Abstract
The objective of this article is to create awareness amongst speech-language pathologists and audiologists in South Africa regarding the difference between the sound systems of Germanic languages and the sound systems of South African Bantu languages. A brief overview of the sound systems of two Bantu languages, namely isiZulu and Setswana, is provided. These two languages are representative of the Nguni language group and the Sotho group respectively.Consideration is given to the notion of language-specific symptoms of speech, language and hearing disorders in addition to universal symptoms. The possible impact of speech production, language and hearing disorders on the ability to produce and perceive speech in these languages, and the challenges that this holds for research and clinical practice, are pointed out.
Highlights
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists in South Africa have to serve a linguistically diverse population
Between 300 and 600 Bantu languages are spoken in large areas of central and southern Africa, and are geographically the most widespread language group in sub-Saharan Africa (Guthrie, 1948; Herbert, 1990)
The South African Bantu languages belong to the SouthEastern Bantu language zone, and to Zone S
Summary
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and audiologists in South Africa have to serve a linguistically diverse population. South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages. Two of these languages, English and Afrikaans, are Germanic languages, whilst the remaining nine are South African Bantu languages. The term ‘Bantu language family’ refers to a family of languages that shares various linguistic features. Guthrie (1948) divided the languages belonging to the Bantu language family into 16 geographical zones labelled from A–S, with subdivisions within the zones indicated numerically. The South African Bantu languages belong to the SouthEastern Bantu language zone, and to Zone S.
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