Swazi language

Swazi
siSwati
Pronunciation[sísʷaːtʼi]
Native to
Native speakers
L1: 2.3 million (2013–2019)[1]
L2: 2.4 million (2013)[1]
Latin (Swazi alphabet)
Swazi Braille
Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed Swazi
Official status
Official language in
 South Africa
 Eswatini
Language codes
ISO 639-1ss
ISO 639-2ssw
ISO 639-3ssw
Glottologswat1243
S.43[2]
Linguasphere99-AUT-fe
Swati (Swazi)
PersonliSwati
PeopleemaSwati
LanguagesiSwati
CountryeSwatini
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Swazi at home.
  •   0–20%
  •   20–40%
  •   40–60%
  •   60–80%
  •   80–100%
Geographical distribution of Swazi in South Africa: density of Swazi 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

Swazi or siSwati is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 4.7 million including first and second language speakers.[1] 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 twelve official languages of South Africa.[3]

The official term is "siSwati" among native speakers; in English, Zulu, Ndebele or Xhosa it may be referred to as Swazi. Siswati is most closely related to the other Tekela languages, like Phuthi and Northern Transvaal (Sumayela) Ndebele, but is also very close to the Zunda languages: Zulu, Southern Ndebele, Northern Ndebele, and Xhosa.

  1. ^ a b c Swazi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ^ "The NA Approves South African Sign Language as the 12th Official Language - Parliament of South Africa".