Sindebele
Lists: Natural languages | Language families | Conlangs | Other Lists
Fact corner
- Language: Sindebele
- Alternate names: Isinde’bele, Northern Ndebele, Sindebele, Tabele, Tebele
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:nde
- Language family: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Nguni (S.40)
- Number of speakers: 1,572,800
- Script: Latin script
On this page... (hide)
Introduction
The Sindebele (Northern Ndebele) language is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe.
Sindebele speaking areas.
The Sindebele (Northern Ndebele) is a different language compared with Southern Ndebele.
IsiNdebele is an agglutinating language, in which suffixes and prefixes are used to alter meaning in sentence construction. Like the other indigenous South African languages, isiNdebele is also a tonal language, in which the sentence structure tends to be governed by the noun.
Sindebele Verb
The personal prefixes are attached before ther verb stem.
Sample Verb
hamba 'to go'
| Sg.1 | ngihamba |
| Sg.2 | uhamba |
| Sg.3 | |
| Pl.1 | sihamba |
| Pl.2 | lihamba |
| Pl.3 | bahamba |
More information
Categories: Niger-Congo | Atlantic-Congo | Volta-Congo | Benue-Congo | Bantoid | Narrow Bantu | Latin script | Language