Xhosa (/ˈkɔːsə/ KAW-sə or /ˈkoʊsə/ ⓘ KOH-sə,[5][6][7] 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.

[11] Zunda languages effectively form a dialect continuum of variously mutually intelligible varieties.

[16] Xhosa has an inventory of ten vowels: [a], [ɛ~e], [i], [ɔ~o] and [u] written a, e, i, o and u in order, all occurring in both long and short.

Tones are rarely marked in the written language, but they can be indicated ⟨a⟩ [à], ⟨á⟩ [á], ⟨â⟩ [áà], ⟨ä⟩ [àá].

Similarly, the tenuis (plain) clicks are often glottalised, with a long voice onset time, but that is uncommon.

Prenasalisation occurs in several contexts, including on roots with the class 9 prefix /iN-/, for example on an adjective which is feature-matching its noun: /iN- + ɬɛ/ → intle"beautiful" (of a class 9 word like inja "dog") When aspirated clicks (⟨ch, xh, qh⟩) are prenasalised, the silent letter ⟨k⟩ is added (⟨nkc, nkx, nkq⟩) to prevent confusion with the nasal clicks ⟨nc, nx, nq⟩, and are actually distinct sounds.

This process can skip rightwards to non-local syllables (i.e. uku-sebenz-is-el + wa -> ukusetyenziselwa "be used for"), but does not affect morpheme-initial consonants (i.e. uku-bhal+wa -> ukubhalwa "to be written", instead of illicit *ukujalwa).

The palatalization process only applies once, as evidenced by ukuphuphumisa+wa -> ukuphuphunyiswa "to be made to overflow", instead of the illicit alternative, *ukuphutshunyiswa.

The verb is modified by affixes to mark subject, object, tense, aspect and mood.

Verbs use the following prefixes for the subject and object: The following is a list of phrases that can be used when one visits a region whose primary language is Xhosa: (said to a group of people) Xhosa-speaking people have inhabited coastal regions of southeastern Africa since before the 16th century.

Ancestors of the Xhosa migrated to the east coast of Africa and came across Khoisan-speaking people; "as a result of this contact, the Xhosa people borrowed some Khoisan words along with their pronunciation, for instance, the click sounds of the Khoisan languages".

[21] The Bantu ancestor of Xhosa did not have clicks, which attests to a strong historical contact with a Khoisan language that did.

But, as with any language, Xhosa had a rich history of oral traditions from which the society taught, informed, and entertained one another.

The language of instruction at universities in South Africa is English (or Afrikaans, to a diminishing extent[22]), and Xhosa is taught as a subject, both for native and for non-native speakers.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the language spoken in the fictional African nation of Wakanda is Xhosa.

This came about because South African actor John Kani, a native of the Eastern Cape province who plays Wakandan King T'Chaka, speaks Xhosa and suggested that the directors of the fictional Civil War incorporate a dialogue in the language.

For Black Panther, director Ryan Coogler "wanted to make it a priority to use Xhosa as much as possible" in the script, and provided dialect coaches for the film's actors.