Languages of South Africa-ghanatoday.net

I went to a primary school in South Africa (though not the full 7 years) that was predominantly white and so for every grade we had two different classes: a mainly Afrikaans and a mainly English one. There were extra Xhosa classes (the school is in the Eastern Cape), but they were more like an extracurricular for the few native speakers. I always found it a bit sad that we didn't have the opportunity to learn another language, like Xhosa, especially since it's much easier to pick up at that age And we're surrounded by people who speak it when we go outside the school. I don't know if the situation has changed since then (I haven't lived in South Africa for over 10 years), but it's been 15 years so hopefully it has.

Paul: I’m (somewhat ironically) impressed by mere fact that so many of your followers have grown so openly impressed with your extensive linguistic skills/knowledge-base and your related videos. Undoubtedly, this video was a real gauntlet run – and you apparently seized the day, tackling the topic with aplomb (unfortunately, I myself am far too unfamiliar with the linguistic/phonetic/phonological history of modern South to weigh in with any legitimate plaudits of my own, so I’m relying here solely on the glowing praise you’ve received from others insofar as South Africa is concerned).

Have you considered seeking a post as a professor at the DLI in Monterrey, California? I realize you are Canadian and the Defense Language Institute as American/U.S. military institution; however, my father was born in Germany, became a naturalized US citizen only at age 17, spoke Ukrainian as his first language, and still rose to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 4 in the US Army (equivalent roughly to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel) with an MO a a Linguist in the Military Intelligence Corps. He served as s professor of Russian for young military officers and was certified as fluent through native-level by the US Army/DLI in six languages (native: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech; fluent: Spanish, German) and always told me the DLI boasted the single, most impressive concentration of linguists par-excellence worldwide.

You have a passion for language (sorry to state something so obvious, and with so little justice at that). The US would surely woo you to teach at the DLI, and the focus is purely linguistic; no battlefield/warfare/combat tactics or skills are involved in the DLI’s programs. Basically, the DLI uses an intensive and extremely well-directed immersion method of language instruction whereby the vast majority of students/candidates literally arrive knowing nothing of a given language and depart in as little as 3 months completely fluent in virtually countless potential languages. My father told me an Anglophone could arrive at the DLI and leave 6 months later able to speak and write Arabic at a nearly- native level. The time spent corresponds to and is commensurate with the difficulty-level assigned to the foreign language in question (1 is “easiest”; 5 is hardest, and includes the tonal languages which utilize “clicks”). Your apparent inherent facility with clicks is a giveaway that you are a naturally elite linguist (not to deprecate how much work/effort/time you’ve surely invested in your development as a linguist).

Since dual citizenship between Canadians and Americans is extremely common and relatively easy for to obtain if you are already a highly/educated/skilled citizen of either country, and since the US military doesn’t even require American citizenship for enlistment or attainment of any particular rank no matter how high (unless top secret clearance is a prerequisite of the rank), you might easily spend a few years in gorgeous Monterey, California surrounded by colleagues at the forefront of linguistic education and skill, with virtually no risk of ever being stationed outside California, let alone any foreign war zone). And with the DLI on your CV, I imagine you’d stand an excellent chance at becoming a linguistics professor at the global civilian university of your choice, be it the University of Toronto, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, Québec, Montreal, Stanford, Salamanca, Wittenberg…

I’ve followed you for years and your passion has always been your draw and your strength. Don’t sell yourself short

Thank, your pronunciation of Xhosa was sport on

Thank, your pronunciation of Xhosa was sport on

I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE AWESOME…..BUT DUDE YOU JUST BLEW ME AWAY…….RESPECT!

As a white South African of mixed Afrikaans/English heritage, I speak both languages. However, growing up in Kwazulu Natal I learnt isiZulu from an young age and now speak it with greater fluency than what I speak Afrikaans. I use English and Zulu in day to day business, and Afrikaans only really in social or familial settings. I have been told that I speak "deep Zulu", which uses less loan words and relies more on the rich and yet difficult "traditional" vocabulary.

One of my frustrations with standardisation of Zulu and Xhosa is that the lithography does not reflect the tonalogy of the languages, and so reading and writing them does not reflect how they are spoken; as a consequence, I am largely unable to write in Zulu, and can barely read it. It doesn't help that they are taught poorly as a second language, but this has more to do with syllabus construction than with anything else.

Sfeicaans my time

what’s fundamentally important/ critical for a language. “Gieze” ( although ignored through colonial period) is an ancient African alphabet and is highly sophisticated, advanced and complete. Many languages spoken and written throughout the world today, have borrowed some letters from this ancient “”Gieze” alphabet. “Gieze “ alphabet is used in Ethiopia / Africa for 6000 years + and still used today. The alphabet and language is home grown and not borrowed. It follows perfect mathematical order/logic by which one can write any human language spoken on the planet with perfect accuracy to communicate with excellence. For example, One can write English language with better accuracy using ”Gieze “ alphabet than English alphabet itself. Almost Hundred million people of Ethiopia, many people in Somali and djibouti speak Amharic language and is growing – but my emphasis here is not even an African language but African language with alphabet. Check about “Gieze” alphabet. It is the treasure and inheritance of African people and is coming back to light particularly in recent decades.

I'm from South Africa I speak English,Zulu,Xhosa and some mali

Some Khoi-San have assimilated into the Xhosa tribe, eg. The Amathathu clan are a Khoisan clan that speak IsiXhosa and live among amaXhosa in the Eastern Cape. Some have assimilated with the Tswana.

you left Pedi language Mr

Thanks for the video man, love your work.

I speak Xhosa and your click, while not native-like is MASTERFULLY close. You get 100% for a person not living in South Africa.

My native language is English and I am a Scottish-descended white South African. I also speak Afrikaans and understand all 3 other Nguni languages especially siSwati cus I originally come from an area that speaks that. I also understand a little bit of Southern Sotho which I learnt from one semester at university

Definition of a language, as opposed to a dialect:  a language is a dialect with an army.

I'm from South Africa and I speak Tswana (Setswana) and I love this video

In Czech Republic we have only one official language, Czech, but we have 12 officially recognized minority languages:
Slovak
(which is largely mutuaaly intelligible with Czech)
German

Polish

Belarusian

Greek

Hungarian

Romani

Russian

Rusyn

Serbian

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

My home language is IsiXhosa I can only speak English n Nguni languages. Afrikaans has more influence more than English in my language there are many words from Afrikaans but I can't here them when they speak

Calanka ya baa kuqoran waa sidokale markale iyo goosdanbedka waa goos caqliyedka kusoobaxa qaangarka

In the US, in the state of New Mexico, English and Spanish are considered official languages. We also have about 3% of the population speaking Navajo.