Notes:
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The orthographies used in Lesotho and South Africa differ, with the Lesotho variant using diacritics.
As with almost all other Bantu languages, although the language is a tonal language, tone is never indicated.
For an overview of the symbols used and the sounds they represent, see the phoneme tables at Sotho phonology.
Note that often when a section discusses formatives, affixes, or vowels it may be necessary to view the IPA to see the proper conjunctive word division and vowel qualities.
The original orthography was developed in the early 19th century by missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society to aid in translating the Bible. The earliest orthographies were more like French spelling, still seen in the writing of the approximants pronounced as //j// and pronounced as //w// in the modern Lesotho variant.
Sesotho in South Africa uses the following alphabet:
| Orthography | IPA | Notes | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | pronounced as /link/ | Like English spa | ho abela to distribute | |
| b | pronounced as /link/ | this consonant is fully voiced | lebese milk | |
| bj | pronounced as //bʒ// | ho bjarana to break apart like a clay pot | ||
| d | pronounced as /[d]/ | an allophone of /l/ only occurring before the close vowels (pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //u//) | Modimo God | |
| e | pronounced as /link/ | Like English pit | ho leka to attempt | |
| pronounced as /link/ | Like English cafe | ho jwetsa to tell | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | Like English bed | ho sheba to look | ||
| f | pronounced as /link/ | ho fumiana to find | ||
| fj | pronounced as //fʃ// | only found in short passives of verbs ending with fa; alternative sh | ho bofjwa to be tied | |
| h | pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | these two sounds are allophones | ho aha to build | |
| hl | pronounced as /link/ | ho hlahloba to examine | ||
| i | pronounced as /link/ | As in English beet | ho bitsa to call | |
| j | pronounced as /link/ | mojalefa heir | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | this is an alternative to the fricative pronounced as //ʒ// | ho ja to eat | ||
| k | pronounced as /link/ | unaspirated: skill | boikarabelo responsibility | |
| kh | pronounced as /link/ | fully aspirated: kill; occurring mostly in old loanwords from Nguni languages and in ideophones | lekhokho the part of the pap that remains baked to the pot after cooking | |
| kg | pronounced as /link/ | sekgo spider | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | alternative to the velar fricative | kgale a long time ago | ||
| l | pronounced as /link/ | never occurs before close vowels (pronounced as //i// or pronounced as //u//), where it becomes pronounced as //d// | selepe axe | |
| m | pronounced as /link/ | ho mamaretsa to glue | ||
| n | pronounced as /link/ | lenaneo | ||
| ng | pronounced as /link/ | can occur initially | lengolo letter | |
| nq | pronounced as /link/ | nasal; this is often simply pronounced as a radical click | ho nqosa to accuse | |
| ny | pronounced as /link/ | as in Spanish el niño | ho nyala to marry | |
| o | pronounced as /link/ | like English put | potso query | |
| pronounced as /link/ | As in French oiseau | pontsho proof | ||
| pronounced as /link/ | English: board | mongolo writing | ||
| p | pronounced as /link/ | unaspirated: spit | pitsa cooking pot | |
| ph | pronounced as /link/ | aspirated: pin | phuputso investigation | |
| pj | pronounced as //pʃʼ// | alternative tj | ho pjatla to cook well | |
| pjh | pronounced as //pʃʰ// | aspirated version of the above; alternative tjh | mpjhe ostrich | |
| q | pronounced as /link/ | radical (tenuis) | ho qoqa to chat | |
| qh | pronounced as /link/ | aspirated | leqheku an elderly person | |
| r | pronounced as /link/ | soft Parisian-type r | moriri hair | |
| s | pronounced as /link/ | Sesotho | ||
| sh | pronounced as /link/ | Moshweshwe Moshoeshoe I | ||
| t | pronounced as /link/ | unaspirated: stalk | botala greenness | |
| th | pronounced as /link/ | tharollo solution | ||
| tj | pronounced as /link/ | ntja dog | ||
| tjh | pronounced as /link/ | ho ntjhafatsa to renew | ||
| tl | pronounced as /link/ | ho tlatsa to fill | ||
| tlh | pronounced as /link/ | occurs only as a nasalized form of hl or as an alternative to it[3] | tlhaho nature | |
| ts | pronounced as /link/ | ho tsokotsa to rinse | ||
| tsh | pronounced as /link/ | aspirated | ho tshoha to become frightened | |
| u | pronounced as /link/ | As in English boot | tumo fame | |
| w | pronounced as /link/ | sewa epidemic | ||
| y | pronounced as /link/ | ho tsamaya to walk |
One issue which complicates the written language is the two divergent orthographies used by the two countries with the largest number of first language speakers. The Lesotho orthography is older than the South African one and differs from it not only in the choice of letters and the marking of initial syllabic nasals, but also (to a much lesser extent) in written word division and the use of diacritics on vowels to distinguish some ambiguous spellings.
| Lesotho version | Example | ||
| , | , | to lend | |
| peace | |||
| type of bead string | |||
| May month | |||
| to burn | |||
| air/wind/spirit | |||
| to comprehend | |||
| to be tied | |||
| ostrich |
Additionally, in older texts the nasalized click was written in Lesotho (as a relic of a much older click series:,, and), but now the more universal digraph is used in both countries.
When the symbol "š" is unavailable electronically, people who write in Lesotho Sesotho often use ts or t's to represent the aspirated alveolar affricate .
In word-initial positions,[1] a syllabic nasal followed by a syllable starting with the same nasal is written as an n or m in South Africa but as an apostrophe in Lesotho.
| Lesotho version | ||
| truth | ||
| and | ||
| vagina (very crude) | ||
| to scratch my itch |
Note that, when not word-initial, Lesotho orthography uses an n or m just like South African orthography.
When consonants or vowels are omitted due to (diachronic or synchronic) contractions, Lesotho orthography uses apostrophes to indicate the missing sounds while the South African orthography generally does not.
I haven't seen her
My child
In order to distinguish between the concords of class 1(a) and the 2nd. person singular, Lesotho orthography uses u to represent phonetic and for the 2nd. person, even when there is no chance of ambiguity.
You are beautiful
He/she is beautiful
I did advise you too
I did advise him/her too
In Lesotho, ò (for the two mid back vowels), ō (for the near-close back vowel), è (for the two mid front vowels), and ē (for the near-close front vowel) are sometimes used to avoid spelling ambiguities. This is never done in South African writing.
to pour - to cross
to sing a praise poem - to sewThese examples also have differing tone patterns.
Although the two orthographies tend to use similar written word divisions, they do differ on some points:
leader
be!
The cows are grazing
father ⇒ fathers/father-and-them
Very often South Africans with recent ancestors from Lesotho have surnames written in Lesotho orthography, preserving the old spellings.
Gloria Moshoeshoe, South African actor and talk show host
Aaron Mokoena, South African and European soccer player
Like all other Bantu languages, Sesotho is an agglutinative language spoken conjunctively; however, like many Bantu languages it is written disjunctively. The difference lies in the characteristically European word division used for writing the language, in contrast with some Bantu languages such as the South African Nguni languages.
This issue is investigated in more detail in The Sesotho word.
Roughly speaking the following principles may be used to explain the current orthographical word division:
Of course, there are exceptions to these rough rules.
Modern Sesotho punctuation essentially mimics popular English usage. Full stops separate sentences, with the first letter of each sentence capitalized; commas indicate slight pauses; direct quotes are indicated with double quotation marks; proper nouns have their first letter capitalized (this was often not done in the old French-based orthographies); and so forth.
Direct quotations are introduced with a comma followed by the utterance in double quotes. The comma is used to indicate the pause which is mandatory in speech when introducing quotes, and indeed, in older orthographies the quotes were not used at all since the pause by itself is sufficient to introduce the next phrase as a quotation.
He said, "I wish to speak with you."Proper nouns are indicated by capitalizing the first letter (usually the first letter of the noun prefix). Since prefixes are written separately from the main noun in the disjunctive orthography, they are not written differently. Contrast this with the situation in the disjunctively-written Nguni languages where it is the first letter of the stem that is capitalized.
The Voice of the People (isiZulu iZwi labaNtu)
Although it is a sufficient medium which has been used for almost 200 years to pen some of the most celebrated African literature (such as Thomas Mofolo's Chaka), the current Sesotho orthography does exhibit certain (phonological) deficiencies.
One problem is that, although the spoken language has at least seven contrasting vowel phonemes, these are only written using the five vowel letters of the standard Latin alphabet. The letter "e" represents the vowels pronounced as //ɪ//, pronounced as //ɛ//, and pronounced as //e//, and the letter "o" represents the vowels pronounced as //ʊ//, pronounced as //ɔ//, and pronounced as //o//. Not only does this result in numerous homographs, there is also some overlap between many distinct morphemes and formatives, as well as the final vowels of Sesotho verbs in various tenses and moods.
Another problem is the complete lack of tone marking even though Sesotho is a grammatical tone language. Not only does this also result in numerous homographs, it may also cause problems in situations where the only difference between grammatical constructions is the tones of a few key syllables in two otherwise similar sounding phrases. That this would be a rather difficult issue to tackle is revealed by the fact that very few of the large number of written Niger–Congo languages have any consistently used tone marking schemes, even though some of their tonal systems are much more complex than that of Sesotho.
The following not too unlikely example is illustrative of both these issues:
ke ye ke reke dijo, either pronounced as /[kʼɪje kʼɪʀekʼɪ diʒɔ]/ [''' _ _ _ ¯ ¯ _ ¯ '''] I often buy food, or pronounced as /[kʼɪjɛ kʼɪʀɛkʼɛ diʒɔ]/ [''' ¯ _ ¯ ¯ ¯ _ ¯ '''] so I may go and buy foodThe first meaning is rendered if the phrase is composed of a Group III deficient verb (indicating habitual actions) followed by a verb in the perfect subjunctive mood. The second verb's mood is indicated by the low toned subjectival concord as well as the pronounced as //ɪ// final vowel. The second meaning is rendered by basically using two normal verbs in the subjunctive mood (with high toned subjectival concords and pronounced as //ɛ// final vowels) with the actions following each other.