Zulu is a Bantu language together with other African languages such as Tswana, Kinyarwanda, Swahili and Lingala to name but a few.
Zulu is one of 11 official languages and the most spoken language in South Africa. The dialect of Zulu spoken in Zimbabwe is referred to as Northern Ndebele, which is not to be confused with the Southern Ndebele spoken in South Africa. Zulu is mutually intelligible with Xhosa and Swati.
The language makes use of click sounds, just like Xhosa, and Zulu speakers refer to themselves as speakers of isiZulu where the prefix “isi-” is added to imply “language”.
The National Anthem of South Africa is sung in five different languages –the first two lines in Xhosa, the second two lines in Zulu, then Sotho, Afrikaans and finally English for one stanza each.
