This article is about the northeastern South African language. For the Lesotho and central South African language, see Sotho language.
Northern Sotho
Native to
South Africa
Region
Gauteng, Limpopo, parts of Mpumalanga
Ethnicity
Pedi
Lobedu Pulana Tlôkwa
Native speakers
4.7 million (2011 census)[1] 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)[2]
Language family
Niger–Congo?
Atlantic–Congo
Volta-Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Southern Bantoid
Bantu
Southern Bantu
Sotho–Tswana
Northern Sotho
Early forms
Tswaniac
Hurutshe
Kgatla
Standard forms
Pedi
Writing system
Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed forms
Signed Northern Sotho
Official status
Official language in
South Africa
Regulated by
Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-2
nso
ISO 639-3
nso
Glottolog
pedi1238 Pedi
Guthrie code
S.32,301–304[3]
Linguasphere
99-AUT-ed
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home.
0–20%
20–40%
40–60%
60–80%
80–100%
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho home-language speakers.
<1 /km²
1–3 /km²
3–10 /km²
10–30 /km²
30–100 /km²
100–300 /km²
300–1000 /km²
1000–3000 /km²
>3000 /km²
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Pedi
Person
Mopedi
People
Bapedi
Language
Sepedi
A speaker of the Northern Sotho language
Sesotho sa Lebowa is an official language for the Lebowa homeland during apartheid, is a Sotho-Tswana language group spoken in the northeastern provinces of South Africa. It is erroneously commonly referred to in its standardized form[4] as Pedi or Sepedi and holds the status of an official language in South Africa.[5][6]
According to the South African National Census of 2011, it is the first language of over 4.6 million (9.1%) people, making it the 5th most spoken language in South Africa. The Northern Sotho language is spoken most commonly in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Limpopo provinces.[7]
^Northern Sotho at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78
^Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
^"PanSALB". www.pansalb.org. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^"The SA Constitution". www.justice.gov.za. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^"free online course". www.unisa.ac.za. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^"NORTHERN SOTHO - South African Language Sepedi". www.sa-venues.com. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
3 types of Basotho, NorthernSotho, Southern Sotho, Tswana people The British and the Boers (Dutch descendants) divided Sotho land amongst themselves...
(Sesotho or Southern Sotho), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an official language of both South Africa and Lesotho NorthernSotho language (Sesotho...
/bæˈpɛdi/, also known as the Sotho, Basotho, NorthernSotho, Basotho ba Lebowa, Transvaal Sotho, Marota, or Bamaroteng are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group native...
Sotho (/sɛˈsuːtuː/) Sesotho, also known as Southern Sotho or Sesotho sa Borwa is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken...
Standard Setswana and NorthernSotho (represented by Sepedi) are not commonly used in schools except in SeTswana and NorthernSotho lessons. Pretoria Taal...
that are represented in South Africa: the Sotho–Tswana branch (which includes Southern Sotho, NorthernSotho and Tswana languages officially), or the Nguni...
Mokopane is the NorthernSotho form of the king's name and is hence erroneous, even though the majority language in the area is NorthernSotho. Five kingdoms...
Lozi or Bathobolo) are a southern African ethnic group that speak a NorthernSotho dialect. Their area is called Bolobedu. The name "balobedu" means "the...
(with English and German) South Africa (with English, Ndebele, NorthernSotho, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu) Aja-Gbe: Benin (a national...
Calendar, and the ruins are thought to be created by the Bakone, a NorthernSotho people. In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first...
transcription delimiters. The phonology of Sesotho and those of the other Sotho–Tswana languages are radically different from those of "older" or more "stereotypical"...
Sekhukhune I (Matsebe; circa 1814 – 13 August 1882) was the paramount King of the Marota, more commonly known as the Bapedi (Pedi people), from 21 September...
The Waterberg District Municipality (NorthernSotho: Mmasepala wa Selete wa Waterberg; Tswana: Mmasepala wa Sedika wa Waterberg) is one of the 5 districts...
Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi, "Mma Ngoyi", OMSG (25 September 1911 – 13 March 1980) was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman...
also has the highest Black percentage out of all the provinces. The NorthernSotho people comprise the largest percentage of the population, 52% of the...
Polokwane (UK: /ˌpɒləˈkwɑːnɪ/, meaning "Sanctuary" in NorthernSotho), formerly and sometimes also known as Pietersburg, is the capital city of the Limpopo...
by about 8.2 million people. It is closely related to the NorthernSotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi language and the Lozi...
North West Province, and one each in Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, and the Northern Cape. The FIFA Organising Committee approved the procedure for the final...
was enlarged and developed in the 1980s. The name is derived from two NorthernSotho words Lebowa ("north") and Kgomo ("cow"). The land where Lebowakgomo...
while maintaining its Nguni roots, has been influenced by the Sotho languages. The Northern Ndebele, specifically the Khumalo (amaNtungwa) people under...
Suffering", and is named for the experiences of the white settlers. In NorthernSotho, Mashishing means "long green grass." Lydenburg has become the centre...
metropolitan area in South Africa. It is a combination of Tswana and NorthernSotho (Pedi), with influences from Tsotsitaal and other black South African...
for singing in the Khelobedu language, which are local dialects of NorthernSotho. Khutso Steven Kgatle was born on 25 November 1992 in Tzaneen in Limpopo...
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