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Complete Zulu: Teach Yourself

Complete Zulu: Teach Yourself


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Zulu is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages. It is the mother tongue of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, the amaZulu, of whom the majority reside in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is the sister language of three other Nguni languages spoken in South Africa, namely Xhosa, Swazi and Ndebele all of which are mutually intelligible.

Historians trace the origin of the Zulu people back to about 1670, to a chieftain, Malandela, who was the father of Zulu, regarded as the progenitor of the Zulu nation. It is from his name that the word amaZulu or uZulu which means ‘The Zulu People’ has been derived.

The modern Zulu population is fairly evenly distributed in both urban and rural areas. Although KwaZulu-Natal is still their heartland, large numbers of them have been attracted by the relative economic prosperity of the province of Gauteng where, in fact, they constitute the biggest language group. Indeed, of all the indigenous languages spoken in South Africa, Zulu is the most widely spoken and understood. It is often used as a sort of a lingua franca in urban areas where mixed population groups reside.

One of the most outstanding features of the Zulu language is the grouping together of nouns into noun classes according to the form of their prefix. Fifteen such noun classes are distinguished in Zulu.

Its phonemic inventory includes 12 click sounds, all of which are of Khoi-San origin. It has a distinctive range of word classes that consists of categories such as ‘ideophone’, ‘enumerative’ and ‘copulative’.

Another striking feature is its concordial agreement system whereby all words that are grammatically related to a noun such as verbs, pronouns and adjectives, show agreement with that noun by means of a concord that is formally related to the class prefix of the noun.

Insights

  • Zulu has a conjunctive writing system which means it laces words together. What is written as two or more words in English, for instance, is often written as a single word in Zulu. For example:
  • Note that mina and wena are so-called absolute pronouns. Mina emphasizes the first person singular (e.g. Mina nginguMeshack I am Meshack ) and wena the second person singular (e.g. Wena ungubani? Who are you? (Lit. You are who? ) See Unit 12 for these pronouns.
  • -vela , -phuma and -akha are verbal stems. A verbal stem is the lexical base of the verb, i.e. the part of the verb that expresses its lexical meaning and to which a variety of other verbal constituents can be attached to form complete verbs. Also see Unit 3 in this regard.
  • The verbs sakhe and nakhe consist of the concordial pronouns s(i)- we and n(i)- you (pl.) respectively plus the (vowel) verb stem -akha build (see Unit 4). The concord drops its vowel as vowel sequences (in this case i + a ) are disallowed in Zulu grammar.
  • * Locative form here means in/at a certain place , e.g. in Johannesburg, at the airport, etc.
  • After verbs with the stems -vela and -phuma come from , place names must always appear in their locative form in Zulu although this is not reflected in their English translations.
  • You will notice that in dialogues the names of the characters are usually given without an initial vowel.
  • Note that the initial vowel of the noun denoting the addressee is dropped, as in the case with the nouns uPaulina and uMaria above. (See Unit 2.)
  • Zulu has no grammatical gender as far as its pronominal system is concerned, i.e. it does not distinguish between masculine (= he ) and feminine (= she ) pronouns. Both these pronouns are expressed by the same concordial pronoun, u- .
  • The uku- in ukubhukuda and ukubhala is the infinitive prefix of Class 15 (see Unit 2) meaning to . In this case, to swim and to write .
  • The -ya- in uyakwazi is the present tense morpheme (see Unit 8) and the -kw- a variant form of the object concord (pronoun) of Class 15 (see Unit 7) before the vowel verb stem -azi (see Unit 4). It refers here to the infinitive nouns (of Class 15) ukukhuluma and ukusebenzisa respectively.
  • -si- in uya si zwa/niya si zwa is the object pronoun (or concord) of Class 7 (see Unit 7) that refers to the object nouns isiNgisi and isiBhunu in the two examples above.
  • -s(i)- in uyasazi is the object concord (pronoun) of Class 7 before vowel verb stems such as -azi (see Unit 4).
  • Note that the word na? is a marker of questions in Zulu (see Unit 6).
  • For the negative form of verbs see Unit 9. Instead of Angizwa kahle you can say Angizwisisi kahle I do not follow/understand very well (-zwisisa understand/hear very well ).
  • According to the lastest Zulu orthography the first letter of the stem of the noun (i.e. the part following the noun prefix) is capitalized unless the noun is the first word in a sentence in which case the first letter of the prefix is also capitalized.
  • The -nga- in the above verbs is known in Zulu grammar as the potential formative and is used to express concepts such as can and may. (See also Unit 12.)
  • The wa- , we- and ka- in the examples above are the possessive concords that refer to the noun ushintshi change. (See Unit 17.)
  • Although the sound change rules outlined above are here applied to the associative formative na- , they in fact apply to all instances where the vowel a- is juxtaposed to another vowel. These changes will often be referred to in the rest of this course.
  • To say something is for sale (e.g. a house) or is being sold (e.g. in shops) you can use the stem -dayisa . To say something is sold by someone, you use the passive form of this stem, -dayiswa . The stem -dayisa can also mean (to) sell (something).
  • Kufanele nisheshe literally means It is necessary that you (pl.) hurry up . In English kufanele + verb is usually translated with pronoun + must . The pronoun in this case is signified by the subject concord ni- of the following verb. The verb following -fanele always ends in -e .
  • The -ngi- in the examples above is the object concord of the first person singular (see Unit 7) and means me .
  • u- e nzani? > we nzani? The form of the subject concord of the second person singular changes before vowel verb stems. (See Unit 4.)
  • ukwenzani = uku- + -enzani . Uku- is the infinitive class prefix of Class 15. It undergoes the same formal changes as the subject concord of this class before vowel verb stems.
  • Note that the present tense verbal prefix -ya- never occurs in interrogative verbs, i.e. verbs that contain an interrogative constituent.
  • Nasi and nanku are demonstrative copulatives of Class 7 and 3 respectively and mean here (it) is . See Unit 8.
  • ngosuku = nga- + usuku on the day . Nga- is the instrumental formative meaning on (see Unit 23). The -a of nga- combines with the initial u- of usuku according to the sound rule of a + u > o .
  • omu hle nice and omu sha new are both adjectives in Zulu and onenjabulo happy a relative. The only difference between adjectives and relatives in Zulu lies in the concords they use, omu- as opposed to o- in the examples given here. (See Units 21 and 22.)
  • Angifuni is in the negative of the present tense. See Unit 9.
  • Ukukuphazamisa = uku- + -ku- + -phazamisa . Uku- is the infinitive prefix of Class 15 and -ku- the object concord of the second person singular.
  • angilikhumbuli (= a-ngi-li-khumbul-i ) is a verb in the negative of the present tense. The initial a- is the negative morpheme and the terminal -i- the negative ending. (See Unit 8.) The -li- is the object concord of Class 5 referring to the object noun igama .
  • The suffix -ile , as for instance in -phuzile , -bophile and -lethile above is the immediate past tense suffix. (See Unit 13.)
  • Note that personal names are never used with kukhona . Thus you do not say something like Kukhona uThembekile na? Is Thembekile here/present?
  • Note that the k in akekho is the so-called ‘soft ‘ k and that the vowel e is lengthened. See the Pronunciation Guide.
  • njenga- is the comparative formative meaning ( just ) as and -ni the interrogative suffix -ni? ( What? ) that in most instances is suffixed to verbal stems.
  • isisitela is pronounced isís’tela with emphasis on sis and with the omission of the vowel i . See the Pronunciation guide for the pronunciation of the prefix isi- .
  • The vowel change that occurs in the above examples is in accordance with the sound rules involving vowels set out earlier. (See Unit 4.)
  • The verb stem -bonana in the first example contains the so-called reciprocal verbal extension -ana which signifies each other .
  • Ideophones are unique words that form a very important part of Zulu vocabulary. They are defined by Zulu grammarians as words that describe other words such as verbs, adjectives and adverbs in respect to manner, colour, sound, smell, action and intensity.
  • ngokuzikhandla (Lit. by exerting oneself ) = nga- + -uku- + -zi- + -khandla . nga- = the instrumental formative with (see Unit 23), uku = infinitive prefix, -zi- is the reflexive verbal prefix (see Unit 18), -khandla = verbal stem.
  • All verbs that follow on phambi kokuba before must end in an -e and when they contain a subject concord of Class 1 or 1a, this subject concord must be an a- instead of its usual u- .
  • The -wu- in the above examples is the variant form of the subject concord of the second person singular u- . It becomes -wu- as a result of the rapid pronunciation of a- + u- .
  • Note the -kw- in mangikwethule and mangikwazise is a variant form of the object concord -ku- of the second person singular you before vowel verb stems, in this case the stems -ethula and -azisa respectively. (See also Unit 4.) Note also that in friendly requests the verb always ends in -e .
  • nakhephi? = ni- akhe- phi? (Lit. where have you [pl.] built? ) n- = variant form of the subject concord of the second person plural before vowel verb stems, -akha = vowel verb stem, -phi? = interrogative suffix.
  • In kukude the subject concord ku- (Class 17) is used because it refers to the locative noun eSandlwana . (All locative nouns belong to Class 17.) In sikude the subject concord si- (Class 7) is used because it refers to a (non-locative) noun in Class 7, isiqiwu .
  • Kungamakhilomitha angu-50 literally means kilometres that are 50 . The a- in angu- is the relative concord referring to amakhilomitha (see Unit 22). These concords are usually translated into English by means of relative pronouns such as which , that , who .
  • akukude = a- + -ku- + -kude . a- = the negative morpheme, -ku- is the indefinite subject concord of Class 17, -kude is an adverb used as a stem in this example.
  • The suffix -el- in ngingabhem el a is known in Zulu grammar as the applied verbal extension . One of its functions is to indicate that an action takes place within the boundaries of a specific area.
  • Verbs with the passive ending -wa never change this ending to *-wi in the negative. This is why the ending -wa in the above verbs remains unchanged in the negative. (See also Unit 24.)
  • The -nga- in ngi nga thanda is the potential formative -nga- can/may (see above). In combination with the auxiliary verb stem -thanda like/prefer (not to be confused with the verbal stem -thanda love ) it expresses the meaning of would like in English.
  • Do you still know the reason why -ya- is obligatory in the verb Siyabonga above? If you don’t, see Unit 8.
  • The verbal prefix -se- in kusekhona means still . Before verbal stems it has the form -sa- . (See Unit 17.)
  • Omuhle good in the first example of this paragraph is an adjective , i.e. a word that describes a noun (see Unit 21), while yenu in the second example is the possessive pronoun of the second person plural (see Unit 19). If you want to emphasize your gratitude (and impress at the same time) you can add to the above the following interesting idiomatic expression:
  • Yintoni? literally means It is what kind of thing? and consists of the copulative prefix y- + into + -ni . The latter is traditionally known in Zulu grammar as an enumerative stem. (See Unit 19.)
  • The demonstrative laphaya is pronounced with emphasis on the final syllable, i.e. la-pha- yaa .
  • siyayamukela = si-ya-y(i)-amukela. The object concord -y(i)- refers to the object i-Visa card.
  • The full form of the copulative prefixes ng- and y- is ngu- and yi- respectively. The full form normally occurs before other word categories such as pronouns, but not before nouns. (See Unit 19.)
  • Don’t forget the negative form of the subject concord of Class 1 and 1a, aka- (Unit 9) or ak- before vowel verbal stems, e.g. Uthisha wethu ak anelisiwe (> aka- anelisiwe) kakhulu ngum-sebenzi wami. Our teacher is not very satisfied with my work.
  • Note that neuter verbs do not assume an agent that is the cause of the action expressed by the verb, like passive verbs do. This is why a verb with a stem such as -anelesekile is never accompanied by an ‘agentative’ noun with a prefix ng(u)- or y(i)- .
  • Okwatapheya is a noun in Class 2a and therefore takes the relative concord of the same class, i.e . aba- (see Unit 22). Abaseluhlaza consists of the relative concord aba- + the progressive formative -se- still (Unit 17) + the relative stem luhlaza green (Unit 22).
  • It is important to remember that the suffix -ile has a dual function in Zulu: it can indicate the immediate past tense (see 4.1 above) and that the verb signifies a stative condition (see 3a above).
  • -m- in ngi m tshelile is the object concord of Class 1/1a and -ba- in ngi ba tshelile the object concord of Class 2.
  • The terminal ending -e in the verb in (b), (c), (d) and (e) above signifies the past tense. Do you know which past tense? If you don’t, see Unit 13. For the reason why the subject concord of Class 1a is a- in the verb a jikel e and why this verb ends in -e , see (1) below.
  • yini? is an interrogative expressing uncertainty and is often rendered in English as or not? Its most frequent position is immediately after the verb or at the end of a sentence.
  • The verbal stems -bhem ela and -dlal ela contain the verbal suffix -ela that signifies that the action expressed by the verb takes place within a certain area. (See Unit 12.)
  • It is important not to confuse this negative morpheme -nga- with the potential morpheme -nga- (e.g. lingana above). (See Unit 12.)
  • When a subject concord appears before a locative noun or a locative adverb a so-called pre-locative s must be inserted between them, as for instance in: li s efrijini it (the butter) is in the fridge , li s eceleni kweposihhovisi it (the bank) is on the side of ( i.e. next to) the Post Office.
  • The word u(lu)qwembe meat - tray is used by some speakers to refer to traffic notice boards.
  • Note the three different verbal endings that occur in the three example sentences above. They are the ending -anga (in engafik anga ) of the immediate past tense negative, the ending -i (in bengay i ) of the present tense negative and the ending -a (in ekhal a ) of the present tense positive.
  • Note that the subject concord of the auxiliary verb and that of the following main verb is the same, as can be seen in the examples below:
  • Note that in dialogues the names of the characters (mostly in Class 1a) are usually given without their class prefix u- as for instance is the case with the nouns Nobhala (> uNobhala ) and Mark (> u-Mark ) in the dialogue above.
  • Do not forget the sound rules that apply when the formative na- with combines with the following noun.
  • Note that the -ku in -zoku- is the object concord of the second person singular -ku- you and not part of the future tense morpheme -zo(ku)- . (See Unit 9.)
  • The s in kusenamba is the interlocative s that occurs between the subject concord and the following locative noun as in kusenamba = ku- s -enamba. Inamba number does not take the ending -eni in the locative. (See Unit 11.)
  • Note the semantic difference between the verb stem -cela and -buza . The first means request , the latter ask . In English both these verbs are often translated as ask. -buza is, however, exclusively used for asking questions while -cela can also be used to ask for other things provided it implies a request, as in the first example above.
  • Note the answer to ngubani?- questions in Zulu must be a copulative noun, i.e. a noun (or absolute pronoun) with the copulative prefix ng(u)- or y(i)- it is …
  • The verb mtshele tell her in the second example above is a command verb (see Unit 18) with an object concord m- . As no distinction between masculine and feminine is made in Zulu as far as the concords are concerned the object concord m can signify both him and her .
  • The word uma if , when in (e) above is a conjunctive that governs the form of the subject concords of Class 1, 1a, 2 and 6. When the subject concords of these classes form part of verbs that follow after uma in sentences, as in (e) above, their form changes as follows: u- > e- , ba- > be- and a- > e- .
  • Note that the verb that follows siza (in the same sentence) always ends with the vowel -e , as in the last two examples above. gogo/Nomusa/baba are nouns denoting the addressee and therefore the class prefix u- is omitted. (See Unit 2.)
  • Note that the first -ka- in the verb in the last example is the negative form of the subject concord of Class 1a. (See Unit 9.)
  • When the possessive concord kwa- combines with a noun in an umu- class its semi-vowel w is dropped as in some of the examples above.
  • The verbal stem - phethwe is the passive form (Unit 24) of the verbal stem - phatha that is used here in its stative form (Unit 13).
  • The formative ma- (also a- ) is used to express friendly requests. (See Unit 6.)
  • The verb stem - phakeme be raised is the stative form (Unit 13) of the stem - phakama and - lungile the stative form of - lunga be in order .
  • Main verbs following after the auxiliary stem - fanele ought/must always end in the vowel -e as in the example above. (See also Unit 9.)
  • The -ku- in ngizokunqumela umuthi is the object concord of the second person singular and the -zo- the contracted form of the future tense morpheme -zoku- (Unit 9).
  • The ukuku- in ukukubona to see you consists of the infinitive class prefix of Class 15 uku- followed by the object concord of the second person singular - ku-.
  • The verb ngengikwenzile consists of no fewer than five parts. They are: the adverbial formative ng(a)- (Unit 23) + the relative concord of the first person singular engi- (Unit 23) + the indefinite object concord of Class 17 -ku- it plus the vowel verb stem, -enza plus the perfect or immediate past tense ending -ile .
  • The so- in the verb sobonana is a contraction of sizoku- of which -zoku is the future tense morpheme. (See Unit 9.)
  • Note that verbs with stems such as -tshela tell and -azi know are very often followed by the conjunctive ukuthi that as can be seen in some of the examples above.
  • The esi- in esi ngakanani is the relative concord of Class 7 (See Unit 21) and is often translated into English by the pronoun which or that . isikhathi esingakanani? literally means: time that/which is how much?
  • The emi- in emi ngaki? and the mi- in mi ngaki? are adjective concords. All adjectives in Zulu consist of an adjectival concord plus an adjectival stem. (See Unit 21.) The adjectival concord formally agrees with the second syllable of the class prefix of the noun it refers to.
  • The ngo- in ngo nyaka is the adverbial formative nga- of which one of its meanings is on . (See also Unit 23.)
  • In the negative, the negative a- (see Unit 9) is placed before the word while the associative formative na- be with (Unit 17) remains unchanged, for example a ngi na kinga I don’t have a problem , a ngi na ndaba (> a-ngi-na-ndaba) I do not care (Lit. I do not have an affair ).
  • Lokhu is the first position demonstrative of ( the indefinite ) Class 17. (See Unit 16.)
  • The reason why the copulative prefixes are often given with their vowel in brackets i.e. ng(u) and y(i)- respectively, is because their complete form (with the vowel) is restricted to certain environments and their shortened form (without the vowel) to others.
  • The part that appears with na- and ku- in the examples above is the abbreviated form of the absolute pronouns (Unit 12). These pronouns normally discard their final syllable -na when preceded by formatives, like the associative formative na- (Unit 17) and the locative formative ku- (Unit 11).
  • The ka in kaSimon is the possessive concord of Class 1 when the possessor is a noun in Class 1a. (See Unit 18.)
  • The adjectival concord of Classes 1, 1a and 3 is omu- before mono-syllabic adjectival stems (e.g. omu hle) and om- before multi-syllabic adjectival stems (e.g. om khulu).
  • Unlike in English, subject nouns in Zulu very frequently occur after predicative adjectives, as in the examples above.
  • Note that the n of the adjectival concords of Classes 8, 9 and 10 is elided before adjectival stems that begin with an n , e.g. ezin-ngaki ? > ezingaki ?
  • - ni? what ( kind? ) in the phrase elim(u)bala muni? is the enumerative stem and must always take the same prefix as the noun it qualifies ( -mu- in this example). This noun always discards its preprefix. (See Unit 19.)
  • -yo in yi yo and in akusi yo is the abbreviated form of the absolute pronoun of Class 9 referring to intengo . (See Unit 19). The y(i)- is the copulative prefix that has been often referred to before.
  • See Pronunciation Guide for the pronunciation of nc . To find out how many instalments you can use the word izinyanga months, and ask:
  • si- is the subject concord that refers to the noun isikhathi ; esi- is the relative concord referring to isikhathi and ezi- the relative concord referring to izinyanga . See ( 8 ) below.
  • eli- is the relative concord referring to the noun igaranti . See ( 8) below.
  • Do you still remember why the verb ungitshele in the example above must end in e-? If you don’t, see Unit 14.1.
  • Note that KwaZulu-Natali in the first example is strictly speaking a locative noun meaning ( in ) KwaZulu-Natal . It therefore doesn’t need a further locative prefix to signify locality.
  • Note that for concordial purposes Classes 1a, 2a and 8 use the same relative concords as those of Classes 1 2a and 10 respectively.
  • When a verb containing a relative concord ends the sentence, the suffix -yo is usually added to the verbal stem, as in the last two examples above.
  • e- in e nesithembu, a- in a nemikhono and ezi- in ezi nolaka are relative concords that refer to the preceding noun.
  • The -ku- in ukubike is the object concord of Class 15 referring to the infinitive object noun ukugqekezwa burglary in (f) above and is essential here because the object noun is separated from the verb by the interrogative kuphi? where? See also Unit 7.
  • The abbreviated absolute pronoun -yo in the first example refers to the noun imali and -zo in the second example refers to izincwadi .
  • oyisipele consists of the relatative concord o- (Unit 22) referring to ukhiye , the copulative prefix y- and the noun isipele .
  • Note that after the conjunctive uma if , when (Unit 23) the subject concord of Class 1 changes to e and that verbs that follow the conjunctive uma- are negated by means of the verbal prefix -nga- as in the verb engenyusi above, = e-ng(a)- enyus-i .
  • The reason why a- is the negative morpheme in the examples above and not -nge- as in paragraph 6.1, is because the latter forms part of words that follow on the conjunctive uma while the words with a- above do not.
  • Note that the adverbs last night and the entire season in the above examples are expressed in Zulu by locative adverbs , i.e. as ebusuku bayizolo during last night and esizini lonke during the entire season while in English no locative-preposition is used.
  • kuka- is a possessive concord used when the possessor is a noun in Class 1a ( ubaba in the example above) and the possession is a noun in Class 15 ( ukushona in this instance).
  • The verb stems - khohliwe and - khohlwe are unique passive stems in that they include the passive extension - iw - and - w - respectively but have an active significance, i.e. (to) forget .
  • Notice the difference between akubhenywa lapha no smoking allowed here and akubhenyelwa lapha no smoking allowed in here . This difference in meaning is caused by the applied verbal extension -el- . (See also Unit 12.)
  • Note that all the passive verbs in the above examples appear in the remote past tense which is why their subject concords all contain the remote past tense marker -a . (See Unit 13.)
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