Zulu

When Zulu literature took shape

A Bible translation appeared in 1883. In 1901 John Dube, a Zulu from Natal, founded the Ohlange Institute, the first native educational institution in South Africa, and in 1930 he published Insila kaShaka, the first novel in Zulu. Reginald Dhlomo wrote historical novels on the 19th-century Zulu leaders, from U-Dingane in 1936 to U-Dinizulu in 1968. Benedict Wallet Vilakazi and, later, Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali also wrote in the language. Collections of oral literature came earlier: Henry Callaway's Zulu tales of 1868 and John Colenso's dictionary of 1884, with its proverbs.

The Zulu Language Board of KwaZulu-Natal once controlled the written form. The Pan South African Language Board has since replaced it.

Why deep Zulu loses young readers

Before 1994 English and Afrikaans were the only official languages of South African governments, and all high school education was in one of them, although Zulu was widely used in the KwaZulu bantustan. Since 1994 the language has revived. The SABC introduced Zulu television in the early 1980s, and newspapers such as isoLezwe, Ilanga and UmAfrika are sold in KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg.

The Zulu taught in schools, isiZulu esijulile or deep Zulu, is purist and builds new words from Zulu roots. Urban Zulu, isiZulu sasedolobheni, borrows freely, mainly from English, and young people often do not understand the standard.

How tone tells a priest from a teacher

Zulu has three tonemes, low, high and falling, and writes none of them. Umfundisi means priest or teacher depending on tone alone. Slack-voiced consonants lower the pitch of the syllable they begin, so a high tone after one is heard as rising. Stress normally falls on the second-to-last syllable, which lengthens only at the end of a phrase.