Sotho language
| Southern Sotho | |
|---|---|
| Sesotho | |
| Native to | Lesotho South Africa |
| Region | Southern Africa |
| Native speakers | 6 024 000[1] (date missing) |
| Language family | Niger–Congo
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |  Lesotho South Africa |
| Regulated by | Pan South African Language Board |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | st |
| ISO 639-2 | sot |
| ISO 639-3 | sot |
Southern Sotho (Sesotho in Southern Sotho) is an African language mainly spoken by people living in Lesotho and the Free State Province of South Africa.
Southern Sotho is one of the two official languages of Lesotho and one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by almost 6,024,000 people, or 7% of South Africans at home (2011 census). Southern Sotho is part of the Sotho language family.
Southern Sotho contains many loanwords from Zulu.
Sotho Language Media
A Mosotho woman holding up a sign protesting violence against women, written in her native Sesotho language, at a National Women's Day protest at the National University of Lesotho. The sign translates: "If you do not listen to women, we will lose patience with you." (2008)
Geographical distribution of Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Sotho at home.*Template:Legend-col*
References
- ↑ Sotho, Southern. Ethnologue. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Sotho language edition. |
