Xhosa: Culture, Clicking, and Langauge

In our linguistic anthropology class, we have discussed a multitude of languages, and cultures. The language that I decided to so my research on was the South African language known as Xhosa. The Xhosa people have a very interesting culture, background, and language. "South Africa's second-largest language, isiXhosa (Xhosa) is spoken by 16% of all South Africans, or 8-million people" ("The Languages," 2015). A UCLA (2014) language group concluded that the Xhosa language is the most widespread language in South Africa. UCLA also noted that this is because of a massive migration that the Xhosa people were a part of. It is also because of this migration that the Xhosa developed such a unique language. The Xhosa people developed their language mostly due to long interactions with the Khoisan people who had already inhabited South Africa before the Xhosa's migration.

One of the factors that makes Xhosa unique is its vast number of "classes" or "grammatical genders." In fact, "there are numerous classes far exceeding the masculine, feminine and neuter classifications of familiar European languages " (UCLA, 2014). This may include different prefixes/suffixes for different classes including human statuses, kinship, objects, animals, plants, and concepts.

By far, the most interesting part of the Xhosa language, and the aspect of the language I did my second research paper on, is there use of clicks in place of certain consonants. Bonny Sands (1989), from the Acoustical Society of America, has done extensive research on the Xhosa clicks. She concluded that there are 15 different types of clicks. Each type of click has a primary articulation, and an accompaniment to the articulation. There are 3 primary articulations, and 5 accompaniments, making a total of 15 different clicks. Sands tells us that each of the 3 different primary articulations, which include: dental, alveolo-palatal, and alveolar lateral, are used in place of the consonants x, q, or c.

Xhosa is a very unique language comprised of numerous "grammatical genders" and the use of clicks in place of certain consonants. It is a language formed through time and interaction with a native people, and has grown to be one of the most prevalent languages in South Africa.

  

Works Cited

"The Languages of South Africa". (2015). Retrieved  from http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm#.V9mT_5grKhc 

UCLA. (2014). Xhosa. Retrieved from http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=21 

Sands, B. E. (1989). Acoustic Characteristics of Xhosa Clicks. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/2781379/Acoustic_characteristics_of_Xhosa_clicks