Sotho language
Southern Bantu language of Lesotho and neighbouring countries / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the Lesotho and central South African Sotho language. For the northeastern South African Sotho language, see Northern Sotho language.
Sotho (/sɛˈsuːtuː/)[lower-alpha 1] Sesotho, also known as Southern Sotho or Sesotho sa Borwa is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken in Lesotho, and South Africa where it is an official language.
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2021) |
Quick Facts Pronunciation, Native to ...
Sotho | |
---|---|
Southern Sotho | |
Sesotho | |
Pronunciation | [sɪ̀sʊ́tʰʊ̀] |
Native to | |
Ethnicity | Basotho |
Native speakers | 5.6 million (2001–2011)[1] 7.9 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)[2] |
Dialects |
|
Latin (Sesotho alphabet) Sotho Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko | |
Signed Sotho | |
Official status | |
Official language in | |
Regulated by | Pan South African Language Board |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | st |
ISO 639-2 | sot |
ISO 639-3 | sot |
Glottolog | sout2807 |
S.33 [3] | |
Linguasphere | 99-AUT-ee incl. varieties 99-AUT-eea to 99-AUT-eee |
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Like all Bantu languages, Sesotho is an agglutinative language that uses numerous affixes and derivational and inflexional rules to build complete words.