language

The southern Bantoid language isiZulu (often called: Zulu) is the tongue of the Zulu people and is spoken in the KwaZulu-National Province (South Africa). Its first grammar got published in 1859 and it is very similar to the languages Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele. Even though those languages are very akin to each other, the natural speakers divide them strictly.

 

Today, isiZulu is one of South Africa’s eleven official languages and is spoken by over 11,76 million people as a first, and by 15,7 million people as a second language. It’s also used in other countries – such as Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi.

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Due to Zulu’s similarity to Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele, the language is also used as a lingua franca and trading language between territories. It can be studied in school from first to tenth grade, and there are several newspaper (in the republic of South Africa) (partly) written in Zulu.