Is Swati a language?
language of the Swazi, called Swati or Swazi, belongs to the Benue-Congo group of the Niger-Congo languages; with the Zulu and the Xhosa, the Swazi form the southern Nguni ethnolinguistic group.
What is Swati traditional?
In Swazi culture the highest traditional political, economic, and ritual powers are shared between a hereditary male ruler and his mother or a mother substitute who holds the official position of Queen Mother. Polygyny is the traditional ideal, each marriage involving the payment of a bride-price.
What language do the Swazi people speak?
National and official languages Swazi, a Southern Bantu language, is the national language of Eswatini, and is spoken by approximately 95 percent of Swazis. Swazi and English are the country’s two official languages, and proceedings of the Parliament of Eswatini take place in both languages.
What are Swazi people known for?
The culture of Swazi people involves music, food, religion, architecture, and kinship, among many other things. The Swazi people are composed of various Nguni clans who speak the Nguni language siSwati. These people mostly reside in Eswatini and South Africa.
What does Swati mean?
Swati (Devanagari स्वाति, Transliteration IAST svāti, also found svātī́) According to some is a feminine noun of unknown derivation or ′su′ + ′ati′ (″Great goer″, in reference to its remoteness) meaning very beneficent. Probably referring to its brightness call ″the real pearl″ in Bhartṛhari’s kāvyas.
What does Swazi English mean?
Swazi in British English (ˈswɑːzɪ ) noun. 1. Word forms: plural -zis or -zi. a member of a racially mixed people of southern Africa living chiefly in Eswatini (Swaziland), who first formed into a strong political group in the late 19th century.
What kind of clothes do Swati wear?
For the Swazi women, their traditional attire consists of an ilihhiya (cloth). Married women often cover their upper torsos and sometimes wear traditional “beehive” hairstyles, while single women sometimes wear only beads over their upper torsos, especially for special events like the traditional wedding.
What are Swati clothes called?
Emahiya
The traditional Swazi outfits worn by men and women are called Emahiya.
How many languages are there in Swaziland?
The language is taught in Eswatini and some South African schools in Mpumalanga, particularly former KaNgwane areas. Siswati is an official language of Eswatini (along with English), and is also one of the eleven official languages of South Africa….Swazi.
Swati | |
---|---|
People | emaSwati |
Language | siSwati |
Country | eSwatini |
How do Swazi celebrate their culture?
Two main Swazi ceremonies take place every year. Both are announced shortly before the events, as they are determined by phases of the moon. The most spectacular ceremony is the annual Umhlanga (Reed Dance) in August / September. It is a celebration in honour of the Queen Mother and of feminine beauty and virtue.
Where do the Swazi come from?
The Swazi nation, as we know it today, originally came from Mozambique. Their Nguni ancestors probably moved there before the sixteenth century as part of the Bantu migration. Archaeologists have found human remains in eastern Swaziland that have been dated to be 110 000 years old.
Is Swati a female or male name?
The name Swati is girl’s name meaning “unknown”. Swati is the Indian name for Arcturus, the third-brightest star in the sky.
What is the Niger-Congo language family?
The Niger-Congo language family is one of the largest language families in the world and the largest one in Africa in terms of its geographical spread across most of sub-Saharan Africa, number of speakers, and the number of languages (1514).
What is the vowel harmony of the Niger-Congo language?
Vowel harmony. A widespread phonological feature of Niger-Congo languages is that vowels fall into two sets: i e ə o u and i ε a ɔ υ. In any one word, only vowels from one set may occur. The main phonetic difference between the two sets is the position of the root of the tongue, whether advanced or retracted,…
Are there consonant clusters in the Niger-Congo language?
Consonant clusters are rare or nonexistent. Most Niger-Congo languages have two sets of vowels: one set is pronounced with an advanced tongue root [+ATR], the other set is pronounced with a retracted tone root [-ATR]. Advanced tongue root is produced by moving the base of the tongue forward during the pronunciation of a vowel.
Is the Niger-Congo language agglutinative or verbless?
On the whole, however, Niger-Congo languages are agglutinative, i.e., grammatical functions are expressed by adding prefixes and suffixes to lexical stems and roots. One of the most notable characteristics of some Niger-Congo languages is the system of noun classes. The number of noun classes ranges from 3 to 25 depending on the language.