Nguni
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- For the cattle breed see Nguni cattle.
Nguni (an older variant is Ngoni) commonly refers both to a group of clans and nations living in south-east Africa, and to a group of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa including Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Phuthi and Ndebele. The appellation derives from the Nguni cattle type.
It is sometimes argued that use of Nguni as a generic label suggests a historical monolithic unity of the peoples in question where in fact the situation may have been more complex (Wright 1987). The linguistic use of the label (referring to a subgrouping of the Bantu languages) is relatively stable.
Typically, the linguistic classificatory category "Nguni" subsumes two subgroups: "Zunda Nguni" and "Tekela Nguni" (cf. Doke 1954, Ownby 1985). This division is based almost exclusively on the salient phonological distinction between the corresponding consonants: Zunda /z/ and Tekela /t/. Zunda languages include Zulu, Xhosa, and Zimbabwean Ndebele. Tekela languages include Swati, Phuthi, Northern (South African) Ndebele, and the little-studied varieties Bhaca and Hlubi.
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[edit] Social organization
Within the Nguni nations, the clan - based on male ancestry - formed the highest social unit. Each clan was led by a chieftain. Influential men tried to achieve independence by creating their own clan. The power of a chieftain often depended on how well he could hold his clan together. From about 1800, the rise of the Zulu clan of the Nguni and the consequent mfecane that accompanied the expansion of the Zulus under Shaka, helped to drive a process of alliance between and consolidation among many of the smaller clans. For example, the kingdom of Swaziland was formed in the early nineteenth century by different Nguni groups allying with the Dlamini clan against the threat of external attack. Today the kingdom encompasses many different clans who speak an Nguni language called Swati and are loyal to the king of Swaziland, who is also the head of the Dlamini clan.
[edit] Language
The Nguni languages are closely related, and in many instances mutually intelligible.
Compare the following sentences:
- I love your new home
Ngiyalithanda ikhaya lakho elisha (Zulu)
Ndiyalithanda ikhaya lakho elitsha (Xhosa)
Giyalitshadza likhaya lakho lelitjha (Phuthi)
Note: Xhosa <tsh> = Phuthi <tjh> = IPA [tʃʰ]; Zulu <sh> = IPA [ʃ].
- I only understand a little English
Ngiqonda kancane nje isiNgisi (Zulu)
Ndiqonda isiNgesi kancinci nje (Xhosa)
Givisisa siKguwa kanci jhe (Phuthi)
[edit] Religion
Nguni people can be Christians (whether Catholics or Protestants in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe), or practitioners of African traditional religions, or practising forms of Christianity modified with traditional African values (such as the Shembe Church of Nazarites).
[edit] See also
- Ngoni, the ethnonym and language name of a group living in Malawi, a geographically distant descendant of South African Nguni.
[edit] References
- Doke, Clement Martyn. (1954) The Southern Bantu Languages. Handbook of African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Ownby, Caroline P. (1985) 'Early Nguni History: The Linguistic Evidence and Its Correlation with Archeology and Oral Tradition'. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Wright, J. (1987) 'Politics, ideology, and the invention of the "nguni"', in Tom Lodge (ed.), Resistance and ideology in settler societies, 96-118.af:Nguni-taalfamilie
de:Nguni es:Idioma nguni fr:Langues nguni it:lingue nguni nl:Ngunitalen nn:Nguni pt:Nguni
