Southern Ndebele language

King Musi was a polygamist and fathered the following sons, Skhosana (Masombuka), Manala (Mbuduma), Ndzundza (Hlungwana), Thombeni (Kekana or Gegana), Sibasa, Mhwaduba (Lekhuleni) and Mphafuli and others.

The language is a Nguni or Zunda classification (UN) spoken mostly in the Mpumalanga Province, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northwest.

Until the formation of the apartheid Southern Ndebele homeland (KwaNdebele), speaking the language publicly was discouraged.

The following table gives an overview of Southern Ndebele noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.

The South African (or Southern Transvaal Ndebele), while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the Sotho languages.

Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks isiNdebele at home.
  • 0–20%
  • 20–40%
  • 40–60%
  • 60–80%
  • 80–100%
Geographical distribution of isiNdebele in South Africa: density of isiNdebele home-language speakers.
  • <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
Bilingual sign in Afrikaans and Transvaal Ndebele at the Pretoria Art Museum