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Sesotho sa Lebowa, Sepedi, Pedi
Northern Sotho (S32), also known as Pedi, Sepedi or Transvaal Sotho is classified as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Sotho-Tswana (S.30), Sotho, Northern
(Webbook and Ethnologue)
According to AfricanLanguages.com: "The 'official' Northern Sotho language attempts to encompass a collection of approximately 30 related dialects, all generally mutually intelligible, and all related to Sepedi, which specifically is the language of the Bapedi (Pedi people). Historically, what is now the official language has been based primarily on Sepedi, as the missionaries who developed the orthography mainly had contact with the Bapedi. The name 'Sepedi' thus came to be regarded, somewhat incorrectly, as being synonymous with 'Sesotho sa Leboa', and further confusion arose when the constitution cited "Sepedi" as being the official language. This is not strictly correct, as it would exclude other Northern Sotho dialects from official recognition. Thus when referring to the official language, it is preferable to use the term 'Sesotho sa Leboa' or 'Northern Sotho'. When referring to the language of the Bapedi, the correct term is 'Sepedi'."
Northern Sotho / Pedi / Sepedi / Transvaal Sotho, is spoken in northeastern South Africa (Transvaal). (Webbook, with modifications)
There are apparently some communities of Sepedi speakers in the Limpopo valley area of Zimbabwe [confirm?].
According to Ethnologue:
Wikipedia cites the 2001 South African census figure of 4,208,980
Although Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, and Tswana are considered to be three separate languages they are largely interintelligible. (Webbook and Ethnologue)
Northern Sotho dialects according Ethnologue:
Northern Sotho is an official language of South Africa.
According to Ethnologue, Northern Sotho is taught in primary and secondary schools
There is a standardized Latin based orthography for Northern Sotho. It apparently uses some diacritics [more info]
See:
A sample text is shown on the "Language Museum" site at http://www.language-museum.com/s/sotho-northern.htm
A Latin font with the necessary extended range. [more info]
The South African keyboard at http://translate.org.za/content/view/24/41/ is designed for Northern Sotho and other South African languages.
The South African language site "Batho Portal" http://www.sediba.org.za/ has a section on "Sesotho sa leboa."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/srt.htm
The OpenOffice suite of software applications has been localized in Sepedi by Translate.org.za. See http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/54/
There is a "Sesotho sa Leboa Spelling Checker 1.0 & Hyphenator" for Microsoft products for sale at http://www.bowline.co.za/home.asp?pid=24&product=1099
CTexT has developed a spellchecker and hyphenator for use with Microsoft Windows. See: http://www.spel.co.za/
Sotho, Northern (Sepedi)
Pukuntšu ya Sesotho sa Leboa - Seisimane [Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho) - English Dictionary] http://africanlanguages.com/sdp/index.php?l=nso
Translate.org.za http://translate.org.zz(approve sites)
AfricanLanguages.com, "Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho)," http://www.africanlanguages.com/northern_sotho/
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Sotho/Tswana," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Sotho_root.html )
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Sotho, Northern," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=nso
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "Northern Sotho language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Sotho_language
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