Xhosa lesson by Nelson Sebezela, guide for Calabash Tours in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, interviewed by Patrick Leighton. Filmed and edited by Silvio Marchini.
aeolian pish. Try other languages with extremely complex sentence structure and grammar. Xhosa is not too hard to pronounce at all in comparison to some of the most difficult to pronounce consonants in the world.
You think IsiXhosa and other Nguni languages are hard? They are Bantu languages. They borrowed their clicks from Khoisan people, such as the Nama, which have like 49 clicks!
+14Tumaini AS far as I know it's impolite to whisper in Xhosa culture. When you are whispering you are talking behind the backs of others. So it is always better to talking loudly and openly to demonstrate that you have no ill intent...or openly express that ill intent.
I know it's been a long time since you commented but I had a question. What does the "um" mean in umXhosa? Or like "isi" in isiZulu? What do these sorts of things mean? Thanks
@@rennnnnnnnnnnnn 'um' = person. Like a Zulu person is umZulu, a Xhosa person is umXhosa. Isi = the language, eg isiZulu or isiXhosa. kwa = place, like in KwaZulu-Natal (a province in South Africa)
Wow, its so amazing that white people find our language so interesting, and funny enough, there isnt this much interest from south african whites, but thank you guys for your appreciation, and by the way, its one of 11 different languages in our country and even south african black people of other languages find it difficult to learn, so its ok.
HI henry ngewu. I just sent someone a friend request on facebook with your name. I don't know if it's you as i see a couple more people with the same name. I am a musician/vocalist and am currently learning two songs. If you respond to this message I will have something to ask you. Thanks. If you don't respond and anyone else can speak this beautiful language please respond so I can contact you. Thanks so much in advance.
White people is a big generalization. Most people I know only joke around about this African click language. But obviously if your in a country, you might want to know more about the language or culture from the natives. Doesn't matter if its Zimbabwe, Spain, Italy, Japan, or whatever. I visited Russian and loved learning about the culture and their language, and many beautiful Native Russian women.
I'm an American who spent 3 years in Southern Africa, and I can pronounce most of it, but waaaay slower than that dude. Would love to be able to speak isiXhosa fluently one day
There's not a HUGE amount of clicks I don't think. I've just started researching it but there's not clicks in every word. The basic lessons I've seen about greetings ("Hello", "How are you", "I'm fine", etc) don't have any clicks at all.
It's so fascinating hearing languages that are so greatly different from your own that when you hear them for the first time it just fills you up with joy!
+European American Vanguard dude I do live around them, in case you don't know. There are tons of African people here and I do have African friends to spend time with as well.
Xhosa is an interesting language. It's speech and music at the same time. If the birds could speak, they would speak this way. These clicking sounds are like chirping or a percussion. Every Xhosa speaker is a musician.
Wow! This language is absolutely amazing and intriguing! I see why it was listed as one of the sexiest languages of S. Africa on Family Feud S. Africa with Steve Harvey.
When I was in high school, we sang a song in Xhosa and it was really difficult to get those clicks!! It was such a beautiful song, though, so fun to sing.
Dawngaward0110 Probably as understandable as English without the letter "k" or "g". The clicks are consonants in Xhosa, so they're on the same level as other consonants like "s"
Dawngaward0110 No offence, but i laughed SO hard, when i read your comment xD The words using clicks wouldn't make sense if you didn't click. As Aashil says, it's just normal letters - pronounced in a different way :)
Lmhafu It's actually an extremely advanced language. They say that it is most likely aliens would speak in a series of staccato clicks. They are laughing because YOU don't understand it.
Ginsuma As i speak isiXhosa my self, I know. Also I didn't say that its not an advanced language, like at all. Actually more the opposite - by saying that you can't simplify the language by not pronouncing the click sounds. But even english can be hard to understand sometimes, right ? ;)
+Dawngaward0110 No, it wouldn't.. it's like 'take' and 'make'.. it does make a difference if you don't make the clicking sound.. that's called phoneme in linguistics.. :)
Mistake 1: That;s not pronunciation. Pronunciation of c is c in Xhosa not ca ce ci co cu. Exclude all the vowels please and pronounce the consonants independently of the vowels. Thanks. Mistake 2: Since everything can be learned, my language Xhosa can also be learnt. The way i understand language learning is like 2 people standing at different positions. One is here and another a few metres away. They need to be at the same spot for both of them to equally understand the same language. The distance from both of them is the same. It is not shorter/longer for the other. Therefore the level of difficulty for a French to learn English will be equal to the level of the native English person experiences when they learn French. All in all every thing can be difficult to learn for a beginner but it is not impossible. Simple master how to pronounce the click words independently and then proceed to combine them with the vowels ca, ce, ci, co, cu; xa xe xi xo xu and qa, qe qi qo qu. You should be able to master all that within an hour. You don't have to worry about the meaning at this stage as they mean nothing until combined with other letters to form a complete word. All you need to worry about is pronouncing it correctly. It should be easy as you simply replaces your own language's way of calling these clicks with our own version. Once you have mastered that, proceed to a slightly higher level of difficulty where you include the letters 'nk' infront of this clicks so you will have: nkca, nkce, nkci, nkco, nkcu nkxa, nkxe, nkxi, nkxo, nkxu nkqa, nkqe, nkqi, nkqo, nkqu Examples inkcazelo = explanation, inkcenkce = iron, inkcitho = expenditure, inkco=? inkcubeko = culture inkonkxa = cylinder/large can inkqatho = deceit, inkqekeko = split, nkqi = an ideophone symbolising hardness, nkqonkqoza = knock, inkqubo = program/show Once familiar with that proceed to include the letters :'h' and 'g' with the clicks. For example where you have c you include 'h' and 'g' and now you have 'ch' and 'gc' Note in the case of 'g' the click sound comes afterwards. Eventually we will have the following clicks: cha che chi cho chu (examples of words chanekileyo = accurately, umchamo = urine, cheba = shave, ichibi = lake, chola = pick (off the ground) ichule = expert) gca gce gci gco gcu gcada = fry, emgceni = in the line, gcina = keep, umgcobo = joy, ukugcuma = to be in great pain xha xhe xhi xho xhu ixhala = anxiety, ixhego = old man, umxhelo - accord, isixhiba = grudge, isixhobo = weapon, xhuma - jump gxa gxe gxi gxo gxu igxamesi = boarding school/place to rent by schoolkids, gxeka = criticise, gxi= ?, gxotha = evict, gxu = ? qha qhe qhi qho qhu qhatha = cheat, qhela = get used/acquaint, iqhiya - headscarf, iqhina = slope, qhuba = drive/proceed gqa gqe gqi gqo gqu igqala = veteran, gqebha = share/strike, gqiba = complete/finish, gqobhoza = puncture/pierce, gquma = cover Lastly we attach gx, gq and gc with n infront to make ngx, ngq and ngc Examples of words ingxolo = noise, ingqondo = mind, ingca = grass That's all. It doesn't get any worse than this. This you can complete in 2 days if you are very slow at learning. All the other words that are not represented by their clicks here it means they don't have any click sounds with them. Thanks for reading. Happy learning.
But...your 'mistake 1' is not a mistake if it helps us learners pronounce/understand better. It IS easier for us to learn the consonant sounds when they're attached to vowels. You are thinking from the perspective of a natural speaker as opposed to a new learner. Mistake 1 is not a mistake because what he did truly helps.
Oh...and you should upload a video demonstrating all that you've typed. It is indeed very interesting information but they remain just groups of letters until we learn how to pronounce them.
Nelson: "like this" (executes flawless xhosa pronunciation) "can you do that?" Patrick: (executes xhosa in the the whitest way possible) "like that?" Nelson: "sure, why not."
I want to thank you so much for this video. I'm an English language assistant and I teach my students about South Africa as well. I tell them that if they think English is difficult, they should try Xhosa and I show them your video. They always love it. Thank you so much. It makes me happy every time I see it.
I'm not from South Africa but I teach English abroad and I love this idea! It's always a great way to add in some culture to lessons too. I might just take this idea.
lol, i'm laughing at your comment because I am Xhosa and i often receive this question from my international friends, they say we sound 'angry' all the time it should be impossible to whisper. Yes its difficult to whisper because you have to replace the clicks with soft words which are deep Xhosa and might results in the person you talking to not to understand what you are saying.
lol.. i dont think the language sounds angry, actually, my question is more about the volume.. Because I dont know if the clicking sounds can be made louder (if you want to shout) or lower, if you want to whisper..
@@zervinhoa-z8904 lmao, I speak Spanish from Argentina and other latinamerican countries people used to offend or take it wrong because my accent, but that's because they're not used to to the sound, that's it lol
Glorious language! I love the example: A squirrel walked to the top of a hill, and decided to roll back down to the bottom. Beautiful beyond description.
This was torture for me in high school!!! Especially xhosa poetry and essay's!!! 😭🇿🇦 once your pass pronounciation, writing and understanding becomes the issue
Kwaito is not xhosa rap >>>here are a couple of xhosa rap songs and artists you should look into 1. Driemanskap- Camagu 2. Kanyi- Ingoma 3. Jargon- Andazi nzoythetha nabani 4. Nkqo- ntombazana emhlotshazana 5.Maxhoseni 6.Rattex Welcome to Khaltsha 7. Ndlulamthi- emvuleni 8. Simbone- Mbali 9.Backyard Crew- Baby girl 10.Nqotsonga- Amazwi kaNkululeko... therez actually quite a whole lot more artists but their tracks aren't on youtube NB: Xhosa rap is Spaza and Mbuzo Buciko (2 subgenres)
I'm trying to learn Zulu, which is sort of like Xhosa with the click sounds, so this video helps a lot with pronunciation. African languages are fun for linguistic nerds such as myself.
I have read, and can believe, that if you don't learn this as a child you probably are never going to be a fluent speaker - at least not at the usual rate of speech that native speakers use. Watching and listening to this, it seems like the clicks are coming from somewhere else, not the man's mouth. That's because I'm not accustomed to hearing clicks intermingled with speech.
U can if u stay for 2years in Xhosa area but u can not be fluenf to rural Xhosa is difficult even to urban xhosas they can speak the rural Xhosa for example I can easy see the cape town born bcoz the cape town Xhosa in is not pure Xhosa the r added words n words r spoken in e.c r not used in cpt Xhosa
Funny, in Egypt we make these sounds and we're totally unaware that these are letters. "X" is for making donkeys move, C means NO (friendly) and Q as a funny sound
Thats not P.E its Kwanobuhle an area 10km away from P.E what if i said Florida Keys when im talking about Orlando or Arlington when im talking about Austin so dont make those mistakes if u r not sure ask a real south african or sometimes a real african plz i know this a long comment and i dont anyone will read whole thing so dont ever ever ever ever ever ever ever make that mistake again
Are you telling me that there is a language built around the noises I use to get the attention of my cat?? That's great, I'm already a pro! (Just kidding, of course, love you and love the beautiful differences that are in the world).
That was incredible! I love Xhosa and the other Nguni languages! Could someone who speaks Xhosa please give me a transcription of his 3 example sentences for me? I'd like to learn how to say the tongue twisters but he's speaking too quickly for me to hear what he's saying!
Just a RU-vidr He tells you as he's going through them. The sounds at 0:33 are written with "c", at 0:47 is "x" (you can hear him use it whenever he says "xhosa"), and 1:01 is written with "q".
I saw a video on the clicks a few months ago or so...I don't know the language so I'm not sure but if my memory is correct the letters X, C, and Q are clicks.
I made this comment way before the meme went viral and was even a thing. Though I must admit, I am getting aids rn rereading what I have written and am in regret.
@masterg253 i didn't realize you were a studied linguist with an ability to differentiate the location of sounds through a video. what a talent you have. educate yourself, seriously.
This actually a highly advanced language which may have been directly passed down to us from aliens. It is widely thought that if we were to meet aliens from outer space they would speak in a series of staccato clicks.
Believed by who and on what basis? Why are we assuming aliens have a tongue? Or a mouth, or ears? What if they speak with light and communicate in cascading rainbows?
I'm learning mandarin and trying to get the tones right is so difficult to me, after watching this I feel so blessed all I have to learn is the tones lol All the clicks sounded the same to me, such a fascinating language! :))
Truly LOVE my people, Miriam Makeba , the late songstress even sang songs in the "clicking" language. Hope to someday get a DNA test done to find out my heritage here in Africa...P.S. Miriam's father I just read, was from the Xhosa tribe.
if you an African American ,no need to look for ancestry heritage in south Africa because Slaves werent taken there .Go read history you will understand
