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Ziervogel ‘s view
The second view, regarding the origin of the Northern Ndebele people, is the one held by Ziervogel (1959) who maintains that the Northern (Transvaal) Ndebele proper do not claim their origin from their southern counterparts (i.e., the Southern Ndebele). He (Ziervogel, 1959:5) states that ‘The Northern Ndebele proper, viz. the Gegana, Mugombhane and Lidwaba (Maraba) tribes are not of Natal origin. Said to have come from the north, i.e., Rhodesia (i.e., Zimbabwe), …not related to the latter.’
This view is supported by his informants that they (i.e., Northern Ndebele) originally came from the East, the country of Malaji and their ancestral chief was Nungu (Ziervogel, 1959:181). According to the historical background of this view, Nungu had two sons, Malaji (the elder) and Malajana (the younger). The two sons argued about the sun: Malaji said it rose up between the two muganu (i.e., marula or wild plum) trees, whilst his younger brother, Malajana, said it rose from the sea. Their argument resulted in the sons parting. In fear of his brother, Malaji, Malajana went to Swaziland and on the way devised two strategies that were to render him untraceable. First, he changed his totem, which was the porcupine (inungu) to an elephant ‘indlovu’ and, secondly, he discarded his mother tongue by requesting the Swazi king to give him twelve boys and girls to teach his tribe Swazi, because they were unintelligible to the Swazi people. By the time those children had become adults, the Kalanga language that Malajana’s tribe was speaking, which they most probably acquired when they were in Zimbabwe, was completely effaced and Swazi became their new adopted language. Ziervogel’s informants (Ziervogel, 1959:183) confirmed this state of affairs by saying: ‘Malajana again called a meeting of his people. He said: “You see that I have discarded my totem on the road. I have discarded my speech, there no longer is a place where my brother could find me.’
Thereafter, the mother tongue of the Northern Ndebele was strongly influenced by Swazi (Ziervogel,1959:5). In essence, the Northern Ndebele group that Ziervogel refers to, is most probably the Lidwaba group which, according to De Beer, separated from Mthombeni and first went to Phalaborwa and thereafter moved up to Zimbabwe and later on came back to Phalaborwa, via Venda. It is, however, important to note that Ziervogel’s account of the Northern Ndebele people and, more particularly, of the Lidwaba section of this ethnic group, to a large extent correlates with the history written by Vercuil (1966) on the tribe (or tribes) that he studied around Phalaborwa. Although, Vercuil makes no mention of the name “Ndebele” in his historical account of the tribe(s) he studied, hedoes make mention of the name of Chief Malatši, who could have been the same person that Ziervogel refers to in his account of the history of the Northern Ndebele people.
Vercuil (1966:1) states as follows in this regard:
‘Volgens oorlewering het die Phalaborwa-stam vanuit die noorde gekom. Die presiese vertrekpunt en die trekroete is egter nie bekend nie.
Op soek na beter verblyf-plek, het hulle na die suide getrek, onder die regering van hoofmanMmakao. Mmakao het sy broer Malatši aangestel as hoofman oor ‘n gedeelte van die volk.’
Jackson’s view
According to Jackson (1969), the Northern Ndebele people comprise the Langa section who are also known as the ‘Black Ndebele’ (or people of Mapela) in order to distinguish them from their Southern Ndebele counterparts. Even though Jackson recognizes the Langa subgroup as the major section representing the Northern Ndebele people, he does note that there are other tribes comprising the Northern Ndebele people. He (Jackson, 1969:i) states that ‘The Ndebele of Langa are classified by anthropologists as Northern Ndebele. This category includes a number of chiefdoms other than the Langa.’
Jackson maintains that the Northern Ndebele people trace their origin from KwaZulu-Natal, just as their Southern Ndebele counterparts do, but they are not related to the latter because of the fact that the former trace their origins from the ancestral chief Langalibalele whilst the latter trace their origins from the so-called chief, Musi. Moreover their movement into the then named Transvaal was not of the same period. Jackson (1969:i) states as follows– ‘The Transvaal Ndebele entered the Transvaal in atleast two different migratory streams, namely, the Ndebele of Langa, on the other hand, and those Ndebele who claim ties with an ancient chief called Musi…on the other. Some of the chiefdoms related to Musi, now form the Southern Transvaal Ndebele, whereas others are classified with the Langa as Northern Transvaal Ndebele.’
It is evident from the above quotation that Jackson, too, regards the Langa subsection to be the main representative of the Northern (Transvaal) Ndebele tribes. The other main tribes, namely, the Gegana and Lidwaba are, according to him, members of the Southern Ndebele group and do not form part of the Northern Ndebele people. Jackson (op.cit.:i) affirms this point of view when he says:
‘The Ndebele of Langa are classified by anthropologists as Northern Transvaal Ndebele. This category includes a number of chiefdoms other than the Langa. The Northern Ndebele, again form part of a broader category known to anthropologists as the Transvaal Ndebele. This category comprises the Northern and Southern Transvaal Ndebele.’
This point is further supported by Ziervogel when he (Ziervogel, 1959:5) states that ‘The Langa section, also called the Black Ndebele…are no relation of the other Ndebele tribes, and their language is said to have been more Nguni like than that of the Mugombhane and Maraba tribes. They are said to be of Zululand stock, who entered the country they now occupy from the North-East.’
The Mugombhane and Maraba tribes that Ziervogel (1959:5) make mention of, including other tribes, according to Jackson (1969) do not form part of the Northern Ndebele people. Instead, he regards them as related to their southern counterparts. Jackson (1969:i) speaks of the ‘Ndebele of Musi’ and the ‘Ndebele of Langa’ when referring to the Southern and Northern Transvaal Ndebele, respectively. The latter claims its origin from chief Langalibalele, and their tribal name ‘Langa Ndebele’ is also derived from this while the former regard themselves as the descendants of chief Musi (or Msi). The departure date of the Langa Ndebele from Hlubi territory was around 1650 whilst they were under the leadership of the chief Masebe I.
CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Rationale
1.3 Problem Identification
1.4 Method of Research
1.5 The significance of the study
1.6 Literature Review
1.7 A Language vs Dialect
1.8 Chapter Outline
CHAPTER 2: THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NDEBELE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The history of the Ndebele people of South Africa
2.3 The origin of the Ndebele people of the former Transvaal
2.4 The first settlement area of the Ndebele people in the former Transvaal
2.5 The numbers and distribution of the former Transvaal Ndebele
2.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3: PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The sound system of Southern Ndebele
3.3 The sound system of Northern Ndebele
3.4 Some remarks on the phonetic differences between the Northern Ndebele sound system revised in (2001) and that distinguished by Ziervogel (1959)
3.5 A tabular outline of the sound systems of Southern and Northern Ndebele
3.6. Phonological differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele
3.7 Phonological differences in the nasal compounds of Southern and Northern Ndebele
3.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4: MORPHOPHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Differences in consonant assimilation
4.3. Differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele in the syllabification of nasals
4.4 Differences in palatalisation between Southern and Northern Ndebele
4.5. Differences in vowel coalescence between Southern and Northern Ndebele
4.6 Differences in vowel elision between Southern and Northern Ndebele
4.7 Differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele in vowel Juxtaposition
4.8 Vowel verb stems in Southern and Northern Ndebele
4.9 Consonantalisation
4.10 Differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele in glide insertion.
4.11 Labialization
4.12. Denasalisation in the nasal compounds of Southern and Northern Ndebele
4.13 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5: MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Morphological differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele in the noun class system
5.3 Morphological differences in the system of pronouns.
5.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6: MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE (Continued)
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The adjective
6.3 The morphological structure of the adjective concord
6.4 The adjective in Southern and Northern Ndebele
6.5 The relative
6.6 The enumerative
6.7 The possessive
6.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 7. MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE (Continued)
7.1. Introduction
7.2 Differences between Southern and Northern Ndebele in the formation of identificative copulatives
7.3. The differences in the formation of descriptive copulatives in Southern and Northern Ndebele
7.4. Locational copulatives
7.5. Associative copulatives.
7.6 The adverbs
7.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 8: MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE (Continued).
8.1 Introduction
8.2. Mood
8.3 Tenses
8.4 The verbs
8.5 The auxiliary verbs
8.6 The conjunctives in Southern and Northern Ndebele
8.7 The ideophones in Southern and Northern Ndebele
8.8 Conclusion
CHAPTER 9: DIFFERENCES IN THE SPELLING RULES BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Southern Ndebele Spelling Rules
9.3 Northern Ndebele spelling rules
9.4 Differences in the orthographical and spelling rules between Southern and Northern Ndebele
9.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 10: AN OVERVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS IN THE LINGUISTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN NDEBELE
10.1 . Introduction
10.2 The evaluation of the historical perspective of the Southern and Northern Ndebele speaking people of the Republic of South Africa
10.3 The phonological dissimilarities between Southern and Northern Ndebele
10.4 Morphophonological features of the Southern and Northern Ndebele
10.5 The morphological features of the Southern and Northern Ndebele
10.6 The spelling rules of the Southern and Northern Ndebele
10.7 Conclusion and recommendations
