Zulu language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Zulu
isiZulu
Native to	South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland
Region	KwaZulu-Natal, eastern Gauteng, eastern Free State, southern Mpumalanga
Native speakers	12 million  (2011 census)e18 L2 speakers: 16 million (2002)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Zunda Zulu
Writing system	Latin (Zulu alphabet) Zulu Braille
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Regulated by	Pan South African Language Board
Guthrie code	S.42
Linguasphere	99-AUT-fg incl. varieties 99-AUT-fga to 99-AUT-fge
Proportion of the South African population that speaks Zulu at home      0–20%      20–40%      40–60%      60–80%      80–100%
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Zulu or isiZulu (Zulu: isiZulu) is the language of the Zulu people. About 10 million people speak Zulu. Most of them (95%) live in South Africa.

It is the most common home language in South Africa. About 24% of people there speak it at home. More than half of the population also understands the language.

In 1994, Zulu became one of South Africa's 11 official languages. Like other Bantu languages, Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet.

Where Zulu is Spoken

Where isiZulu is spoken in South Africa: the percentage of people who speak isiZulu at home.

0–20%      20–40%      40–60%

60–80%      80–100%

Where isiZulu is spoken in South Africa: how many isiZulu speakers live in each area.

<1 /km²      1–3 /km²      3–10 /km²      10–30 /km²      30–100 /km²

100–300 /km²      300–1000 /km²      1000–3000 /km²      >3000 /km²

Zulu is part of the Nguni group of Bantu languages. People who move from place to place, called migrants, have carried the language to other areas.

You can now find Zulu speakers in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, and Swaziland. In Zimbabwe, Zulu speakers use a dialect called "Northern Ndebele language".

People who speak Xhosa can usually understand Zulu. The same is true for Zulu speakers understanding Xhosa. Xhosa is a common language in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

History of the Zulu Language

The Zulu, Xhosa, and other Nguni people have lived in South Africa for a very long time. The Zulu language has many click sounds. These sounds are special to Southern African languages.

Zulu and other native Southern African languages were first only spoken. They were not written down until missionaries came from Europe. These missionaries used the Latin alphabet to write Zulu.

The first Zulu grammar book was published in Norway in 1850. It was written by Hans Paludan Smith Schreuder. The oldest document written in Zulu is a Bible from 1883.

John Dube, a Zulu from Natal, wrote the first Zulu novel. It was called Insila kaShaka and came out in 1933. Other important Zulu writers include Reginald Dhlomo, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, and Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali.

Before 1994, the Zulu Language Board in KwaZulu-Natal managed the Zulu language. Today, the Pan South African Language Board helps support all 11 official languages of South Africa.

Zulu Language Today

Before 1994, South Africa's official languages were English, Dutch, and Afrikaans. During a time called Apartheid, Zulu was often spoken in the Kwazulu area. Apartheid was a system of unfair rules that separated people.

However, all high school education was in English or Afrikaans. After Apartheid ended in 1994, Zulu became one of South Africa's official languages.

The SABC started showing Zulu TV and news programs in the 1980s. Today, there are many Zulu radio stations and newspapers. They are mostly found in the Kwazulu-Natal province and Johannesburg.

The first full-length movie in Zulu was Yesterday. It was made in 2004 and was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar).

In The Lion King movie, the "Circle of Life" song has many Zulu phrases. Some of these phrases are:

• Ingonyama nengw' enamabala (A lion and a leopard come to this open place)
• Nants ingonyama bakithi Baba' (Here comes a lion, Father)
• Siyo nqoba (We will conquer)

Other Lion King songs also use Zulu phrases.

Standard and Urban Zulu

There are two main types of Zulu. One type is called standard Zulu. It is taught in schools and is also known as "deep Zulu" (Zulu: isiZulu esijulile).

Standard Zulu tries to create new words from existing Zulu words. This is for new ideas or things. The other type is called urban Zulu (Zulu: isiZulu sasedolobheni). This is the Zulu spoken by people in cities.

Urban Zulu often uses loan words from other languages. Most of these borrowed words come from English. Here are some examples of how these two types of Zulu differ:

These differences can make learning Zulu harder for young people. They often speak urban Zulu and might not fully understand standard Zulu.

Common Zulu Phrases

Here is a list of some common phrases in Zulu:

Zulu Place Names

Zulu place names often use a special form called the locative. This means the name itself can also act like a preposition. A preposition tells you where something is, like "to," "at," "in," or "from."

For example, the Zulu name for Johannesburg is iGoli. If you say eGoli, it means "to/at/in/from Johannesburg." The word Goli means "Johannesburg," but it doesn't make sense on its own in Zulu.

Usually, changing the i- or u- at the start of a place name to e- changes its meaning this way. Sometimes, like with Durban, the name changes a bit too.

'Zulu' or 'isiZulu'?

The Zulu name for the language is isiZulu. The part isi- at the beginning means "language."

For example:

• isiNgisi means English
• isiXhosa means Xhosa
• isiBhunu means Afrikaans
• isiJalimane means German

When the word Zulu has a different prefix, it means something else. This table shows how the meaning changes:

Zulu Words in South African English

Many Zulu words are used in South African English. Some words, like the names of local animals, are even used in standard English. For example, Impala and mamba are Zulu words.

Here are some other Zulu words used in South African English:

• Muti (from umuthi) - medicine
• Donga (from udonga) - ditch (udonga actually means 'wall' in Zulu)
• Indaba - conference (it means 'an item of news' in Zulu)
• inDuna - chief or leader
• Shongololo (from ishongololo) - millipede
• Ubuntu - compassion or humanity.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma zulú para niños