Lobedu people

Balobedu (BaLodzwi/Bathobolo) is a southern African tribe and an ethnic group of the Northern Sotho group. They were initially known as BaKwebo (wild pigs).The name "bolobedu" means place of tribute, go loba/lobela. Hence BaLobedu are people who receive tribute from others.They have their own kingdom, the Balobedu Kingdom, within the Limpopo Province of South Africa with a female ruler, the Rain Queen Modjadji.The population of BaLobedu numbers around 2 million. It is estimated that around 30%-40% of Northern Sotho speakers are of Lobedu ethnicity.Their population is distributed in around Mopani and Vhembe regions of Limpopo. Some are found in Gauteng as labour migrants especially in Tembisa and Alexandra townships. Majority of all Northern Sotho speakers in Tembisa are BaLobedu.

Their language is known as KheLobedu or Khelovedu, which is a "non-Pedi" dialect of Northern Sotho. Khelovedu is grammatically similar to other Sotho–Tswana languages and Tshivenda. Khelovedu is also similar to the TshiGuvhu and TshiIlafuri dialects of TshiVenda. Mutual intelligibility between these Venda dialects and Khelovedu is so high that speakers of this Venda dialects can effectively communicate with Khelovedu speakers without difficulty. A TshiGuvhu speaker can understand a Khelovedu speaker so easily or visa versa. Khelovedu could have easily been classified as a Venda dialect or an independent language. For example Northern Sotho and its parent dialect Sepedi have a high mutual intelligibility with Southern Sotho and SeTswana than with Khelovedu. A Sepedi speaker cannot understand a Khelovedu speaker at the most but he can understand a South Sotho or SeTswana speaker. Khelovedu speakers only learn to speak Northern Sotho at school. As such Northern Sotho is only a second or third language and foreign like English and Afrikaans.

Khelovedu Vocabulary:

Ndau- Greetings

O dzohile vyane- Good morning

Vashomi- good day

Ge ya levoha- Thank you

O gwa gaye/gafhe?- where are from?

O ya gaye/gafhe?- where are you going?

Leina laaho ge mane?- whats your name?

Ge gwa Dzaneni- I am from Tzaneen

Ge tshweri ge dikhofhe- I am sleepy

O tšhebed̪e vyane- how was your journey

Ge tšhebed̪e ge e khosi/yesi- I went alone

Ge ve ge ile Phalavorwa- I went to Phalaborwa

Naa/Afha Vomalome va d̪ile- did my uncle come

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Wikipedia