Northern Sotho language
| Northern Sotho(Sesotho sa Leboa) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | South Africa |
| Region: | Southern Africa |
| Total speakers: | 4,208,940 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Sotho-Tswana, Sotho, Northern |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | South Africa |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639–2 | nso |
| SIL | SRT
|
Northern Sotho, or "Sesotho sa Leboa", is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by 4,208,980 people (2001 Census Data), mostly in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga.
The Northern Sotho language has historically been largely based on the dialect Sepedi. For this reason, it is often incorrectly called Sepedi.
Northern Sotho is one of the so-called Bantu languages, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to Setswana and Sesotho (Southern Sotho).
External link
Categories: Bantu languages | Languages of South Africa | Language stubs