Learning isiXhosa

There are eleven official languages of South Africa. Our students' mother tongue is isiXhosa, which originated with the Khoisan people. We are all doing our best to learn words and phrases from our students and our homestay friends. Professor Russell H. Kaschula, who heads the languages department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, reviewed many of the sounds, rules, and general concepts of the language with us during a lecture yesterday afternoon. It is a beautiful language but definitely quite tricky: there are many different clicks and other noises that contribute to the fluidity of isiXhosa. Luckily, we have a classroom full of native speakers to help teach us, and I think that teachers and students alike are loving the give and take relationship. Here's some of the basics that we've learned thus far:

Basic sounds

• "c"  refers to a click made by pushing the tip of your tongue behind your top teeth and quickly bringing it down without exhaling. This sound is heard in the word "ncinci," meaning "small."
• "q" refers to a click that is similar to the "c" sound, however you bring your tongue to the middle of the roof of your mouth for a deeper sound. One of the vocabulary words that Julie and I have taught in our class uses this sound: "qaphela," which means "cautious."
• "x" refers to a click that comes from pushing air out of both sides of your mouth. This sound is heard in the actual name of the language, Xhosa.
• Consonant combinations unfamiliar to English speakers as well as various click combinations contribute to other basic sounds heard in the language.

Questions and phrases

• "Ungubani?" is a question one may ask to inquire about someone's basic information, including name and surname, origin, how one is doing, etc.
• "Ngubani igama lakho?" asks for someone's name
• "Ngu" is an indicative question prefix
• bani= what or who
• igama= name
• lakho= your
• You would respond by saying, "Igama lam ngu[Name]." For example, I would give my name by saying "Igama lam nguVictoria."
• To ask for someone's surname, or last name, you would say "Ngubani ifani yakho?" If I were to respond, I would say, "Ifani yam nguNolan."
• Bani= who
• "Uhlala phi?" asks "Where do you stay?"
• You would respond by saying "Ndihlala eMelika."
• "Ndi" is the indicator, which combined with "hlala" means "I stay."
• "e" refers to a specific spot or place
• Melika= America
• To be more specific in regards to a town or city, one may ask "phi?" or "where" once more, to which I would respond "eBaltimore."
• eklasini= in the classroom

Class system

• There is a class system in isiXhosa that differs immensely from English. To give an extremely general overview, there are 15 classes of nouns in isiXhosa, and by determining which class a noun fits into you are able to establish what the rest of the sentence will look like. Here are examples of the first two classes:
• The first class of nouns includes to singular objects, and therefore will refer to individual people.
• funda= to read or to learn
• umfundi= learner
• uyafunda= one student is learning
• The second class of nouns essentially refers to multiple items, or the plural.
• abafundi= learners
• bayafunda= students are learning

Hopefully, this basic overview will allow you to see just a little bit more of what our daily lives entail while in Grahamstown, South Africa. Enjoy!

-Victoria Nolan