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Xhosa language

NameXhosa
NativenameisiXhosa
FamilycolorNiger-Congo
StatesSouth Africa, Lesotho
RegionEastern Cape, Western Cape
Speakers7.9 million
EthnicityamaXhosa
Fam2Atlantic � Congo
Fam3Benue � Congo
Fam4Bantoid
Fam5Southern Bantoid
Fam6Bantu
Fam7Southern Bantu
Fam8Nguni
Fam9Zunda
NationSouth Africa
Iso1xh
Iso2xho
Iso3xho
NoticeIPA

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Xhosa (-enˈkoʊsə, Xhosa: -xhisikǁʰóːsa) is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.

Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet-based system. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks (for a more detailed explanation, see the table of consonant phonemes, below). Tones are not indicated in the written form.


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