| Also Known As: Thonga,Tonga,Xichangana,Changana,Shangaan,Shitsonga,Shangana,Gwamba,Xitsonga,Tsonga
Description:
The Tsonga or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan.
Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. The language of the Shangaan people is called Xichangana (or "Shangaan" by outsiders) because we were under the Leadership of Soshangana "Manukusa" (Zulu). Shangaan has different variants: eg Tsonga, Ndawu, Ronga and xiTswa. In South Africa most of the VaTsonga now live in places like e.g. Nkowankowa, Giyani, Malamulele, Elim (Axipilongo, ka Jiwawa) in Limpopo province in South Africa.
Tsonga is spoken by about 1,646,000 people in South Africa's Limpopo province as well as Gauteng Province and Mpumalanga Province, as well as 1.5 million people in Mozambique, and 19,000 people in Swaziland. There are also 100,000 speakers in Zimbabwe.
Tsonga is an official language in South Africa.
Various dialects of Tsonga are spoken as far north as the Save River in Zimbabwe and as far south as KwaZulu/Natal. While most dialects are mutually intelligible, they do have distinct differences that are geographical as well as based on influence of the colonial era. Tsonga also has two very close relatives: Xironga, which is..... full article at Wikipedia |
