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Zulu language
Nguni language of eastern South Africa and neighbouring countries / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zulu or isiZulu (Zulu: isiZulu) is the language of the Zulu people. 10 million people speak Zulu, and most of them (95%) live in South Africa. It is the most common home language in South Africa, where 24% of people speak it at home.[4] Over 50% of the population also speak and understand the language.[4]
Quick Facts Native to, Region ...
Zulu | |
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isiZulu | |
Native to | South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland |
Region | KwaZulu-Natal, eastern Gauteng, eastern Free State, southern Mpumalanga |
Native speakers | 12 million (2011 census)[1] L2 speakers: 16 million (2002)[2] |
Niger–Congo
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Latin (Zulu alphabet) Zulu Braille | |
Signed Zulu | |
Official status | |
Official language in | ![]() |
Regulated by | Pan South African Language Board |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | zu |
ISO 639-2 | zul |
ISO 639-3 | zul |
Glottolog | zulu1248 |
Guthrie code | S.42 [3] |
Linguasphere | 99-AUT-fg incl. |
![]() Proportion of the South African population that speaks Zulu at home
0–20%
20–40%
40–60%
60–80%
80–100%
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This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
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In 1994, it became one of South Africa's 11 official languages. Like other Bantu languages, Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet.