Zulu Alphabet & Clicks

Zulu, isiZulu in the language itself, is written with the 26 Latin letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z, in a capital and a small form each, as in the symbol grid above. That is the full list Unicode's CLDR locale data gives for the language, and there is no accented letter in it: a Zulu text never needs an accent key, and it pastes cleanly into any app. R turns up mostly in borrowed words and names.

The five vowels a e i o u sound roughly as in Spanish or Italian, and Zulu syllables normally end in a vowel, which is why loanwords grow one: ibhola (ball), itafula (table). Zulu is a tonal language, where the pitch of a syllable can tell words apart, but the standard spelling does not mark tone; you will only see acute and grave accents on vowels in dictionaries and linguistics books.

Many single sounds are spelled with two or three letters. hl is a breathy l blown past the side of the tongue, as in hlala (sit, stay) and kahle (well); dl is its voiced partner, as in ukudla (food, to eat). An h after p, t or k adds a puff of breath: phila (live, be well), thanda (love), ikhaya (home). bh is an ordinary English b, while a plain b is said with the breath drawn inward; sh and tsh are as in shesha (hurry) and tshela (tell), ny is the ny of canyon and hh a voiced h, as in hhayi (no).

Zulu clicks: c, q and x

Zulu has three click consonants, borrowed long ago from the Khoisan languages of southern Africa, and it writes them with three letters that English uses for other sounds. c is the dental click, the soft tut-tut of disapproval made with the tongue tip behind the front teeth: cela (ask), Cha (no). q is the louder pop made by pulling the tongue down from the roof of the mouth, like a cork leaving a bottle: qala (begin), iqanda (egg). x is the lateral click, the clucking sound used to urge a horse on, made at the side of the mouth: ixoxo (frog), uxolo (sorry, peace).

Each click comes in several versions spelled with an extra letter. An h after it adds breath (qhuba, drive on), a g before it gives a deeper, murmured click (gcina, keep; gqoka, get dressed), an n before it lets the sound out through the nose (inqaba, fortress), and ng combines the two, so one click letter can stand at the heart of a spelling like gc, nq or ngx. That is why lists of "Zulu words with nq" or "words with gq" are a favourite of learners.

Phoneticians write the three clicks with their own letters, in the grid as a separate group: ǀ (U+01C0) for c, ǃ (U+01C3) for q and ǁ (U+01C1) for x, with ɬ (U+026C) for hl and ɮ (U+026E) for dl. They are not part of ordinary Zulu writing, but you need them for pronunciation guides and linguistics. Mind the look-alikes: ǀ is not the vertical bar | or a small l, ǁ is not two bars, and ǃ is a letter, not the exclamation mark !, so it will not break a word in two when software treats words.

Zulu greetings: Sawubona, Ngiyabonga, Ngiyakuthanda

Hello in Zulu is Sawubona to one person and Sanibonani to several. It means "we see you", it works at any time of day, and the reply is Yebo, sawubona, "yes, we see you". Next comes Unjani? (how are you?; Ninjani? to several), answered with Ngiyaphila, I am well, or Ngikhona, "I am here". Yes is yebo, no is cha or hhayi, and please is ngicela, "I ask".

Thank you is Ngiyabonga, thank you very much Ngiyabonga kakhulu, and when a family or a group thanks someone together, Siyabonga, we thank you. I love you is Ngiyakuthanda, and we love you Siyakuthanda. When parting, the one leaving says Sala kahle, stay well, and the one staying answers Hamba kahle, go well. Sorry and excuse me are both Uxolo, with a lateral click.

Names of places and peoples take a small prefix and keep their own capital in the middle of the word: isiZulu (the language), amaZulu (the Zulu people), umZulu (one Zulu person), KwaZulu-Natal, eThekwini (Durban), eGoli (Johannesburg). When a prefix meets a borrowed word or abbreviation that begins with a vowel, a hyphen keeps them apart, as in i-ofisi (office). Phone keyboards like to "correct" these, so check them before you post.

Where Zulu is spoken

Zulu is spoken by about 15 million people by Unicode's CLDR estimates, about 14.5 million of them in South Africa 🇿🇦, where it is one of the official languages and the most widely spoken home language in the country. Its heartland is KwaZulu-Natal, the province around Durban and Pietermaritzburg, with large communities in Gauteng around Johannesburg and in Mpumalanga, and it serves as a common language far beyond them.

CLDR also counts about 310,000 speakers in Lesotho 🇱🇸, about 77,000 in Eswatini 🇸🇿, where siSwati is so close that the two are partly understood across the border, and about 72,000 in Malawi 🇲🇼, home of the Ngoni, whose ancestors came north from the Zulu region in the nineteenth century. These are estimates, and many speakers use Zulu alongside English, Sesotho, siSwati or other languages every day.

Money is written with letters. The South African rand has no Unicode sign of its own and is written with a capital R before the amount, R100, using the R in the alphabet rows of the grid.

Zulu culture in emoji: the shield, the cow and the Lion

The emoji people reach for when they write about Zulu culture are few and specific. The 🛡️ shield stands for the isihlangu, the tall oval cowhide shield of the Zulu army; regiments were told apart by the colour and pattern of their hides, which is why the shield and 🐄 cattle belong together. Cattle are wealth and family ties in Zulu tradition: ilobolo, the bride wealth agreed between families, was counted in cows.

The Zulu king is praised as iNgonyama, "the Lion" 🦁, and greeted with the royal salute Bayede! 👑; the present king is Misuzulu kaZwelithini. Each September young women bring tall reeds 🌾 to the king for Umkhosi woMhlanga, the Reed Dance. Zulu beadwork has its own language too: the colours and patterns of beaded panels, often called Zulu love letters, carry messages between sweethearts, with white for love and purity.

Zulu is a Nguni language, a close relative of Xhosa, siSwati and the South and North Ndebele languages, and a neighbour of Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda and Afrikaans; each of them has a collection here, as do South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini and Malawi with their flags and emoji.