ABSTRACT
Zulu belongs to the South-Eastern group of Bantu languages (the Nguni group, which also includes the closely related Xhosa and Swazi) and is a major official language of South Africa, where it has more speakers than any other language, African or European. It is spoken mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, with some spread into Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania. Four main dialects are distinguished: Kwabe, Lala, Ndebele and Nguni. The latter is characteristic of Malawi and Tanzania; Ndebele (‘Matabele’) is found in the Transvaal and Zimbabwe. Zulu in its original forms is spoken today by at least 10 million people.
