Sindebele

Facts

  • Language: Sindebele
  • Alternate names: Isinde’bele, Northern Ndebele, Sindebele, Tabele, Tebele
  • Language code: nde
  • Language family: Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern Bantoid, Bantu, East Bantu, Southern Bantu-Makua, Nguni-Tsonga, Nguni (S.40), Southern Ndebele-Lowland
  • Number of speakers: 1572800
  • Script: Latin script

More information:

    Introduction

    The Sindebele (Northern Ndebele) language is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe.

    LL
    Sindebele speaking areas.

    The Sindebele (Northern Ndebele) is a different language compared with Southern Ndebele.

    IsiNdebele is an agglutinating language, in which suffixes and prefixes are used to alter meaning in sentence construction. Like the other indigenous South African languages, isiNdebele is also a tonal language, in which the sentence structure tends to be governed by the noun.

    Sindebele Verb

    The personal prefixes are attached before ther verb stem.

    Sample Verb

    hamba 'to go'

    Sg.1ngihamba
    Sg.2uhamba
    Sg.3
    Pl.1sihamba
    Pl.2lihamba
    Pl.3bahamba

    More information

    Verblist

    akha, ala, ambatha, anela, azi, baleka, bhadala, bhala, bhibhidla, bhubhudla, bhukuda, bhukutsha, biza, bona, bulala, butha, buthana, buya, buza, cabanga, cacada, cela, chaza, chitha, cunula, dabula, dala, diliza, dinga, dla, dlala, dlephuna, duma, eba, eboleka, edlula, elapha, elusa, enda, enza, ephula, ethuka, eyama, fa, faka, fika, fumana, funa, funda, gagasa, galula, gcina, gebenga, gomonqa, gongoda, goqa, gqoka, gubuda, guga, gula, guqa, halada, hamba, hlafuna, hlala, hlamba, hlangana, hleka, hlephuna, hlikihla, hluthuna, hudula, humutsha, jibuqa, kha, khala, khama, khanzinga, khaphaza, khathaza, khohlwa, kholwa, khula, khulula, khumbuza, khupha, khwela, kloloda, lala, letha, limaza, lolonga, luma, lwa, ma, mitha, na, natha, nceda, ndiza, ngcola, ngcwaba, ngena, ngunguna, nika, nikina, nya, nyikinya, oma, ona, osa, otha, pha, phapha, pheka, phela, qalisa, qanda, qeda, qhuba, qina, qolotsha, qoqoda, sala, sayina, sebenza, sika, siza, sukuma, sutha, thanda, thandaza, thatha, thenga, thi, thuma, thwala, tsha, tshayela, tshikitsha, tshisa, tsho, vakatsha, vala, viyoca, vula, wa, xabana, xoxa, ya, za, zala, zama, zwa.