Many consonant sounds may result in depressed allophones. Alveolar consonants, t, d, and n, may have dentalized allophones of. Consonants k and h can result in allophones of and. Ndebele /t͡ʃ/ generally correspond to Zulu /ʃ/.
Vowels
There are five vowel phonemes, written with the letters a, e, i, o, u.
a is pronounced, approximately like a in father; e.g. abantwana
e is pronounced or, sometimes like ein bed; e.g. emoyeni
i is pronounced, like ee in see; e.g. siza
o is pronounced or, sometimes approximately like o in bone; e.g. okhokho
u is pronounced, like oo in soon; e.g. umuntu
Click consonants
In Northern Ndebele, there are three click consonantsc, q and x. c is made by placing the tip of the tongue against the front upper teeth and gums, the centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip of the tongue is drawn backwards. The resulting sound is similar to the sound used in English to express annoyance. Some examples are cina, cela. The q sound is made by raising the back of the tongue to touch the soft palate and touching the gums with the sides and tip of the tongue. The centre of the tongue is depressed and the tip drawn quickly away from the gum. The resulting sound is like the "pop" heard when quickly removing the cork from a bottle. Some examples are qalisa, qeda. The x sound is made by placing the tongue so that the back of the tongue touches the soft palate and the sides and tip of the tongue touch the gums. One side of the tongue is quickly withdrawn from the gums. Some examples are xoxa, ixoxo.
Examples
Months in Southern Ndebele
English
Northern Ndebele
Southern Ndebele
Zulu
January
uZibandlela
uTjhirhweni
uMasingane
February
uNhlolanja
uMhlolanja
uNhlolanja
March
uMbimbitho
uNtaka
uNdasa
April
uMabasa
uSihlabantangana
UMbasa
May
uNkwekwezi
uMrhayili
UNhlaba
June
uNhlangula
uMgwengweni
UNhlangulana
July
uNtulikazi
uVelabahlinze
uNtulikazi
August
uNcwabakazi
uRhoboyi
UNcwaba
September
uMpandula
uKhukhulamungu
uMandulo
October
uMfumfu
uSewula
uMfumfu
November
uLwezi
uSinyikhaba
uLwezi
December
uMpalakazi
uNobayeni
uZibandlela
Grammar
Ndebele grammar is similar to that of Zulu, with some distinct differences. Northern Ndebele is a Nguni language and is to some extent also mutually intelligible with Swati and Xhosa, the predominant language in the Eastern Cape.
Nouns
The Northern Ndebele noun consists of two essential parts, the prefix and the stem. Using the prefixes, nouns can be grouped into noun classes, which are numbered consecutively, to ease comparison with other Bantu languages. The following table gives an overview of Northern Ndebele noun classes, arranged according to singular-plural pairs.
Class
Singular
Plural
1/2
um-1
aba-, abe-
1a/2a
u-
o-
3/4
um-1
imi-
5/6
i-, ili-
ama-
7/8
is-
iz-
9/10
iN-
iziN-
11/10
u-, ulu-
14
ubu-, ub-, utsh-
15
uku-
17
uku-
1umu- replaces um- before monosyllabic stems, e. g. umuntu.
Verbs
Verbs use the following affixes for the subject and the object:
