Tswana language
Categories: Niger-Congo language stubs | Bantu languages | Languages of Botswana | Languages of South Africa
Tswana, also known as Setswana, is a Bantu language. Tswana is the national and majority language of Botswana, whose people are the Batswana (singular Motswana). The majority of Tswana speakers are in South Africa (where it is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Internationally there are about 4 million speakers. Before South Africa became a multi-racial democracy, the bantustan of Bophuthatswana was set up to cover the Tswana speakers of South Africa.
| Tswana (Setswana;) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia |
| Region: | Africa |
| Total speakers: | 4 million |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100; |
| Genetic classification: | Niger-Congo |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | South Africa, |
| Regulated by: | {{{agency}}} |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | aa |
| ISO 639-2 | aar |
| SIL | aar |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Setswana is a Bantu language, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to two other languages in the Sotho language group, Sesotho (Southern Sotho) and Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa). It has also been known as Beetjuans, Chuana (hence Bechuanaland), Coana, Cuana, and Sechuana.
Some simple Tswana phrases
- Dumela, rra/mma - Hello, Sir/Madam.
Formal inquiry after health:
- O tsogile jang? - How are you? (literally, 'how did you awake?').
- Ke tsogile sentle, rra/mma - I'm very well, Sir/Madam.
Informal inquiry after health:
- Le kae? - How are you?
- Re teng, rra/mma - I'm very well, Sir/Madam.
External links
- Ethnologue on Tswana
- Project to translate Free Software into Tswana
- Tswana spell checker for OpenOffice.org
- Tswana edition of the OpenOffice.org Office suite