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Xitsonga, Ronga, Tshwa
Tsonga is an all-inclusive name for the Tswa-Ronga or Tonga Group of Bantu (Guthrie S50). (Webbook)
For our purposes here we cover Tsonga, Ronga, and Tshwa.
Ethnologue lists the classification as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Tswa-Ronga (S.50)
Although Tsonga is sometimes called Tonga, it should not be confused with the Tonga (Guthrie M60) spoken in Zambia or Tonga (Guthrie S60) spoken in Mozambique. There is a Tonga spoken in Malawi that is apparently different from all the above.
These dialects or languages (see Dialect Survey below) are spoken in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. (Webbook)
According to Ethnologue:
Baumbach's (1970) thesis describes the dialect situation in Tsonga... (Webbook)
According to Ethnologue:
'Tsonga' is used to describe Changana, Tswa, and Ronga, although it is often used interchangeably with Changana, the most prestigious of the three. All are recognized as languages, although they are inherently intelligible. (Ethnologue)
Tsonga is an important regional language. (Webbook)
It is an official language in South Africa.
Shagaan, Tshwa, and Tsonga each have their own orthographies. (Webbook) These are Latin-based orthographies.
According to the Geonames "Unicode test page...: Tsonga alphabet" http://www.geonames.de/alphtz.html#tso , the alphabet is:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n (n’) o p q r s t u v w (x) y z
A table at http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/MozaSource.htm gives some information for Xitsonga, Xironga, and Xitshwa (unfortunately the column for the latter is partially missing) in Mozambique
The "Language Museum" site has sample texts for the following:
The South African language site "Batho Portal" http://www.sediba.org.za/ has a section on & in Xitsonga.
Wikipedia in Tsonga at http://ts.wikipedia.org/ (almost no language content as of 5-2007)
The OpenOffice suite of software applications has been localised in Tsonga (South Africa) by Translate.org.za. See http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/54/
There was a suggestion to adapt this localisation for the Tsonga spoken in Mozambique.
Ronga
Tshwa
Translate.org.za http://translate.org.za/
AfricanLanguages.com "Xitsonga (Tsonga)" page (info on South Africa only) http://www.africanlanguages.com/tsonga/
This is a cross-border Southern African languages that could be one of the first to have localized versions for different countries (notably South Africa and Mozambique). If they are all based on a common version - in this case the one done by Translate.org.za - that would make it easier for the broader user community.
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Tsonga," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Tsonga_root.html )
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Ronga," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rng
______, "Tsonga," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tso
______, "Tswa," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tsc
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, "Tsonga language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsonga_language
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