Northern Ndebele language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Nguni language spoken in Zimbabwe. For the Sotho-Tswana language spoken in Transvaal, see Southern Ndebele language.
| Northern Ndebele | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title page of one of the earliest Sindebele phrase books: |
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| Spoken in: | Zimbabwe, Botswana | |
| Region: | Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South in Zimbabwe; North-East District in Botswana | |
| Total speakers: | 1,558,000 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Central Bantu Group S Nguni Northern Ndebele |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | nd | |
| ISO 639-2: | nde | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | nde | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Northern Ndebele language, or isiNdebele, or Sindebele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. It is commonly known as Sindebele.
Sindebele is very closely related to the Zulu language spoken in South Africa. This is because the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe descend from followers of the Zulu leader Mzilikazi, who left kwaZulu in the early nineteenth century during the Mfecane.
