Lozi, also known as siLozi and Rozi, is a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. T ...

of the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho–Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30), that is spoken by the

Lozi people Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbab ...

, primarily in southwestern

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

and in surrounding countries. This language is most closely related to Northern Sotho (''Sesotho sa Leboa''), Tswana (''Setswana''), Kgalagari (''SheKgalagari'') and Sotho (''Sesotho''/Southern Sotho). Lozi, sometimes written as Rotse, and its dialects are spoken and understood by approximately six percent of the population of Zambia. ''Silozi'' is the

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

(the name of the language used by its native speakers) as defined by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

. ''Lozi'' is the

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

. The Lozi language developed from a mixture of two languages: Luyana and Kololo. The Luyana people originally migrated south from the Kingdom of Luba and

Kingdom of Lunda The Nation of Lunda (c. 1665 – c. 1887) was a confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola, and north-western Zambia, its central state was in Katanga. Origin Initially, the core of what would ...

in the Katanga area of the

Congo River The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

basin, either late in the 17th century or early in the 18th century. The language they spoke, therefore, was closely related to Luba and Lunda. They settled on the floodplains of the upper Zambezi in what is now western

and developed a kingdom, Barotseland, and also gave their name to the Barotse Floodplain or ''Bulozi''. The Kololo were a Sotho people who used to live in what is now the Free State province of South Africa. The Kololo were forced to flee from

Shaka Zulu Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka Zulu () and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that ...

Mfecane The Mfecane ( isiZulu, Zulu pronunciation: ̩fɛˈkǀaːne, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing, scattering, forced dispersal, forced migration") is a historical period of heightened military conflict ...

during the 1830s. Using tactics they had copied from the Zulu armies, the Kololo conquered the Luyana on the Zambezi floodplains and imposed their rule and language. However, by 1864 the indigenous population revolted and overthrew the Kololo. By that time, the Luyana language had been largely forgotten; the new hybrid language is called Lozi or Silozi and is closer to

Sesotho Sotho () or Sesotho () or Southern Sotho is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho–Tswana ("S.30") group, spoken primarily by the Basotho in Lesotho, where it is the national and official language; South Africa (particularly the Free ...

than to any other neighbouring languages in Zambia. Lozi is also spoken in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

, and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

( Zambezi Region).

Phonology

Lozi has 5 vowels: 20 consonants are in Lozi: Tone is marked as high or low.

Orthography

Lozi uses the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

, which was introduced by

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

. In 1977, Zambia standardised the language's orthography.

Vocabulary

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Lozi of Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

(by the

References

External links

Lozi alphabet and pronunciation
at ''Omniglot''

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070930181545/http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Lozi-english/ Lozi English Dictionaryfro
Webster's Online Dictionary
-

The Rosetta Edition Philip M. Parker (born June 20, 1960) is an American economist and academic, currently the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Management Science at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He has patented a method to automatically produce a set of similar book ...

PanAfrican L10n page on LoziOLAC resources in and about the Lozi language

Lozi language stories

*Sibetta, O.Kwibisa,
Ze Patezwi ba Banca
'' Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014 *
Silozi language stories
'' Lubuto Library Special Collections, accessed May 3, 2014 {{Authority control Sotho-Tswana languages Languages of Botswana Languages of Namibia Languages of South Africa Languages of Zambia Languages of Zimbabwe Library of Congress Africa Collection related Lozi people