Resurrection of Jesus and

You
Jesusonline

isiNdebele for
beginners.
Northern Ndebele
language in Africa
IsiNdebele is the beautiful and expressive
language of the Matabele/ amaNdebele
people of Zimbabwe and is spoken in
Southern Africa. It is sometimes called
Northern Ndebele/ siNdebele. This blog
gives you some simple appreciation of the
isiNdebele language. Beginners please
read from the bottom post before you read
the newest posts at the top. Your
comments are welcome for any
suggestions or assistance.

Lessons ▼

Lessons
Salibonani bangane (hello friends). For
those of you who would like to learn
isiNdebele more formally, these are semi-
formal lessons we are trying to make. If
you would like to support us, please go to
our Patreon page
https://www.patreon.com/NorthernNdebel
e or get involved as a volunteer (we are
always happy for help), or if you have
suggestions, please email us at
[email protected]. You
can also email us if you want our free little
Northern Ndebele Phrasebook, which has
some fun sentences we came up with, for
you to practice everyday phrases. The
lessons are highlighted to help you find
the next lesson to go to.

Lesson 1 - Pronunciation

We always have to get this pronunciation

out the way first, so don't be scared, it's
pretty easy, simple to follow and you'll get
it quickly.

Vowels
In Ndebele, the vowels are spoken in a
single pure sound without dipthongs [the
name means "two voices/ sounds"]
(vowels where there is a noticeable sound
change or two vowels next to eachother).
This makes Ndebele a little easier to read
because, unlike similar languages such as
Xhosa or other languages such as
English, there are no double vowels e.g.
"uu".

a e.g. mama (mother), mfana (boy), sala

(stay)
e e.g. ye (yes), wena (you)
i e.g. yini? (what?), ilizwi (word)
o e.g. ogogo (grans), isigodo (pole)
u e.g. ufudu (tortoise), umumbu (maize)

Consonants
As seen in the above examples, the
consonants are generally easy for English
speakers. There are some rules to note
though, besides the click sounds which
we will cover later. These rules to note are
shown here in point form:

Aspirated consonants. These

consonants are written with an
"h" (to show that they are
different from non-aspirated
ones). You can test that the
sound is correct by holding
your hand in front of your
mouth to feel that air is
"aspirated" onto it.
Aspirated:
ph:
phapha (to fly), phepha! (sorry!), phila
(live) e.g. ngiyaphila = I am healthy [in
response to Unjani? (how are you?)]
th:
uthango (fence), ulutho (thing)
kh:
ikhabe (watermelon), ukhuni (a piece of
firewood), ukhezo (spoon)

Non-aspirated:
p:
impala (impala antelope), impela
(indeed), impilo (life, also the name of a
hospital)
t:
intango (fences), intengo (price), izinto
(things)
k:
inkabi (ox), inkezo (spoons), inkuni
(firewood)

Explosive and implosive 'b'

sound. The b sound has an 'h'
added, not because it is
aspirated but to show it is
explosive, i.e. it is like the
English 'b' sound but more
sharp.
explosive bh (sharp 'b' sound):
bhala (write), bhema (smoke), ibhiza
(horse)

implosive b (this sounds almost like a 'v'

sound where the lips are places together,
there is a momentary intake of air and
then a soft 'b' sound is produced)
bala (read), beka (put), ibizo (name)

Consonant combinations
tsh. In Ndebele,
this sounds like
"ch" in "church",
unlike in Zulu
where it sounds like
"sh".
isitsha
(contain
er),
tshiya
(leave),
tshetsh
a (walk
quickly)
tshaya
(hit.
Sounds
like
Chaya)
ng: this is a nasal
sound with 2 ways
of saying it
depending on the
word.
'ng' as in
'singing'.
A soft
sound
with
almost
silent 'g':
e.g.
indingin
di
(measle
s),
thenga
(buy)
'ng' as in
'finger'.
The 'g'
sound is
audibly
pronoun
ced,
soundin
g almost
like a 'k'
sound:
ngena
(come
in),
ingubo
(blanket)
, ngaki?
(how
many?),
amanga
(lies)
ny: a "n-ya" or "n-
yeah" sound:
omunye (another
person),
nyikinyeka (move)
hl: to make this
sound, put your
tongue on the top
of your mouth (roof)
like you are make
an 'l' sound e.g.
"la". Expel air and
an almost wet "hl"
sound will be made
as the air escapes
round the sides of
your tongue with
some friction
almost. mhlophe
(white), buhlungu
(pain), kuhle (well)
dl: to make this
sound, make the "l"
tongue position
similar to "hl" sound
but use your voice
to articulate the "d"
sound. indlu
(house/ hut),
ukudla (food)
kl: similar way to
"hl" to form this
sound but with the
tongue in a position
similar to when you
make a "g" sound.
klabalala (shriek),
klekla (pierce the
ear), kloloda
(mock)

Click Sounds

Ok, let's look at the 3 consonants which

produce the 3 click sounds found in
Ndebele. The positioning of the tongue
and how your remove it from where it is
pressed, determines the 3 types of sound.
The 3 clicks are for an 'x', 'c' and 'q'. I
spoke about these before, but here they
are again:

1. c is made by placing the tip of the

tongue against the front upper teeth
and gums, the centre of the tongue
is depressed and the tip of the
tongue is drawn backwards. The
resulting sound is similar to the
sound used in English to express
annoyance. Some examples are
cina (end), cela (ask).
2. The q sound is made by raising the
back of the tongue to touch the soft
palate and touching the gums with
the sides and tip of the tongue. The
centre of the tongue is depressed
and the tip drawn quickly away from
the gum. The resulting sound is like
the "pop" heard when quickly
removing the cork from a bottle.
Some examples are qalisa (start),
qeda (finish).
3. The x sound is made by placing the
tongue so that the back of the
tongue touches the soft palate and
the sides and tip of the tongue touch
the gums. One side of the tongue is
quickly withdrawn from the gums.
Some examples are xoxa (discuss),
ixoxo (frog).

You can also have:

aspirated click sounds
(followed by aspirated air from
your mouth). e.g. uchago
(milk), qha (expresses
dryness) e.g. ngiwomile qha!
(I am thirsty!)
nasal click sounds e.g. nxa
(when), inqola (cart), inqenye
(part), ingxabano (quarrel)

Other pronunciation such as intonation

should be learnt by imitation of Ndebele
speakers.

Ok, let's practice what we've learnt in

pronunciation before we go onto the next
lesson, which will be more fun and less
technical:

Ixhegu laqhoqhomela laxamalaza (the

old man stood on tiptoe and with feet
astride)
Iqaqa lalizigiqagiqa laze laqamula
unqala (The polecat was rolling along
until it broke its neck)
Iqaqa leyiqayeqha amaqhaqheni
Ixoxo axoxa izindaba ezixhagayo (the
frog chats about news)

Sala kahle (stay well), until next lesson,

check out the other tabs on the website,
or if you would like to support us, please
go to our Patreon
page https://www.patreon.com/NorthernN
debele or get involved as a volunteer by
emailing us at
[email protected].

Lesson 2 - The verb (infinitive)

In Ndebele, the verb has a basic "stem" to

which prefixes and suffixes are attached.

for example: 'hamba' is the stem for 'go'

and 'ukuhamba' means 'to go'.

To this we can add other prefixes and

suffixes e.g. 'ngihamba' means 'I go',
'angihambanga' means 'I have never
gone'.

If you look in an Ndebele dictionary, you

would look for the letter that the stem
word begins with e.g. if you were looking
at the word 'ukuhamba', you would look
under 'h' in the dictionary for 'hamba'.

You can use 'Hamba!' which means 'Go!'

This is the imperative, used when giving a
command to one person (e.g. hambani -
is saying 'go' to many people). Apart from
this situation, the verb stem will always
use at least one type of prefix.

Sala kahle (stay well), until next lesson,

check out the other tabs on the website,
or if you would like to support us, please
go to our Patreon
page https://www.patreon.com/NorthernN
debele or get involved as a volunteer by
emailing us at
[email protected].

Lesson 3 - The present tense

Continuing on from lesson 2 about verbs,

today we will look at the present tense of
a verb.

For example:
'I am going', 'I go' - ngihamba
'I want' - ngifuna
and thus we can say 'ngifuna
ukuhamba' - I want to go

Subject concords

1st person singular ngi- I

2nd person singular u- you
3rd person singular u- he/she
1st person plural si- we
you (+1
2nd person plural li-
person)
3rd person plural ba- they

Short present tense

This is the subject concord (as described

above) + the verb stem. This short
present tense is used only when another
word follows the verb stem.

For example:
'ngifuna ukuhamba' - I want to go
'ufuna ukuhamba' - You (singular) want
to go
'ufuna ukuhamba' - He/she wants to go
'sifuna ukuhamba' - We want to go
'lifuna ukuhamba' - You (plural) want to
go
'bafuna ukuhamba' - They want to go

The different versions of 'u-' are

distinguished in your speech intonation
and gestures. The first (you) has a lower
intonation than the second (he/she),
which has a higher, slightly longer
intonation. Don't worry, this will come
later, but you can always gesture towards
whom you refer.

Long present tense

If no other words follow the verb (i.e. it is

not a longer sentence) than a longer form
of the present tense must be used. To
form this, we place a '-ya-' between the
subject concord and verb stem. You will
get used to this so don't worry about the
phrasing/ technical names, just practice
speaking.

for example:
ngiyafuna - I want
uyafuna - You (sing.) want
uyafuna - He/she wants
siyafuna - We want
liyafuna - You (pl.) want
bayafuna - They want

Conversation:
Ufuna ukuhamba? - You want to go?
Yebo, ngiyafuna - Yes, I want to.

We will look at the short and long forms of

the verb in later lessons and you will see
that it is quite simple (Lesson 17, for
example).

Ok, now to look at some verb vocabulary,

look under the vocab tab in the top tabs.

Sala kahle (stay well), until next lesson,

check out the other tabs on the website,
or if you would like to support us, please
go to our Patreon
page https://www.patreon.com/NorthernN
debele or get involved as a volunteer by
emailing us at
[email protected]. For any
questions, please ask and answer those
of other learners in the Community
Questions tab.

Lesson 4 - Noun class 1: UM/ABA

Salibonani bangane. We have 9 classes

of nouns in siNdebele, based on how
those verbs start i.e. their prefixes. In
siNdebele, the noun has 2 parts: the
stem and the prefix.

e.g. umfana (boy) consists of "um' and

"fana"
abafana (boys) consists of "aba" and
"fana"
The stem stays the same, but the prefix
changes for the singular and plural. The
examples given are for the "um/aba" class
as the singular uses the prefix "um" and
the plural uses "aba". We will look at the
other classes in later lessons.

Example sentences:
Umfana omncinyane ogijimayo ucakile.
The boy of small size who is running is
thin or just "The little boy who is running is
thin".

You will notice that the whole structure of

the sentence is based on the noun
prefixes, "um" uses "u-cakile". For
comparison, let us look at another
sentence:

Inja encinyane egijimayo icakile

The little dog which is running is thin

Here, "inja" is from the noun class "i/izi",

where inja = dog and izinja = dogs, and
you will notice that "i-cakile" is used
for "inja' whereas 'u-cakile" was used for
"umfana".

Again, we will look at this more in later

lessons and you will start to see that it is
quite logical.

The article in English, such as "a" or "the",

does not appear in siNdebele, so the
following simply applies, for example:
umfana = a boy/ the boy
abafana = boys/ the boys

Kulungile bangane (ok friends), let us

look at some more vocabulary for the first
noun class we are looking at lamhla
(today):

Nouns

Singular Plural
Ndebele English Ndebele English
umfana boy abafana boys
umfundisi teacher abafundisi teachers
umlimi farmer abalimi farmers
umuntu person abantu people
umntwana child abantwana children
umtshayelidriver abatshayelidrivers
umzali parent abazali parents
umpheki cook abapheki cooks
umbazi carpenter ababazi carpenters
umfazi wife abafazi wives
umakhi builder abakhi builders
umelusi herdsmanabelusi herdsmen
umngane friend abangane friends

Yebo bangane, until next lesson, hamba

kahle. For any questions, please ask and
answer those of other learners in
the Community Questions tab. If you
would like to contribute or get involved as
a volunteer, or if you have suggestions,
please email us at
[email protected].

Lesson 5 - Noun class 2: U/O

Salibonani bangane. As described in

Lesson 3, nouns in siNdebele can be put
into 9 groups depending on their singular
and corresponding plural prefixes. You
learn't the first one, Um/Aba in Lesson 3.
Lamhla, let's look at the noun class U/O.

The singular prefix is "u-" e.g. umama

(mother), ubaba (father), ugogo
(grandmother)
The plural noun has a prefix "o-" e.g.
omama (mothers), obaba (fathers),
ogogo (grandmothers)

The Um/Aba nouns have corresponding

concords for sentences. The verb in the
sentence must respect the prefix of the
noun for the singula (u) and the plural
(ba).
e.g. ubaba uyapheka (Father is cooking)
obaba bayapheka (Our fathers are
cooking)

Most of the nouns for family members are

u/o, with a few different names father,
mother, grandfather (depending on who's
fther it is etc)

ubaba - my/our father

uyihlo - your father
uyise - their/ his/ her father

umama - my/ our mother

unyoko - your mother
unina - his/ her/ their mother

ubabamkhulu - my/ our grandfather

uyihlomkhulu - your grandfather
(oyihlomkhulu - your grandfathers)
uyisemkhulu - his/ her/ their grandfather

See if you can fill in the gaps for the

plurals above.

For grandmother, you can apply the same

rule, however "ugogo" is the common
word used for grandmother in siNdebele.
So instead of umamakhulu (shortened to
umakhulu), one would use
"ugogo/ogogo". It should be noted that,
for example, if you wanted to insult
someone and refered to "umama" instead
of "unyoko", you would actually be
insulting your own mother!

Also note that in siNdebele, people refer

to a "man" as "baba" and a "woman" as
"mama" etc. It just follows the respectful
way of addressing a person, especially an
older person.
e.g. Yebo, unjani baba? - Yes, how are
you gentleman?

For a person your age, you use "bude/

sisi" (brother/ sister)
e.g. Yebo sisi, unjani? Yes sister/girl,
how are you? (Again, this may not be your
actual sister or father etc)

There are also a few insects and animals

in the U/O class, for instance:
umangoye/ omngoye - cat/s
ubabhemi/ obabhemi - donkey/s

e.g. obabhemi bayahamba - the donkeys

are going

Peoples' names belong in this U/O class

also. For example:

The first name (ibizo) given to a child

after birth:

USipho uyadlala - Sipho is playing

UThandi uyagijima - Thandi is running

In siNdebele, the first name is used

normally to refer to a child, and adults use
their father's clan name/ surname
(isibongo). So for Sipho Ngwenya:

Ngifuna uNgwenya - I want Ngwenya

Sithanda oNgwenya - We like the

Ngwenyas

When a woman is married, the prefix "Ma-

" (from umama) is often used, so for
Thadi Khumalo:

e.g. UMaKhumalo uyahamba -

MaKhumalo is going away

Also, a grandson can take/ use his

ancestral nme (isitemo) which is normlly
the grandfather's first name, but he still
uses his isibongo (surname). There are
only a limited number of clan names in
siNdebele, so these will be noticed over
time.

Kulungile bangane, until Lesson 6,

sahle kahle (stay well).

Lesson 6 - The object of the verb

The object concord

The concords for the 1st, 2nd nd 3rd
person were looked at previously e.g.
ngiyathanda - I like

The concord appears directly before the

verb stem when used as the object of the
verb. In siNdebele, the object concord
never changes this position, which is quite
handy.

e.g. Uyangithanda - She likes me

Uyasithanda - She likes us

The object is similar to the subject