Not "Xhosa" with a "K"

South Africa has 11 official languages. English is the language spoken predominantly in professional and commercial settings, whites of Dutch decent and most colored populations (South African colored, not American “colored people”) generally speak Afrikaans, and Zulu is the predominant indigenous language. However, in the Western Cape province where I live in Cape Town, Xhosa is the predominant indigenous language and can be overheard quite a lot on a daily basis.

Xhosa is distinguishable by its clicks of which there are three (originally, there were five clicks but two were washed out through the processes of colonization – the dominance and control of colonization results in the mother tongue being stolen out of the mouths of the colonized). Some of the other “official” South African languages incorporate some amount of popping and clicking, but Nava is taking a Xhosa class at the moment and is teaching me, so it’s the one I know the most about. (on a side note, most African Studies PhD programs in the states require that their students know an indigenous African language so I’m scouting languages in preparation - kind of).

The first most difficult thing about Xhosa is actually learning how to say “Xhosa” correctly. The majority of non-Xhosa speaking people pronounce Xhosa the lazy way (the way I’ve been saying it for years), which is to say it like “Kho-sa”, however, most X’s in Xhosa are pronounced with a click as follows:

 X = sucking the side of the tongue to the side teeth and palate and pulling it away quickly

       “Xhosa”

 C = This click is produced by pressing the front of the tongue where the front palate and the front teeth meet and pulling away 

        “Cela” (to ask for)

 Q = sucking the front of the tongue to the front of the palate and pulling it away rapidly to produce a popping sound

          “Qala” (start)