Lozi, also known as Silozi and Rozi, is a Bantu language of the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho–Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30), that is spoken by the Lozi people, primarily in southwestern Zambia and in Namibia. The language is most closely related to Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa), Tswana (Setswana), Kgalagari (SheKgalagari) and Sotho (Sesotho/Southern Sotho). Lozi is sometimes written as Rotse. Silozi is the endonym (the name of the language used by its native speakers).
The origins of Silozi can be traced back to a mixture of languages, primarily Luyana and Kololo. The Luyana people migrated south from the Kingdom of Luba and Kingdom of Lunda in the Katanga area of the Congo River basin, either late in the 17th century or early in the 18th century. They settled on the floodplains of the upper Zambezi River in what is now western Zambia, where they established a kingdom called Barotseland or Bulozi.
In the 1830s, the Kololo people, originally from the area near Senekal, Free State province of South Africa, fled northwards to escape the Mfecane under King Shaka Zulu (died 1828). They employed tactics learned from the Zulu armies to conquer the Luyana on the Zambezi floodplains, imposing their rule and language. However, by 1864, the indigenous population revolted and overthrew the Kololo. By then, the original Luyana language had largely been replaced by a new hybrid language, Silozi.
Today, Silozi is spoken in Namibia and Zambia.
Phonology Lozi has 5 vowels:
+ VowelsFrontCentralBack High MidLow
20 consonants are in Lozi:
+ ConsonantsLabialAlveolarPalatal/PostalveolarVelarGlottalNasalPlosivevoicelessvoicedFricativevoicelessvoicedApproximant
Tone is marked as high or low.
Orthography
Lozi uses the Latin script, which was introduced by missionaries. In 1977, Zambia standardised the language's orthography.
Letters (upper case) A B C CH D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ O P S SH T U W Y ZLetters (lower case) a b c ch d e f g h i j k l m n ñ o p s sh t u w y zIPA , , , ,
Vocabulary
+Months of the year in SiloziSiloziEnglish SopeJanuary YowaFebruary LiatamanyiMarch LunguApril KandaoMay MbuwanaJune SikuluJuly MuyanaAugust MuimuneneSeptember YendaOctober NjimwanaNovember ÑululeDecember Counting numbers in Silozi
1 kalikamu
2 totubeli
3 totulalu
4 totune
5 ketalizoho
6 silezi
7 supile
8 ketalizoho ni totulalu
9 ketalizoho ni totune
10 lishumi
20 mashumi a mabeli
30 mashumi a malalu
40 mashumi a mane
50 mashumi a ketalizoho
60 mashumi a silezi
70 mashumi a supile
80 mashumi a supile ni kalikamu
90 mashumi a supile ni totubeli
100 muanda
Silozi text
The following is a sample text in Silozi.
Silozi: Kakuli Mulimu U latile hahulu batu ba lifasi, mane U ba file Mwan'a Hae wa libanda kuli mutu ufi ni ufi ya lumela ku Yena a si ke a shwa, kono a be ni bupilo bo bu sa feli. Joani 3:16
English: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
References
External links
Lozi alphabet and pronunciation at Omniglot.com A sample paragraph in Lozi at www.language-museum.com Silozi-English Dictionary, glossaries, beginner's guide, other info at www.barotseland.com, archived 2006-08-21 Lozi-English Dictionary from Webster's Online Dictionary, archived 2007-09-30; The Rosetta Edition PanAfrican L10n page on Lozi at www.panafril10n.org OLAC resources in and about the Lozi language at www.language-archives.org Medical phrases in Lozi at www.medguide.org.zm, archived 2009-04-21
Lozi language stories Sibetta, O. Kwibisa, (1967, Zambia Publications Bureau) in , accessed May 3, 2014/archived 2015-06-21 Silozi language stories, in Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014 Lubuto Library Project at www.lubuto.org