Birwa
Birwa is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Glottolog rates it threatened.
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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. The language is spoken mainly in Limpopo Province, and to a lesser extent in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West.
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.
From Wikipedia · Northern Sotho · CC BY-SA 4.0
Words in Birwa
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| person | tho* | |
| name | ina* | |
| eye | itho* | |
| ear | cebe* | |
| nose | nko* | |
| tooth | ino* | |
| tongue | leme* | |
| hand | seata* | |
| blood | madi* | |
| bone | rapo* | |
| skin | talo* | |
| knee | khuru* | |
| breast | sehuba* | |
| liver | sebete* | |
| water | meci* | |
| fire | lelo* | |
| sun | jaji* | |
| star | naledi* | |
| stone | fika* | |
| mountain | thaba* | |
| tree | sethare* | |
| leaf | thare* | |
| night | bosiho* | |
| dog | mpya* | |
| fish | thapi* | |
| one | dehe* | |
| two | bedi* | |
| drink | nwa* | |
| see | bona* | |
| hear | twa* |
* in the simplified ASJP transcription
Most similar languages
Vocabulary
- TswanaAtlantic-Congo61% alike
- Northern SothoAtlantic-Congo58% alike
- Southern SothoAtlantic-Congo49% alike
- KgalagadiAtlantic-Congo45% alike
- LoziAtlantic-Congo42% alike
- VendaAtlantic-Congo29% alike
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · birw1238 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · brl