Vowels
The Xhosa language has 10 vowels. This is as a result of making a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels thus each of the vowels a, e, i, o and u appear in two distinct levels (long and short).
|
Front |
Back |
| short |
long |
short |
long |
| Close |
i (i) |
iː (ii) |
u (o) |
uː (oo) |
| Mid |
ɛ (e) |
eː (ee) |
ɔ (u) |
oː (uu) |
| Open |
|
a (a) |
aː (aa) |
Consonants
The Xhosa language uses four airstream mechanisms to produce consonant sounds; pulmonic, velaric (clicks), implosive, and ejective. It has a total of 66 consonant phonemes, 18 of which are click consonants (velaric) found only in fewer than 2% of the world's languages.
Clicks
|
Dental/Alveolar (central) |
Dental/Alveolar (lateral) |
Postalveolar |
| plain |
[kǀ] c |
[kǁ] x |
[kǃ] q |
| aspirated |
[kǀʰ] ch |
[kǁʰ] xh |
[kǃʰ] qh |
| slack voice |
[ɡ̊ǀʱ] gc |
[ɡ̊ǁʱ] gx |
[ɡ̊ǃʱ] gq |
| nasal |
[ŋǀ] nc |
[ŋǁ] nx |
[ŋǃ] nq |
| slack-voice nasal |
[ŋǀʱ] ngc |
[ŋǁʱ] ngx |
[ŋǃʱ] ngq |
| glottalised nasal |
[ŋǀˀ] nkc |
[ŋǁˀ] nkx |
[ŋǃˀ] nkq |
Plosive
|
Labial |
Dental/Alveolar (central) |
Postalveolar |
Velar |
| tenuis/ejective |
[pʼ] p |
[tʼ] t |
[t̠ʲʼ] ty |
[kʼ] k |
| aspirated |
[pʰ] ph |
[tʰ] th |
[t̠ʲʰ] tyh |
[kʰ] kh |
| slack voice |
[b̥ʱ] bh |
[d̥ʱ] d |
[d̠̥ʲʱ] dy |
[ɡ̊ʱ] g |
| implosive |
[ɓ] b |
|
|
|
Affricate
|
Dental/Alveolar (central) |
Postalveolar |
Velar |
| ejective |
[tsʼ] ts |
[t̠ʃʼ] tsh |
[kxʼ] kr |
| aspirated |
[tsʰ] ths |
[t̠ʃʰ] thsh |
|
| slack voice |
[d̥zʱ] dz 3 |
[d̠̥ʒʱ] j |
|
Fricative
|
Labio-dental |
Dental / Alveolar (central) |
Dental / Alveolar (lateral) |
Post alveolar |
Velar |
Glottal |
| voiceless |
[f] f |
[s] s |
[ɬ] hl |
[ʃ] sh |
[x] rh |
[h] h |
| slack voice |
[v̤] v |
[z̤] z |
[ɮ̈] dl |
[ʒ̈] zh 2 |
[ɣ̈] gr |
[ɦ] hh |
Nasal
|
Labial |
Dental/Alveolar (central) |
Postalveolar |
Velar |
| fully voiced |
[m] m |
[n] n |
[n̠ʲ] ny |
[ŋ] ng’ |
| slack voice |
[m̤] mh |
[n̤] nh |
[n̤ʲ] nyh |
[ŋ̈] ngh 4 |
Approximant
|
Dental/Alveolar (lateral) |
Postalveolar |
Velar |
| fully voiced |
[l] l |
[j] y |
[w] w |
| slack voice |
[l̤] lh |
[j̈] yh |
[w̤] wh |
Trill
|
Dental/Alveolar (central) |
| fully voiced |
[r] r 1 |
| breathy voiced |
[r̤] r 1 |
Tones
Being a tonal language, Xhosa employs pitch levels to make phonemic tone distictions to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning in words. In Xhosa there are two (2) phonemic tones (pitch levels); high and low.
| Word |
Meaning |
Root |
| ubulele |
you killed |
bulala (kill) |
| ubulele |
s/he killed |
bulala (kill) |
| ubulele |
you were sleeping |
lala (sleep) |
| ubulele |
you thanked |
bulela (thank) |
| ubulele |
s/he thanked |
bulela (thank) |
| ubulele? |
did you kill? |
bulala (kill) |
| ubulele? |
did s/he kill? |
bulala (kill) |
| ubulele? |
where you sleeping? |
lala (sleep) |
| ubulele? |
did you thank? |
bulela (thank) |
| ubulele? |
did s/he thank? |
bulela (thank) |
