Tswana language

Tswana, also called Setswana, is a Southern Bantu language spoken chiefly in Botswana and South Africa. It is one of the official languages of Botswana and a recognized official language of South Africa.

Bantu languages: A large branch of the Niger-Congo language family spoken across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Tswana belongs to this branch and shares its characteristic noun-class system.
Southern Sotho: A Southern Bantu language spoken mainly in Lesotho and South Africa. It is Tswana’s closest major relative, but the two are distinct languages.
Official languages of Botswana: The languages granted official status by Botswana’s government for public functions. Tswana’s national role is shaped by its official status in Botswana.
Proto-Bantu language: The reconstructed ancestor of the Bantu languages, spoken before their expansion across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Tswana descends from the Bantu lineage traced back to this reconstructed language.
Noun class: A grammatical system that groups nouns into classes and often marks agreement on related words. Tswana nouns fall into classes that shape agreement across a sentence.
Northern Sotho: A Southern Bantu language spoken mainly in South Africa’s Limpopo province. Its related grammar and vocabulary make it a useful comparison with Tswana.
Official languages of South Africa: The languages recognized by South Africa’s constitution for official use. Tswana has constitutional official-language status alongside ten other languages.
Bantu expansion: The long-term spread of Bantu-speaking communities from west-central Africa across much of sub-Saharan Africa. This population movement forms the broad historical background to Tswana’s ancestry.
Bantu noun-class system: A system of paired noun classes that marks number and controls agreement in many Bantu languages. Its class prefixes and agreement patterns are central to Tswana grammar.
Kgalagadi language: A Bantu language spoken in Botswana and neighboring areas, closely related to Tswana. Kgalagadi is a neighboring relative within the region’s Sotho-Tswana languages.

Linked from 1 page

Sotho languageRelated: Tswana is a close linguistic relative with overlapping regional history.