It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga.

In his own words, Junod states the following:[4] My conclusion is then that the Thonga language was already-spoken by the primitive occupants of the country more than 500 years ago and that, together with a certain number of customs, it formed the great bond which bound the Thonga clans together in past centuries.Further studies were carried out by Junod and other Swiss missionaries such as Henri Berthoud and Ernest Creux, who began to unify the language in order to have a standard way of writing and reading.

"Shigwamba" was a term used by the missionaries in order to group the language under a unified identity, however the name was unfamiliar to many of the Tsonga people and had to be replaced with "Thonga/Tsonga".

Harries makes reference to this:[5] As the term Gwamba was unknown outside the Spelonken, Henri Berthoud recommended that the mission abandon the term and replace it with the widely accepted genericism, Tonga/Thonga.Swiss missionaries worked with the Tsonga people, assisting in the translation of the Bible from English and Sesotho into Tsonga.

Paul Berthoud published the first book in 1883, thanks to assistance from translations by Mpapele (Mbizana) and Mandlati (Zambia).

The standardization of the Xitsonga language as a result made it possible for the Tsonga people to develop a common way of speaking and writing.

The third and most accepted is that it is another pronunciation for "Rhonga", the root for the word "vurhonga" for east or the direction where the sun rises.

The physical evidence of most Tsonga people residing along the eastern coast of Africa in the south, extending inland in a westward direction, makes this explanation especially inviting.

Much of the written history about the Tsonga regards the aftermath of the mfecane where the Nguni people overran many of the pre-existing African tribes of South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

Tsonga is a Bantu language (Guthrie code S.53), closely related to other members to the Tswa-Ronga group (S.50): Some dialects are subdialects but have been mentioned here for completeness.

Tswa-Ronga dialects not considered part of the family include Pulana (Xipulana, Sepulane).

A number of Tsonga speakers vary the affricates from alveolar [ts], [tsʰ], [dz], [dzʱ], [dzʷʱ] to retroflex [tʂ], [tʂʰ], [dʐ], [dʐʱ], [dʐʷʱ]; the latter are weakly whistled in Tsonga proper and in Changana dialect.

[7] Unlike some of the Nguni languages, Tsonga has very few words with click consonants, and these vary in place between dental [ᵏǀ], [ᵏǀʰ], [ᵏǀʷʰ], [ᶢǀ], [ᶢǀʷ] and postalveolar [ᵏ!

Examples are: ngqondo (mind), gqoka (wear/dress), guqa (kneel), riqingo (phone), qiqi (earring), qamba (compose), Mugqivela (Saturday).

The main exception to this is the verb ku ri – "to say" It corresponds to "ti" in many other Bantu languages.

Present progressive Generally, to indicate ongoing actions in the present one takes the personal pronoun, drops the i and adds a. Ndzi nghena (e)ndlwini – I am entering the house, Ha tirha sweswi – We are working right now, Ma hemba – You (plural) are lying, Wa hemba – You (singular) are lying, Wa hemba – S/He is lying, With the plural va (they) there is no difference.

However, where the emphasis of a word is on the following vowel the letter is hardened by adding "h" this the Tsonga word -chava (fear) A sound equivalent to the Welsh "ll" (/ɬ/) is written "hl" in Tsonga, e.g. -hlangana (meet), -hlasela (attack), -hleka (laugh) A whistling sound common in the language is written "sw" or "sv" in Zimbabwean ChiShona.

For example, the Tsonga bible uses the word byela (tell), pronounced bwe-la, however a large group of speakers would say "dzvela" instead.

E. Dora Earthy, a missionary in Mozambique,[10] published a selection of Tsonga folktales (Lenge dialect) with facing-text English translations in the 1937 volume of the journal Folklore: Part 1 contains three stories[11] and Part 2 contains an additional seven stories.

[12] The organisation Aidglobal published a series of four children's books in Xichangana (one of Mozambique's Tsonga languages) in 2024[13] written by Venâncio Calisto and Mélio Tinga, and illustrated by Suzy Bila, Marisa Bimbo da Costa, Ruben Zacarias and Samuel Djive.

Henri-Alexandre Junod included a selection of Tsonga song lyrics with English translations in his 1913 study, The Life of a South African Tribe.

[15][16][17][18][19] Junod also included a selection of Tsonga riddles with English translations in The Life of a South African Tribe.

Kaemmer has documented Tsonga "tone riddles," specifically the titekatekani of the Tswa people.