phuthi.
- The Ethnologue language map of Lesotho is correct, with respect to Phuthi: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=LS&seq=10
- The language information on this map is drawn from: I. J. van der Merwe & L. O. Van Niekerk. (1994) 'Language in South Africa: Distribution and change', Stellebosch University (Atlas. CD-Rom.) There is a more detailed map of Phuthi-speaking areas in Donnelly (2007:2)