Tsonga language

Tsonga or Xitsonga as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of South Africa and Mozambique. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga. The Xitsonga language has been standardised as a written language.
Tsonga is an official language of the Republic of South Africa, and under the name Shangani it is recognised as an official language in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. All Tswa-Ronga languages are recognised in Mozambique. It is not official in Eswatini.

History

The first records of studies of Xitsonga by Europeans go back the Swiss missionary, Henri-Alexandre Junod, who between the years 1890 and 1920 hypothesised that the Xitsonga language consolidated itself in Mozambique before the 1400s. In his own words, Junod states the following:
Further studies were carried out by Junod and other Swiss missionaries such as Henri Berthoud and Ernest Creux, who began work on a standard written language, which they called Shigwamba. The term was however unfamiliar to many of the speakers, and was later replaced with Thonga/Tsonga.Other Swiss missionaries working alongside Tsonga people translated the Christian Bible from English and Sesotho into Tsonga.
In 1996, the language was officially recognized as Xitsonga within the Constitution of South Africa, which declared it an official language of the nation. The standardization of the Xitsonga language has since strengthened the position of language as a medium for communication.

Etymology

The name "Tsonga" is the root of Xitsonga Mutsonga, Vatsonga, etc. In the language of the Vatsonga themselves, the root never appears by itself. It is Tsonga for the ease and accessibility of the wider international community.
As for the origins of the name, there are three theories. The first states that Tsonga is another pronunciation for Dzonga, which means "South" and also the name of one of the dialects of Xitsonga. The second theory is that it is an alternative spelling of the old ancestral name of the Chopi and Tembe groups, Tonga/Thonga. The other Zulu explanation for the alternative spelling of "Thonga" is that the Tembe and Rhonga people, who were the first to arrive at the Delagoa Bay and around the Natal Bay, transitioned the Rhonga "Rh" into the Zulu form of "Th". An example is rhuma becoming thuma. The third and most accepted is that it is another pronunciation for "Rhonga", the root for the word "vurhonga" for east or the direction where the sun rises. Vurhonga also means dawn in Xitsonga. Rhonga is one of the Tsonga languages. The physical evidence of most Tsonga people residing along the eastern coast of Africa in the south, extending inland in a westward direction, makes this explanation especially inviting. However Junod had initially used the Ronga appellation but had also realized that the northern clans did not frequently use the name 'Ronga' as their identity name, but most certainly Tsonga is a derivation of Ronga.
Much of the written history about the Tsonga regards the aftermath of the mfecane where the Nguni people overran many of the pre-existing African tribes of South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Languages and dialects

Tsonga is a Bantu language, closely related to other members to the Tswa-Ronga group :

Ronga dialects are Kalanga, Putru, and Xinyondroma.
Tsonga dialects are Bila, Djonga, Hlanganu, Hlave, Kande, Khosa, Luleke, N'walungu, Nkuma, Songa, Valoyi, Xika, and Xonga.
Tswa dialects are Dzibi, Dzibi-Dzonga, Tshwa, Hlengwe, Khambani, Makwakwe-Khambani, Mandla, Ndxhonge, and Nhayi.

Some dialects are subdialects but have been mentioned here for completeness. For example, Valoyi and Luleke comprise the N'walungu dialect. There is no Gwamba dialect as Gwamba is another name for Xitsonga itself. Formally Xitsonga has been called Gwamba. Tswa-Ronga dialects not considered part of the family include Pulana. What is commonly referred to as "Shangana/Changana" is not a recognised language in South Africa and is not a dialect that falls within the Xitsonga language group, as its distinctiveness stems mainly from the use of the Nguni language and grammar.
Only six Thonga/Tsonga dialects exist and these were identified by the dawn of the 1900s. These are namely xiRonga, xiHlanganu, xiBila, xiDjonga, xiN'walungu, and xiHlengwe. All other variations within South Africa are sub-dialects of the aforementioned. The dialects most spoken in the rural communities of Limpopo are the N'walungu, Bila, Hlengwe, and the Hlanganu dialects. The Xitsonga vocabulary and phonetic permutations are also largely based on these dialects
For "language of", the various languages and dialects employ one or more of the following prefixes: Bi-, Chi-, Ci-, Gi-, Ici-, Ki-, Ma-, Shee-, Shi-, Txi-, Va-, Wa-, and Xi-. For "people of", they use either "Ba-" or "Va-".

Orthography

Phonology

Tsonga has a distinction between modal and breathy voiced consonants: vs among the obstruents, and vs among the sonorants. The segmental inventory is as follows:

Vowels

Long vowels are written double. Nasalised vowels are not distinguished in writing; are only found in words for 'yes' and 'no', while is found in a few mimetic words. Mid vowels can vary from close-mid to open-mid; they are generally close-mid before a high vowel, or, and low-mid otherwise. Vowels may be realised as murmured when following breathy consonants.

Consonants

Many of these consonants may be preceded by a nasal, but they are not prenasalised consonants: at least in word-initial position, they are nasal-obstruent sequences where the nasals are syllabic.
Different consonant sounds may alternate the place of articulation. A number of Tsonga speakers vary the affricates from alveolar to retroflex ; the latter are weakly whistled in Tsonga proper and in Changana dialect. Labiodental and dental appear in homorganic consonant clusters.
Unlike some of the Nguni languages, Tsonga has very few words with click consonants, and these vary in place between dental and postalveolar. Examples are:
ngqondo, gqoka, guqa, riqingo, qiqi, qamba, Mugqivela.

Grammar

The grammar is generally typical of Bantu languages with a subject–verb–object order. The structure changes to subject—object—verb when addressing another person:

Tsonga	English
Ndza ku rhandza	I you love
Wa ndzi rhandza	You love me
Ha ku tiva	We know you
Va ndzi tiva	They know me

Verbs

Almost all infinitives have the prefix ku- and end with -a.

Tsonga	English
ku chava	To fear
ku tsaka	To rejoice
ku rhandza	to love

The main exception to this is the verb ku ri – "to say" It corresponds to "ti" in many other Bantu languages. Examples of its usage include:

u ri yini? – What do you say?

ndzi ri ka n'wina – I say to you all.
In many instances the ri is often omitted and thus ku on its own can also mean "say".

Va ri ndza penga – They say I'm crazy.

Va ri yini? – What do they say?
Present tense

The present tense is formed by simply using the personal pronoun along with the verb.

Ndzi lava – I want money,

Hi tirha siku hinkwaro – We work all day,

Mi lava mani? – Who are you looking for?

U kota ku famba – S/He knows how to walk.
Present progressive

Generally, to indicate ongoing actions in the present one takes the personal pronoun, drops the i and adds a.

Ndzi nghena ndlwini – I am entering the house,

Ha tirha sweswi – We are working right now,

Ma hemba – You are lying,

Wa hemba – You are lying,

Wa hemba – S/He is lying,

With the plural va there is no difference. Thus va hemba = "they lie" and "they are lying".
Past tense

This is for in one of three ways, depending on the word.

Generally, one drops the a from the verb and adds the prefix -ile

Ndzi nghenile ndlwini – I entered the house,

Hi tirhile siku hinkwaro – We worked all day,

U hembile – You lied,

U hembile – S/He lied,

Va hembile – They lied.
With verbs that end with -ala, the past tense changes to -ele or -ale.

ku rivala – to forget,

Ndzi rivele – I forgot, U rivele – you forgot, Va rivele – they forgot,

Ku nyamalala – To disappear,

U nyamalarile – S/He – disappeared,

Words used to describe a state of being also use the past tense.

Ku karhala – To be tired,

Ndzi karhele – I am tired, U karhele – S/He is tired, Va karhele – They are tired.
In many cases merely changing the last a in the verb to an e indicates past action.

Ku fika – To arrive,

U fike tolo – S/He arrived yesterday,

Ndzi fike tolo – I arrived yesterday,

Hi tirhe siku hinkwaro – We worked all day,

Ndzi nghene ndlwini – I entered the house.
Future tense

This is formed by the adding ta in between the personal pronoun and the verb.

Ndzi ta nghena ndlwini – I will enter the house,

Hi ta tirha siku hinkwaro – We will work all day,

Va ta tirha siku hinkwaro – They will work all day,

Mi ta tirha siku hinkwaro – You will work all day.

Noun classes

Tsonga has several classes, much like other Bantu languages, which are learned through memorisation mostly. These are:

Class	Prefix	Examples
1	mu-	"boy", "leader", "person"
2	va-	"boys", "leaders", "people"
3	mu-, m-, n-	"arrow", "leg", "river"
4	mi-	"arrows", "legs", "rivers"
5	ri-, Ø-	"country", "word", "name"
6	ma-	"countries", "words", "names"
7	xi-	"God", "thing", "chair"
8	swi-	"gods", "things", "chairs"
9	yi-, -	"house", "dog", "cow"
10	tiyi, ti-	"houses", "dogs", "cows"
11	ri-	"jaw", "rib", "finger"
14	vu-	"life", "humanness", "righteousness"
15	ku-	"to trust", "to eat", "ugliness"
21	dyi-	"abnormally huge person", "abnormally huge house"

In classes 9 and 10, yi is present when the noun stem has one syllable, and is absent otherwise.