Northern Sotho

Northern Sotho
Sesotho sa Leboa
Native to	South Africa
Region	Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga [1]
Ethnicity	Bapedi Lobedu Tlôkwa
Native speakers	3.2 million (2022 Census)[2] 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)[3]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho–Tswana Northern Sotho
Early forms	Tswaniac Hurutshe Kgatla
Writing system	Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille
Signed forms	Signed Northern Sotho
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Regulated by	Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nso
ISO 639-3	Variously: nso – Sekone brl – Birwa two
Glottolog	nort3233
Guthrie code	S.32,301–304[4]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-ed
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home.   0–20%   20–40%   40–60%   60–80%   80–100%
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho 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
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Northern Sotho is one of South Africa's twelve official languages and belongs to the Bantu language family specifically the Sotho-Tswana group.^[5] The language is spoken mainly in Limpopo Province, and to a lesser extent in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West.^[6][7]

Northern Sotho is the umbrella term for a group of certain dialects.

As of the 2022 South African Census, approximately 6.2 million people, or 10.0% of the national population, speak Northern Sotho as their first language. Northern Sotho ranks as the fifth most spoken first language.

According to Chapter 1, Section 6 of the South African Constitution, Sepedi is one of South Africas 12 official languages.^[8] There has been significant debate about whether Northern Sotho should be used instead of Pedi.^[9] The English version of the South African Constitution lists Sepedi as an official language, while the Sepedi or Northern Sotho version of the Constitution of South Africa lists Sesotho sa Leboa as an official South African language.^[10] On 5 November 2025, PANSALB, the South African language Board adopted Sesotho sa Leboa as official Language replacing the narrow dialect of Sepedi. Sesotho sa Leboa covers 27 dialects of Northern Sotho such as: Selobedu, Setlokwa, Sepulana, Sehananwa,SeMatlala, SeMoletji, Sebirwa, Seroka https://www.pansalb.org/pansalb-clarifies-naming-convention-for-sesotho-sa-leboa-to-promote-linguistic-unity-and-inclusivity/

South Africa's official language policy refers to the twelve official languages of South Africa (i.e., Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English, and South African Sign Language (SASL)), as specified in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.^[11]

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The written standard of Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa) was imposed by the apartheid regime, Sepedi is a language which was extensively documented by missionaries of the Berlin Missionary Society during the nineteenth century. Scholars generally acknowledge the contributions of missionaries such as Alexander Merensky, Carl Knothe, Grützner, and Gerlachshoop in developing an orthography and written tradition for the language.^[12] The resulting standardized writing system was later applied to numerous related Sotho-Tswana varieties spoken across the former Transvaal region. This has led to ongoing debate regarding the use of "Sepedi" as a label for the entire language, with speakers of other varieties, including Khelobedu (Lobedu), arguing that the broader designation "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa" more accurately reflects the linguistic diversity of the language community. Recent studies have highlighted the sociolinguistic and identity-related implications of this naming controversy in post-apartheid South Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Northern Sotho can be subdivided into Highveld-Sotho and Pedi people, which consists of comparatively recent immigrants mostly from the west and southwest parts of South Africa, and Lowveld-Sotho, which consists of a combination of immigrants from the north of South Africa and Sotho inhabitants of longer standing. Like other Sotho-Tswana people, their languages are named after totemic animals and, sometimes, by alternating or combining these with the names of famous chiefs.^{[original research?]}

The group consists of the following dialects:

• Bapedi
  • Marota (in the narrower sense)
  • Batau (Matlebjane, Masemola, Marishane, Manganeng - Nkadimeng, Kgaphola, Diphofa, Nchabeleng, Mogashoa, Phaahla, Sloane, Mashegoana, Mphanama, Malata a Manyane)
  • Bakone
  • Baphuthi
  • Baroka
  • Bakgaga (Mphahlele, Maake, Mothapo)
  • Thobejane (Ga-Mafefe)
  • Batswapong
  • Batlokwa (Ba-bopedi)
  • Bapulana (not mapulana)
  • Batlou
• Chuene
• Mathabatha
• Maserumule
• Tlou (Ga-Molepo)
• Batlokwa
  • Batlokwa Ba Lethebe
• Makgoba
• Bahananwa (Ga-Mmalebogo)
• Moremi
• Motlhatlhana
• Babirwa
• Mmamabolo
• Bakwena ba Moletjie (Moloto)
• Batlhaloga
• Bahwaduba, BaGaMagale, and many others

The group consists of Lobedu, Narene, Phalaborwa (Malatji), Mogoboya, Kone, Kgaga, Ramafalo and Mohale.

Northern Sotho is one of the Sotho languages of the Bantu family. Although Northern Sotho shares the name Sotho with Southern Sotho, the two groups also have a great deal in common with their sister language Setswana.^{[citation needed][13][AI-retrieved source]} Northern Sotho is also closely related to Setswana, sheKgalagari and siLozi. It is a standardized variety, amalgamating several distinct varieties or dialects. Northern Sotho is also spoken by the Mohlala people and Malata People.

Khelobedu is a written language. Lobedu is spoken by people in the Greater Tzaneen, Greater Letaba municipalities, and a minority in Greater Giyani municipality, as well as in the Limpopo Province and Tembisa township in Gauteng. Its speakers are known as the Balobedu.

Northern sotho is written in the Latin alphabet. The letter š is used to represent the sound [ʃ] ("sh" is used in the trigraph "tsh" to represent an aspirated ts sound). The circumflex accent can be added to the letters e and o to distinguish their different sounds, but it is mostly used in language reference books. Some word prefixes, especially in verbs, are written separately from the stem.^[14]

Other consonant sounds include fricative-combinations /pʃʼ pʃʰ fʃ βʒ/ and /psʼ psʰ/.

Within nasal consonant compounds, the first nasal consonant sound is recognized as syllabic. Words such as nthuše "help me", are pronounced as [n̩tʰuʃe]. /n/ can also be pronounced as /ŋ/ following a velar consonant.^[15]

Urban varieties of Northern Sotho, such as Pretoria Sotho (actually a derivative of Tswana, and Pedi), have acquired clicks in an ongoing process of such sounds spreading from Nguni languages.^[16]

Like most other Niger–Congo languages, Sesotho is a tonal language, spoken with two basic tones, high (H) and low (L).

Some examples of Northern Sotho words and phrases:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights^[17]

• Lebowa
• lovedu

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northern Sotho language.

Northern Sotho edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northern Sotho". World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Northern Sotho
• Online Northern Sotho – English dictionary
• Online Northern Sotho explanatory dictionary
• Pan South African Language Board
• https://www.unisa.ac.za/static/corporate_web/Content/UnisaOpen/freeOnlineCourse/sSotho/sSotho.html

• Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Northern Sotho
• Translate.org.za Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Northern Sotho
• Keyboard with extra Northern Sotho characters