Phuthi language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Phuthi Siphuthi | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Lesotho, South Africa | |
| Region: | Southern Africa | |
| Total speakers: | around 20,000 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Narrow Bantu Central S S60 (Nguni) Phuthi | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | bnt | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | unassigned | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Phuthi (Siphuthi) is a Nguni Bantu language heavily influenced by the surrounding Sotho and Xhosa languages. Phuthi is spoken in dozens (possibly hundreds) of scattered communities in the Eastern Cape / Lesotho borderland, from Herschel northwards and eastwards, and in the Matatiele area of the far northern Transkei, and throughout southern Lesotho. Phuthi-speakers are concentrated in regions south and east of Mt Moorosi, and in mountain villages west and north of Qacha (Qacha's Nek). Phuthi can be considered part of a historic dialect continuum with Swati.
The documentary origins of the language can be traced to Bourquin (1927), but in other oblique references nearly 200 years from the present (Ellenberger 1912). Until recently, the language has been very poorly documented with respect to its linguistic properties. The only significant earlier study (but with very uneven data, and few coherent linguistic assumptions) is Mzamane (1949).
Contents |
[edit] Geography and demography
It has been estimated that around 20 000 people in South Africa and Lesotho use Phuthi as their home language, but the actual figures could be much higher. There are several Phuthi dialects, falling into two main regions: Mpapa/Daliwe vs. all other areas (based on the single salient phonological criterion: presence/absence of secondary labialisation).
Mpapa and Daliwe (Sotho Taleoe [taliwɛ]) are villages in southern Lesotho, southeast of Mt Moorosi, on the dust road leading to Tosing, then on to Mafura (itself a Phuthi-speaking village), and finally Mpapa/Daliwe. Other Phuthi-speaking areas (all given in Lesotho Sotho orthography) include Makoloane [makolwani] and Mosuoe [musuwɛ], near Quthing, in south-western Lesotho; Seqoto [siǃoto] (Xhosa Zingxondo, Phuthi Sigxodo [sigǁodo]); Makoae [makwai] (Phuthi Magwayi) further to the east; and a number of villages north and west of Qacha's Nek. (Qacha is the main southeastern town in Lesotho, in the Qacha's Nek District). Phuthi-speaking diaspora (that is, heritage) areas include the far northern Transkei villages of Gcina (on the road to the Tele Bridge borderpost) and Mfingci [mfiŋgǀi] (across the Tele River opposite Sigxodo, approximately).
[edit] Political history
The most famous Phuthi leader was the very powerful Chief Moorosi (born in 1795), who died in unclear circumstances on Mount Moorosi in 1879, after a protracted nine-month siege by the British, Boers and Basotho forces, usually called "Moorosi's Rebellion". The issue that triggered the siege was alleged livestock theft in the Herschel area. In the aftermath of the siege, Phuthi people dispersed widely over what is contemporary southern Lesotho and the northern Transkei region, in order to escape capture by the colonial powers. Many were, however, captured, and put to work building the bridge at Aliwal North that crosses the Senqu (Orange River). Prior to 1879, Moorosi had been regarded as a very threatening competitor to father of the Lesotho nation, Chief Moshoeshoe I.
[edit] Linguistic features
Careful linguistic study during 1994-1998 of speech communities in Sigxodo and Mpapa resulted in the discovery of a surprisingly wide range of phonological phenomena, including:
- vowel harmony -- two types, in opposite directions: perseverative superclose vowel height; anticipatory ATR/RTR tenseness of mid vowels [e,ɛ o,ɔ];
- labialised coronal consonants ([tf dv]);
- startlingly complex tone/voice interactions (resulting in what appears to be massively non-local violations of tone locality);
- morphological use of vowel height ('supercloseness' -- a Sotho vocalic property);
- morphological use of a non-tonal suprasegmental property (breathy voicing/'depression').
- more radical application of vowel imbrication in two-syllable verb roots than in all surrounding southern Bantu languages.
The language has a relatively impoverished system of click consonants -- the three typical articulation points for Nguni languages (dental, alveolar and alveo-lateral), but with only four release types (plain, aspirated, voiced, nasalised).
[edit] Bibliography
- Bourquin, Walther (1927) 'Die Sprache der Phuthi'. Festschrift Meinhof: Sprachwissenschaftliche und andere Studien, 279-287. Hamburg: Kommissionsverlag von L. Friederichsen & Co.
- Donnelly, Simon (1997) 'Aspects of Tone and Voice in Phuthi'. (MS.) U. Illinois Ph.D dissertation.
- Ellenberger, David-Frédéric. (1912) History of the Basuto, Ancient and Modern. Transl. into English by J.C. Macgregor. (1992 reprint of 1912 ed.). Morija, Lesotho: Morija Museum & Archives.
- Msimang, Christian T. (1989) 'Some Phonological Aspects of the Tekela Nguni Languages'. Doctoral dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
- Mzamane, Godfrey I. M. (1949) 'A concise treatment on Phuthi with special reference to its relationship with Nguni and Sotho'. Fort Hare Papers 1.4: 120 - 249. Fort Hare: The Fort Hare University Press.
[edit] External links
- Note: the Ethnologue entry is currently inaccurate. Phuthi is no longer coherently in any obvious sort of heteronomous dialect relationship to Swati (several hundred kilometres separate the two language territories; Phuthi-speakers have no conscious awareness of any relationship to Swati). Nevertheless, there are very significant linguistic elements at all levels of the grammar, not least the lexicon, that tie Phuthi closely to Swati historically, in fact, as the closest living relative of Swati.
