Teacher Nelly
Xhosa is easy and FUN! Good read for English students
Learning Xhosa is like nothing you've experienced before! We have three click soumds, used all over the place and most people find them difficult to do.
The first is like calling a horse, the next is like the sound you make when reprimanding a child (not screaming 😆 just a soft tsk sound on the tongue), and the last is a deep sound like water dripping from a tap into water.
Try to make some clicks, I'm sure you'll love this beautiful language! And if you plan to visit South Africa, Xhosa is spoken in Cape Town, and the Eastern Cape (Wild Coast - it will be very helpful for day long hikes where you are surrounded by nature and the peaceful amaXhosa people).
I am happy to speak to travellers and people interested in Xhosa culture.
See you soon :)
2019年6月17日 08:11
留言 · 4
1
Yes i have been living in South Africa for around 2 years...moving between Cape town, Midrand and Gauteng. I've also spent some time in Mafiking. 😀😀
2019年6月20日
Drasvi, funny joke ;) Who knows, these days many South Africans from other cultures struggle to make the clicks even when saying the word Xhosa (yes, the X is a click). So knowledge is power and maybe when you really embrace a language and a culture you can't help yourself but to try include it in everything... I guess it becomes your passion. Many years later, we faced difficulties in our country as there were racial tensions and people just didn't understand each other. Today the internet allows us to know more, think more and be open ukubona (to see). Enkosi
2019年6月21日
Teacher Nelly, clicking sounds are also known to be contagious. I read in a book that European travellers in South Africa started using clicks in English:)
Here:
"He cites Miss Lloyd's statement to the effect that it was difficult for her, after long contact with the Bushmen and Hottentots, to refrain from using clicks when speaking English. Certainly clicking is to some extent "contagious", and I have often heard Europeans in South Africa sportively substituting clicks for other consonants when speaking English, in imitation of the Hottentot or Zulu. I am certain that clicks were thus introduced on a fairly large scale into Bantu by the Zulus and Xhosas and that clicks are now used in many Zulu and Xhosa words that were not borrowed form Hottentot or Bushman."
Douglas Martyn Beach, "The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language", 1938
Here:
"He cites Miss Lloyd's statement to the effect that it was difficult for her, after long contact with the Bushmen and Hottentots, to refrain from using clicks when speaking English. Certainly clicking is to some extent "contagious", and I have often heard Europeans in South Africa sportively substituting clicks for other consonants when speaking English, in imitation of the Hottentot or Zulu. I am certain that clicks were thus introduced on a fairly large scale into Bantu by the Zulus and Xhosas and that clicks are now used in many Zulu and Xhosa words that were not borrowed form Hottentot or Bushman."
Douglas Martyn Beach, "The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language", 1938
2019年6月21日
Have you traveled to South Africa?
2019年6月20日
