Swati language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swati siSwati
Spoken in:	Swaziland, South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique
Total speakers:	1,706,924 (Ethnologue)
Language family:	Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Narrow Bantu Central S group Nguni (S.40) Swati
Official status
Official language of:	Swaziland, South Africa
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`ss`
ISO 639-2:	`ssw`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`ssw`

Swati (also known as siSwati, Swazi and Seswati) is a Bantu language of the Nguni Group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa. It has 1.5 million speakers and is taught in schools. It is an official language of Swaziland (along with English) and one of the 11 official languages of South Africa.

Although often referred to as Swazi, that is the name of the language and people in Zulu. It is closely related to the neighbouring languages Xhosa, Zulu, and Ndebele.

[edit] Dialects

Swati can be divide in four dialects corresponding to the four adminsitrative regions of the country: Shiselweni, Hhoho, Nandzini, and Shiselweni.

Depending on where one stands, siSwati has at least two strains. The standard 'correct' siSwati being spoken mainly throughout the north, centre and south west of the country.

In the very south, especially in towns such as Nhlangano and Hlathikhulu, the language spoken there has many Zulu influences and many Swazis, including these people in the south who speak this way, do not regard it as proper siSwati. This is what may be referred to as the second dialect in the country. However of the many speaker of siSwati in South Africa, mainly in the Mpumalanga province, is evident a strain of siSwati which would be more apt for regard as a dialect. Unlike the variant in the south of the country, the Mpumalanga version has less Zulu influence and could be said to be more like the siSwati spoken in the country except for its distinguishing characteristic, a different intonation. Stress patterns in Mpumalanga siSwati are discordant to the Swazi ear. In their difference they also exhibit evidence of influences from the other South African languages they are in close proximity to.

The most 'authentic' intonation is that found in northern Swaziland and its centre. A detectable feature is the royal style of slow, heavily stressed enunciation which is a feature of the language and has a mellifluous feel.