View source for Sotho language

{{Short description|Southern Bantu language of Lesotho and neighbouring countries}}
{{About|the Lesotho and central South African Sotho language|the northeastern South African Sotho language|Northern Sotho}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2021}}
{{engvarB|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Sotho
| nativename       = Sesotho
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|st|sɪ̀sʊ́tʰʊ̀|}}
| states           = {{Plainlist|
* [[Lesotho]] 
* [[South Africa]] 
* [[Zimbabwe]]
}}
| ethnicity        = [[Sotho people|Basotho]]
| speakers         = 5.6 million
| date             = 2001–2011
| ref              = e18
| speakers2        = 7.9 million [[L2 speakers]] in South Africa (2002)<ref>Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." ''Impact: Studies in language and society,'' 14:78</ref>
| familycolor      = Niger-Congo
| fam2             = [[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]]
| fam3             = [[Volta-Congo languages|Volta-Congo]]
| fam4             = [[Benue–Congo languages|Benue–Congo]]
| fam5             = [[Bantoid languages|Bantoid]]
| fam6             = [[Southern Bantoid languages|Southern Bantoid]]
| fam7             = [[Bantu languages|Bantu]]
| fam8             = [[Southern Bantu]]
| fam9             = [[Sotho–Tswana languages|Sotho–Tswana]]
|dia1=Phuthi
|dia2=Taung
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[Sesotho alphabet]])<br />[[Sotho Braille]]<br />[[Ditema tsa Dinoko]]
| nation           = {{Plainlist|
* {{flag|Lesotho}}
* {{flag|South Africa}}
* {{flag|Zimbabwe}}
}}
| agency           = [[Pan South African Language Board]]
| iso1             = st
| iso2             = sot
| iso3             = sot
| lingua           = [http://linguasphere.info/?page=linguascale&linguacode=99-AUT-ee 99-AUT-ee] incl. varieties 99-AUT-eea to 99-AUT-eee
| guthrie          = S.33
| sign             = [[Signed Sotho]]
| glotto           = sout2807
| glottorefname    = Southern Sotho
| altname          = Southern Sotho
}}
{{Infobox Bantu name|root=Sotho|person='''Mo'''sotho|people=[[Sotho people|'''Ba'''sotho]]|country=[[Lesotho|'''Le'''sotho]]|language='''Se'''sotho}} 
{{Sesotho language}}'''Sotho''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|uː|t|uː}}), also known as '''''Sesotho''''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ɪ|ˈ|s|uː|t|uː|,_|s|ə|-}}){{efn|Also spelled ''Suthio'', or ''Suthu'', ''Souto'', ''Sisutho'', ''Sutu'', or ''Sesutu''.}}, '''Southern Sotho''', or ''Sesotho sa Borwa'' is a [[Southern Bantu languages|Southern Bantu language]] spoken in [[Lesotho]] as its [[national language]] and [[South Africa]] where it is an [[official language]].

Like all [[Bantu languages]], Sesotho is an [[agglutinative language]] that uses numerous [[affixes]] and derivational and inflexional rules to build [[Sesotho grammar#The Sesotho word|complete words]].

==Classification==
Sotho is a [[Southern Bantu languages|Southern Bantu language]] belonging to the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger–Congo language family]] within the [[Sotho-Tswana languages|Sotho-Tswana]] branch of [[Guthrie classification of Bantu languages#Zone S|Zone S (S.30)]].

"Sotho" is also the name given to the entire Sotho-Tswana group, in which case Sesotho proper is called "Southern Sotho". Within the Sotho-Tswana group Southern Sotho is also related to [[Lozi language|Lozi]] (''Silozi'') with which it forms the Sesotho-Lozi group within Sotho-Tswana.

The [[Northern Sotho]] group is geographical, and includes a number of dialects also closely related to Sotho-Lozi. [[Tswana language|Tswana]] is also known as "Western Sesotho".

The Sotho-Tswana group is in turn closely related to the other [[Southern Bantu]] languages, including [[Venda language|Venda]], [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]], [[Tonga language (Mozambique)|Tonga]], [[Lozi language|Lozi]], and [[Nguni languages|Nguni]] from neighboring [[Southern African|Southern African countries]], and possibly{{clarify|date=September 2015}} also the [[Makua languages|Makua]] languages of [[Tanzania]] and [[Mozambique]].

''Sotho'' is the root word. Various prefixes may be added for specific derivations, such as ''Sesotho'' for the Sotho language and ''Basotho'' for the [[Sotho people]]. Use of ''Sesotho'' rather than ''Sotho'' for the language in English has seen increasing use since the 1980s, especially in [[South African English]] and in Lesotho.

==Dialects==
[[File:National Women's Day detail Sesotho.jpg|left|thumb|A Mosotho woman holding up a sign protesting violence against women, written in her native Sesotho language, at a [[National Women's Day]] protest at the National University of Lesotho. The sign translates: "If you do not listen to women, we will lose patience with you." (2008)]]
Except for faint lexical variation within Lesotho, and for marked lexical variation between the Lesotho/[[Free State (province)|Free State]] variety and that of the large urban townships to the north (such as [[Soweto]]) due to heavy borrowing from neighbouring languages, there is no discernible dialect variation in this language.

However, one point that seems to often confuse authors who attempt to study the dialectology of Sesotho is the term ''[[Basotho]]'', which can variously mean "[[Sotho-Tswana peoples|Sotho–Tswana speakers]]", "Southern Sotho and [[Northern Sotho people|Northern Sotho speakers]]", "Sesotho speakers", and "residents of Lesotho." The [[Nguni languages|Nguni language]] [[Phuthi language|Phuthi]] has been heavily influenced by Sesotho; its speakers have mixed Nguni and Sotho–Tswana ancestry. It seems that it is sometimes treated erroneously as a dialect of Sesotho called "Sephuthi." However, Phuthi is mutually unintelligible with standard Sesotho and thus cannot in any sense be termed a dialect of it. The occasional tendency to label all minor languages spoken in Lesotho as "dialects" of Sesotho is considered patronising,{{by whom|date=July 2019}} in addition to being linguistically inaccurate and in part serving a national myth that all citizens of Lesotho have Sesotho as their mother tongue.

Additionally, being derived from a language or dialect very closely related to modern Sesotho,{{efn|To the extent that it even has several words that resemble Sesotho words with clicks:
: ''ku kala'' to begin (Sesotho ''ho qala'' {{IPA|[hʊǃɑlɑ]}})
: ''ku kabana'' to quarrel (Sesotho ''ho qabana'' {{IPA|[hʊǃɑbɑnɑ]}}),
one could just as easily say that these words were imported from Nguni languages (''ukuqala'' and ''ukuxabana'', which is where the Sesotho versions come from), and the language does also contain words resembling click words from Nguni but not from Sesotho (such as ''ku kabanga'' to think, cf. Zulu ''ukucabanga'').}} the [[Zambia]]n Sotho–Tswana language [[Lozi language|Lozi]] is also sometimes cited as a modern dialect of Sesotho named ''Serotse'' or ''Sekololo''.

The oral history of the Basotho and Northern Sotho peoples (as contained in their [[diboko|liboko]]) states that 'Mathulare, a daughter of the chief of the ''Bafokeng'' nation (an old and respected people), was married to chief Tabane of the (Southern) ''Bakgatla'' (a branch of the ''Bahurutse'', who are one of the most ancient of the Sotho–Tswana tribes), and bore the founders of five tribes: ''Bapedi'' (by Mopedi), ''Makgolokwe'' (by Kgetsi<!-- not Mokgolokwe?? -->), ''Baphuthing'' (by Mophuthing, and later the Mzizi of [[Dlamini]], connected with the present-day [[Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)|Ndebele]]), ''Batlokwa'' (by Kgwadi), and ''Basia'' (by Mosia). These were the first peoples to be called "Basotho", before many of their descendants and other peoples came together to form [[Moshoeshoe I]]'s nation in the early 19th century. The situation is even further complicated by various historical factors, such as members of parent clans joining their descendants or various clans calling themselves by the same names (because they honour the same legendary ancestor or have the same totem).

An often repeated story is that when the modern Basotho nation was established by King [[Moshoeshoe I]], his own "dialect" Sekwena was chosen over two other popular variations Setlokwa and Setaung and that these two still exist as "dialects" of modern Sesotho.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} The inclusion of Setlokwa in this scenario is confusing, as the modern language named "Setlokwa" is a Northern Sesotho language spoken by descendants of the same Batlokwa whose attack on the young chief Moshoeshoe's settlement during [[Difaqane|Lifaqane]] (led by the famous widow [[Mmanthatisi]]) caused them to migrate to present-day Lesotho. On the other hand, Doke & Mofokeng claims that the tendency of many Sesotho speakers to say for example ''ke ronngwe'' {{IPA|[kʼɪʀʊŋ̩ŋʷe]}} instead of ''ke romilwe'' {{IPA|[kʼɪʀuˌmilʷe]}} when forming the perfect of the passive of verbs ending in ''-ma'' {{IPA|[mɑ]}} (as well as forming their perfects with ''-mme'' {{IPA|[m̩me]}} instead of ''-mile'' {{IPA|[mile]}}) is "a relic of the extinct Tlokwa dialect".

==Geographic distribution==
[[File:South Africa Sotho speakers proportion map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Sotho at home.
{{legend-col
|{{legend|#EDF8E9|0–20%}}
|{{legend|#BAE4B3|20–40%}}
|{{legend|#74C476|40–60%}}
|{{legend|#31A354|60–80%}}
|{{legend|#006D2C|80–100%}}
}}]]
[[File:South Africa Sotho speakers density map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Sotho in South Africa: density of Sotho home-language speakers.
{{legend-col
|{{legend|#ffffcc|&lt;1 /km²}}
|{{legend|#ffeda0|1–3 /km²}}
|{{legend|#fed976|3–10 /km²}}
|{{legend|#feb24c|10–30 /km²}}
|{{legend|#fd8d3c|30–100 /km²}}
|{{legend|#fc4e2a|100–300 /km²}}
|{{legend|#e31a1c|300–1000 /km²}}
|{{legend|#bc0026|1000–3000 /km²}}
|{{legend|#800026|&gt;3000 /km²}}
}}]]
According to the [[South African National Census of 2011]], there were almost four million first language Sesotho speakers recorded in South Africa – approximately eight per cent of the population. Most Sesotho speakers in South Africa reside in [[Free State (province)|Free State]] and [[Gauteng]]. Sesotho is also the main language spoken by the people of [[Lesotho]], where, according to 1993 data, it was spoken by about 1,493,000 people, or 85% of the population. The census fails to record other South Africans for whom Sesotho is a second or third language. Such speakers are found in all major residential areas of [[Metropolitan municipality (South Africa)|Metropolitan Municipalities]] – such as [[Johannesburg]], and the [[Vaal Triangle]] – where multilingualism and polylectalism are very high.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

===Official status===
Sesotho is one of the twelve [[official languages of South Africa]], one of the two official [[languages of Lesotho]] and one of the sixteen official [[languages of Zimbabwe]].

==Derived languages==
Sesotho is one of the many languages from which [[tsotsitaal]]s are derived. Tsotsitaal is not a proper language, as it is primarily a unique vocabulary and a set of idioms but used with the grammar and inflexion rules of another language (usually Sesotho or [[Zulu language|Zulu]]). It is a part of the youth culture in most Southern [[Gauteng]] [[township (South Africa)|townships]] and is the primary language used in [[kwaito|Kwaito music]].

==Phonology==
{{main|Sesotho phonology}}
The sound system of Sesotho is unusual in many respects. It has [[ejective consonant]]s, [[click consonant]]s, a [[uvular trill]], a relatively large number of [[affricate consonant]]s, no [[prenasalised consonant]]s, and a rare form of vowel-height (alternatively, [[advanced tongue root]]) harmony. In total, the language contains some 39 consonantal{{efn|75 if you include the [[Sesotho phonology#pp labialization|labialized]] consonants.}} and 9 vowel [[phonemes]].

It also has a large number of complex sound transformations which often change the phones of words due to the influence of other (sometimes invisible) sounds.

===Consonants===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|
!rowspan="2"|[[Labial consonant|Labial]]
!colspan="2"|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br>alveolar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
!rowspan="2"|[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[central consonant|central]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Click consonant|Click]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[glottalization|glottalized]]
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵏǃʼ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵏǃʰ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|nasal
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ᵑǃ}}|| || || || 
|-
!colspan="2"|[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|{{IPAlink|m}}||{{IPAlink|n}}|| ||colspan=2|{{IPAlink|ɲ}}||{{IPAlink|ŋ}}|| || 
|-
!rowspan="3"|[[Plosive]]
!style="font-size:80%"|[[ejective consonant|ejective]]
|{{IPAlink|pʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tʼ}}|| || || ||{{IPAlink|kʼ}}|| || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
|{{IPAlink|pʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tʰ}}|| || || ||{{IPAlink|kʰ}}|| || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[voiced consonant|voiced]]
|{{IPAlink|b}}||({{IPAlink|d}})<sup>1</sup>|| || || || || || 
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[Affricate]]
!style="font-size:80%" |[[ejective consonant|ejective]]
| ||{{IPAlink|tsʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tɬʼ}}||{{IPAlink|tʃʼ}}|| || || || 
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|[[aspiration (linguistics)|aspirated]]
| ||{{IPAlink|tsʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tɬʰ}}||{{IPAlink|tʃʰ}}|| ||rowspan="2"|{{IPAlink|kxʰ}} ~ {{IPAlink|x}}|| || 
|-
!rowspan="2"|[[Fricative]]
!style="font-size:80%"|voiceless
|{{IPAlink|f}}||{{IPAlink|s}}||{{IPAlink|ɬ}}||{{IPAlink|ʃ}}|| || ||rowspan="2"|{{IPAlink|h}} ~ {{IPAlink|ɦ}}
|-
!style="font-size:80%"|voiced
| || || ||{{IPAlink|ʒ}} ~ {{IPAlink|dʒ}}|| || || 
|-
!colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
| || ||{{IPAlink|l}}|| ||{{IPAlink|j}}||{{IPAlink|w}}|| || 
|-
!colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
| || ||{{IPAlink|r}} || || || ||{{IPAlink|ʀ}}|| 
|}

# {{IPA|[d]}} is an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/l/}}, occurring only before the close vowels ({{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}}). Dialectical evidence shows that in the Sotho–Tswana languages {{IPA|/l/}} was originally pronounced as a [[retroflex flap]] {{IPA|[ɽ]}}<!-- the Wikipedia articles on flaps and taps seem awfully confused, so I won't link to the topic --> before the two close vowels.

Sesotho makes a three-way distinction between lightly [[ejective consonant|ejective]], [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirated]] and [[voiced consonant|voiced]] [[stop consonant|stops]] in several [[place of articulation|places of articulation]].

The standard Sesotho post-alveolar clicks tend to be substituted with dental clicks in regular speech.

===Vowels===
The vowel system in Sesotho is as follows:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Doke |first1=Clement Martyn |authorlink=Clement Martyn Doke |last2=Mofokeng |first2=S. Machabe |year=1974 |title=Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar |edition=3rd |place=Cape Town |publisher=Longman Southern Africa |isbn=0-582-61700-6}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2025}}
:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
! rowspan=1|
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Back vowel|Near-back]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|close]]
| {{IPAlink|i}}
|
| {{IPAlink|u}}
|-
! [[Near-close vowel|near-close]]
| {{IPAlink|ɪ}}
|
| {{IPAlink|ʊ}}
|-
! [[Close-mid vowel|close-mid]]
| {{IPAlink|e}}
|
| {{IPAlink|o}}
|-
! [[Open-mid vowel|open-mid]]
| {{IPAlink|ɛ}}
| 
| {{IPAlink|ɔ}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|open]]
|
| {{IPAlink|ɑ}}
|}

==Orthography==
{{main|Sesotho orthography}}

==Grammar==
{{main|Sesotho grammar}}
The most striking properties of Sesotho grammar, and the most important properties which reveal it as a [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] language, are its [[Sesotho nouns|noun gender]] and [[Sesotho concords|concord]] systems. The grammatical gender system does not encode sex gender, and indeed, Bantu languages in general are not [[Grammatical marker|grammatically marked]] for gender.

Another well-known property of the Bantu languages is their [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] morphology. Additionally, they tend to lack any [[grammatical case]] systems, indicating noun roles almost exclusively through word order.

==See also==
* [[Sotho calendar]]
* [[Sotho people]]
* [[South African Translators' Institute]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* Batibo, H. M., Moilwa, J., and Mosaka N. 1997. ''The historical implications of the linguistic relationship between Makua and Sotho languages''. In PULA Journal of African Studies, vol. 11, no. 1 <!-- Related to other Southern languages -->
<!--*Demuth, K. 1992. ''Acquisition of Sesotho''. In D. Slobin (ed.), The Cross-Linguistic Study of Language Acquisition.
-->
* [[Clement Martyn Doke|Doke, C. M.]], and Mofokeng, S. M. 1974. ''Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar''. Cape Town: Longman Southern Africa, 3rd. impression. {{ISBN|0-582-61700-6}}.
* Ntaoleng, B. S. 2004. ''Sociolinguistic variation in spoken and written Sesotho: A case study of speech varieties in Qwaqwa''. M.A. thesis. University of South Africa. <!-- Setaung, Setlokwa, and Serotse "dialects" -->
* Tšiu, W. M. 2001. ''Basotho family odes (Diboko) and oral tradition''. M.A. thesis. University of South Africa<!-- Stuff about The Klan (this paper is a bit confused on some points and is somewhat unreliable)... -->
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{interWiki|code=st}}
{{Wiktionary|Sotho}}
{{Wikivoyage|Sesotho phrasebook|Sesotho|a phrasebook}}
* [http://www.sesotho.org Sesotho Online] A gentle introduction to the Sesotho language and culture.
* [http://sesotho.blogspot.com Weblog on Sesotho] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929032954/http://sesotho.blogspot.com/ |date=29 September 2019 }}
* [http://translate.org.za/ Translate.org.za] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070114015602/http://translate.org.za/ |date=14 January 2007 }} Project translating Free and Open Source Software into South African languages, including Sesotho.
* [http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Sesotho PanAfrican L10n page on Sesotho] Information on the language and localisation.
* [http://friendsoflesotho.org/files/puo_ea_sechaba.pdf Sesotho language tutorial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011141208/http://friendsoflesotho.org/files/puo_ea_sechaba.pdf |date=11 October 2017 }} A beginner's language text, created for the US Peace Corps.
* [https://www.scribd.com/doc/71077505/Sesotho-Language-Manual the SeSotho book]  Another book developed by a Peace Corps volunteer

===Software===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070114015602/http://translate.org.za/content/view/1610/54/ Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070324112647/http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/32/ OpenOffice.org], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070210160756/http://translate.org.za/content/view/1611/54/ Mozilla Firefox web-browser], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20070324203655/http://translate.org.za/content/view/1612/54/ Mozilla Thunderbird email program] in Sesotho.

{{Languages of Lesotho}}
{{Languages of South Africa}}
{{Languages of Zimbabwe}}
{{Narrow Bantu languages (Zones N–S)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotho language}}
[[Category:Sotho language| ]]<!-- ethnic group category -->
[[Category:Vowel-harmony languages]]
[[Category:Subject–verb–object languages]]