File:South_Africa_Xhosa_speakers_proportion_map.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ13218· pop 112· linked from 2,473 articles

Xhosa

Also known as xh, isiXhosa, Xosa, Xhosa language, xho

Nguni language of southern South Africa

AI overview

Xhosa is a language spoken in southern South Africa that belongs to the Nguni language family. It matters because it is an important part of the cultural identity and heritage of the Xhosa people and millions of speakers in the region.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~15 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Xhosa (/ˈkoʊsə/ KOH-sə, Xhosa: [ᵏǁʰôːsa] ), formerly spelled Xosa and also known by its local name isiXhosa, is a Bantu language, indigenous to Southern Africa and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8 million people and as a second language in South Africa, particularly in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng, and also in parts of Zimbabwe and Lesotho. It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in a Bantu language (approximately tied with Yeyi), with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Xhosa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.