Xhosa

About Xhosa

Xhosa, or isiXhosa, is the first language of about 8.2 million people, most of them in South Africa's Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces. It is an official language of South Africa and of Zimbabwe and was the first language of Nelson Mandela. It is closely related to Zulu.

Xhosa is famous for its click sounds, which are ordinary consonants in the language. C is a click made with the tongue behind the front teeth, like the "tsk" of disapproval, q is a louder pop made further back and x is a click at the side of the mouth, like the sound used to urge on a horse. Say molo to greet one person and molweni to greet several. Enkosi means thank you.

FamilyNiger-Congo, Bantu (Nguni)
Native speakersabout 8.2 million (2011)
Second-language speakersabout 11 million (2002)
Official inSouth Africa, Zimbabwe
ScriptLatin alphabet
Codesxh (ISO 639-1), xho (ISO 639-3)

Speaker numbers: Ethnologue, 18th edition, via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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