Xhosa linguistic features

Xhosa is an agglutinative language featuring an array of prefixes and suffixes that are attached to root words. As in other Bantu languages, Xhosa nouns are classified into fifteen morphological classes (or genders), with different prefixes for singular and plural. Various parts of speech that qualify a noun must agree with the noun according to its gender. These agreements usually reflect part of the original class that it is agreeing with. Constituent word order is subject–verb–object.

Verbs are modified by affixes that mark subject, object, tense, aspect, and mood. The various parts of the sentence must agree in class and number.


 * Examples


 * ukudlala – to play
 * ukubona – to see


 * umntwana – a child
 * abantwana – children


 * umntwana uyadlala – the child plays
 * abantwana bayadlala – the children play


 * indoda – a man
 * amadoda – men


 * indoda iyambona umntwana – the man sees the child
 * amadoda ayababona abantwana – the men see the children

Vowels
Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels:, , , and , both long and short, written a, e, i, o and u.

Tones
Xhosa is a tonal language with two inherent, phonemic tones: low and high. Tones are frequently not marked in the written language, but when they are, they are a [à], á [á], â [áà], ä [àá]. Long vowels are phonemic but are usually not written, except for â and ä which are the results of gemination of two vowels with different tones each and have thereby become long vowels with contour tones (â high-low = falling, ä low-high = rising).

Consonants
Xhosa is rich in uncommon consonants. Besides pulmonic egressive sounds, as in English, it has 18 clicks (in comparison, Juǀ'hoan, spoken by roughly 10,000 people in Botswana and Namibia, has 48 clicks, and the Taa language, with roughly 4,000 speakers in Botswana, has 83 click sounds, the largest consonant inventory of any known language), plus ejectives and an implosive. 15 of the clicks also occur in Zulu, but are used less frequently than in Xhosa.

The six dental clicks (represented by the letter "c") are made with the tongue on the back of the teeth, and are similar to the sound represented in English by "tut-tut" or "tsk-tsk" to reprimand someone. The second six are lateral (represented by the letter "x"), made by the tongue at the sides of the mouth, and are similar to the sound used to call horses. The remaining six are alveolar (represented by the letter "q"), made with the tip of the tongue at the roof of the mouth, and sound somewhat like a cork pulled from a bottle.

The following table lists the consonant phonemes of the language, giving the pronunciation in IPA on the left, and the orthography on the right:


 * 1) Two additional consonants, and, are found in borrowings. Both are spelled r.
 * 2) Two additional consonants, and, are found in borrowings. Both are spelled zh.
 * 3) Two additional consonants, and, are found in loans. Both are spelled dz.
 * 4) An additional consonant, is found in loans. It is spelled ngh.

In addition to the ejective affricate, the spelling tsh may also be used for either of the aspirated affricates and.

The breathy voiced glottal fricative is sometimes spelled h.

The ejectives tend to only be ejective in careful pronunciation or in salient positions, and even then only for some speakers; elsewhere they tend to be tenuis (plain) stops. Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, though this is uncommon.

The murmured clicks, plosives, and affricates are only partially voiced, with the following vowel murmured for some speakers. That is, da may be pronounced (or, equivalently, ). They are better described as slack voiced than as breathy voiced. They are only truly voiced after nasals, though then the oral occlusion is very short in stops, and most often does not occur at all in clicks, so that the absolute duration of voicing is the same as in tenuis stops. (They may also be voiced between vowels in some speaking styles.) The more salient characteristic is their depressor effect on the tone of the syllable.

Consonant changes with prenasalisation
When consonants are prenasalised, their pronunciation and spelling may change. Murmur no longer shifts to the following vowel. Fricatives become affricates, and if voiceless, become ejectives as well, at least with some speakers: mf is pronounced ; ndl is pronounced ; n+hl becomes ntl ; n+z becomes ndz, etc. The orthographic b in mb is a voiced plosive,.

When voiceless clicks c, x, q are prenasalised, a silent letter k is added – nkc, nkx, nkq – so as to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks nc, nx, nq.