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Sesotho

Sotho
Sesotho
Pronunciation [sɪ̀sʊ́tʰʊ̀]
Native to Lesotho, South Africa
Ethnicity Basotho
Native speakers
5.6 million (2001–2011)
7.9 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)
Latin (Sotho alphabet)
Sotho Braille
Signed Sotho
Official status
Official language in
Lesotho
South Africa
Zimbabwe
Regulated by Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1 st
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3
Glottolog sout2807
S.33
Linguasphere 99-AUT-ee incl. varieties 99-AUT-eea to 99-AUT-eee
The Sesotho Language
Person Mosotho
People Basotho
Language Sesotho
Country Lesotho

The Sotho language, Sesotho (/ˈst/;, also known as Southern Sotho, or Southern Sesotho) is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho-Tswana (S.30) group, spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages, and in Lesotho, where it is the national language.

Like all Bantu languages, Sesotho is an agglutinative language, which uses numerous affixes and derivational and inflexional rules to build complete words.

Sesotho is a Southern Bantu language, belonging to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30).

"Sotho" is also the name given to the entire Sotho-Tswana group, in which case Sesotho proper is called "Southern Sotho". Within the Sotho-Tswana group, Sesotho proper is most closely related to Lozi (Silozi), with which it forms the Sesotho-Lozi group within Sotho-Tswana.

The Northern Sotho group is geographical, and includes a number of dialects also closely related to Sesotho-Lozi. Northern Sotho language. Tswana is also known as "Western Sesotho".


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