Languages of South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini

Postby **vijayjohn** » 2022-02-07, 21:01

Lesotho and Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, are completely landlocked kingdoms. However, Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy whereas Eswatini is an absolute monarchy. Eswatini borders South Africa and Mozambique, and Lesotho is completely surrounded by South African territory. The official languages of Lesotho are Southern Sotho and English, and those of Eswatini are Swazi and English. However, other languages are spoken in both countries as well.

South Africa has eleven official languages, and even its national anthem is in the five most widely spoken of those eleven languages. The first two lines are in Xhosa, the next two are in Zulu, the following stanza is in Southern Sotho, the third stanza is in Afrikaans, and the last stanza is in English. (During the apartheid era, white and Black South Africans had their own separate national anthems; the first two stanzas of the current anthem are taken from the Black one, and the last two are from the white one). Afrikaans, like English, is spoken in all three of South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini.

Xhosa is spoken over a huge area in South Africa and Lesotho. Southern Sotho and especially Zulu are spoken in smaller areas further to the east (including Lesotho). Xhosa and Zulu are very closely related and even mutually intelligible to some degree. However, while Zulu is spoken in Eswatini, Southern Sotho is spoken only by recent immigrants there. Northern Sotho is another official language, closely related to Southern Sotho but spoken in the northeast. Tswana is another closely related official language spoken in the northern part of South Africa towards the center.

Tsonga is a Tswa-Ronga language spoken in the northeastern part of South Africa, where it is an official language, and in Eswatini as well as nearby Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Venda is another official language in South Africa and an isolate within Bantu spoken just south of the South African border with Zimbabwe. Swazi is an official language in South Africa as well as Eswatini and somewhat closely related to Xhosa and Zulu.

Ndebele is also an officially recognized language in South Africa, but it doesn't seem to be specified whether it refers to Southern Ndebele, Northern Transvaal Ndebele, or both. Both are spoken to the east of Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. However, Southern Ndebele is more closely related to Zulu and Xhosa whereas Northern Transvaal Ndebele, spoken to its northeast, is more closely related to Swazi.

The Constitution of South Africa additionally awards special status to many languages, namely "Khoi languages," "San languages," Khoekhoe, South African Sign Language, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Arabic, Hebrew, and even Sanskrit. Khoekhoe is a Khoe-Kwadi language spoken in northwestern South Africa near the border with Namibia. "Khoi languages" and "San languages" are both imprecise terms but are presumably meant to include the other Khoe-Kwadi, Kx'a, and Tuu languages of South Africa. The other Khoe-Kwadi languages spoken in South Africa is Khoemana. Apparently, the only Tuu language spoken in South Africa, though not on a daily basis, is Nǁng. The only Kx'a language spoken in South Africa is Ekoka !Kung.

In addition to all of these languages that are officially recognized in one or more of these countries, there are also several other languages spoken in these countries without any apparent official recognition at all. In particular, Swazi's closest relatives are not recognized. Phuthi is one of these languages spoken in southern Lesotho and across the border in South Africa. Bhaca and Hlubi are others spoken southeast of Lesotho. It's not clear whether Lala and Nhlangwini are still alive; Lala at least used to be spoken on the eastern coast, and Nhlangwini, between Xhosa and Zulu. Finally, Ronga is a Tswa-Ronga language with no official status in any country but spoken just south of the southernmost border with Mozambique (as well as across the border in Mozambique).