Bonke abantu bazalwa bekhululekile belingana ngesidima nangokweemfanelo.
Vocabulary
- -nke – all, every
- úḿntu (pl. ábántu) – person, human
- ukuzalwa – to be born
- khululekile – free
- lingana – equal
- nge- – with
- sidima – dignity
- na- – and
- ngo- – in
Tag Archives: umntu
isiXhosa – 2016-10-02
Lessons I & II
Highlights:
- the grammatical structure of isiXhosa is very different from that of any European language;
- euphonic or alliterative concord: the prefix of the noun determine those of the subordinate parts of the subject and also of the predicate;
- isiXhosa uses the Latin alphabet, with <c>, <x> and <q> representing click consonants;
- stress falls on the next-to-last syllable;
- there are no articles;
- prefixes come in pairs, one for the singular, the other for the plural.
Examples of nouns in all classes:
| Meaning | Singular | Plural |
| person | umntu | abantu |
| sister | udade | odade |
| word | ilizwi, izwi | amazwi |
| sheep | imvu | izimvu |
| house | indlu | izindlu |
| pig | ihangu (dictionary says it is ihagu) | izihangu, ihangu (or maybe izihagu, ihagu) |
| candle | isibane | izibane |
| rib | ubambo | izimbambo, imbambo |
| rod | uluti | izinti |
| tongue | ulwimi | izilwimi, ilwimi |
| tree | umti | imiti |
| kindness | ububele | – |
| food | ukudla | – |
(From Crawshaw’s First Kafir Course-1903)