Ndebele (isiNdebele / Nrebele / Sindebele)

There are two languages called Ndebele: Southern Ndebele and Northern Ndebele. Both are part of the Nguni group of Bantu languages, but they are not very closely related.

South Ndebele (isiNdebele) is spoken by about 590,000 people in South Africa, where it is one of the official languages. There are two dialects: Northern Transvaal Ndebele (Nrebele) and the Southern Transvaal Ndebele.

Northern Ndebele (Sindebele) is spoken in Zimbabwe and Botswana by about 1.5 million people. It is closely related to Zulu and mutually intelligible with it to some extent.

Southern Ndebele pronunciation

Southern Ndebele pronunciation

Information on Ndebele pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Sample text in Southern Ndebele

Abantu bonke bazalwa bekhululekile njalo belingana kumalungelo abo. Balesipho sikanembeza, ngakho bamele baphathane ngomoya otshengisa ubuhlobo lobunye.

Links

Information about Ndebele languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Ndebele_language
http://www.sa-venues.com/language-ndebele.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ndebele_language
http://mthunzi.netfirms.com

Northern Ndebele dictionary
http://www.northernndebele.org.za

Other Niger-Congo languages

Akan, Bambara, Bamum, Bemba, Chichewa, Duala, Ewe, Ewondo Ga, Ganda, Herero, Igbo, Kirundi, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, OshiWambo, Shona, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Twi, Venda, Wolof, Xhosa, Yorùbá, Zulu

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Learn Chinese Characters with the Omniglot Chinese app