BACK TO BASICS comparing the orthographic, phonic and grammatical features of English and African languages to improve literacy teaching
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BACK TO BASICS
comparing the orthographic,
phonic and grammatical features
of English and African languages
to improve literacy teaching
JENNY KATZ PrimTEd Literacy Working Group Seminar
Manager: Research & Development Unit Materials for literacy teacher programmes
083 450 5050 ● jenny@molteno.co.za 7th February 2020
IMPROVING READING AND WRITING
• Knowledge of the orthography, phonics and
grammar of one language can assist
significantly and meaningfully with the
teaching and learning of another.
• Draw attention to what is similar and then
focus on what is different.
ORTHOGRAPHY: the conventional spelling system of a language
PHONICS: correlation of sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system
GRAMMAR: the system and structure of a language
NGUNI LANGUAGES SOTHO LANGUAGES
(ISIXHOSA, ISIZULU, (SESOTHO, SETSWANA,
ENGLISH ISINDEBELE, SISWATI) SEPEDI)
With relevant examples in With relevant examples in
Xitsonga and Tshivenḓa Xitsonga and Tshivenḓa
Vowel Many Five simple, consistent Usually simple, consistent
sounds complex vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u sounds (a, i, u and two
sounds, In isiXhosa and isiNdebele, different sounds for e and
including double vowels like ii also o)
digraphs (ai, exist in the plural form of Vowel digraphs and blends
ea, aw, oy), some nouns, e.g. also exist such as ee, aa,
trigraphs oo, oi, au, oa, oe
isiXhosa: intake (bird) →
(igh, ear, oor)
iintake (birds) Tshivenḓa also has vowels
and
isiNdebele: indlebe (ear) occurring next to each
quadgraphs
→ iindlebe (ears) other as in daisi and goloi
(eigh)
and tie
In Nguni languages there are FIVE main vowel sounds:
(examples below from isiXhosa)
a as in amanzi (water)
(English short ‘u’ sound as in umbrella)
e as in iemele (a bucket)
(English short ‘e’ sound as in egg) There are SEVEN
vowel sounds in
i as in iliso (an eye) Sotho languages.
(English short ‘i’ sound as in ink) These five plus:
e
o as in iorenji (an orange) similar to the ‘ee’
(English short ‘aw’ sound as in saw ) sound as in feet
u as in ufudo (a tortoise) o
similar to the ‘u’
(English short ‘oo’ sound as in book)
sound as in put
Problems arise when pronunciation affects spelling and meaning:
bed = known sound and mouth position
bad = unknown sound and mouth position
bird = unknown sound and mouth position
English vowel sounds a, o and u (and vowel-consonant blends
such as ir and ur) will therefore need special focus and practice.
Consonants that are different also need to be practised:
• Nguni: c, q and x (different in English and don’t exist in Setswana)
• Setswana & Sepedi: g and š
SOTHO
ENGLISH NGUNI LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Usually 2-3 letter sounds that can 2-3 letter sounds that
Consonant made up of be made longer and more can be made longer and
digraphs only 2-3 complex (up to 5 more complex (up to 5
and consonants consonants) by blending consonants) by blending
trigraphs e.g. sh, ch, with n- and/or -w, but also with n- and/or -w, but
th, wh, ph, always followed by a vowel also always followed by
kn, wr, -ck, e.g. hl, nq, gc, tsh, ngcw, a vowel
-ng, -tch ntshw e.g. sh, tl, kg, ng, ph, tsh,
More examples in isiXhosa, tšh, tjh, ntlh
isiZulu, isiNdebele, Siswati:
ch, kh, ph, th, gc, dl, hl, ts,
ng
Tshivenḓa: ng, dz, vh, kh, ṱh,
tsh; Xitsonga ng, dz, ny, ch,
hl
NGUNI SOTHO
ENGLISH LANGUAGES LANGUAGES
Word CVC pattern (V)CVCV pattern ([vowel]- CVCV(CV) pattern e.g.
structures: (consonant- consonant-vowel- bona, dula, rata
letter vowel- consonant vowel) pattern Sepedi: lepidipidi, rula,
patterns consonant) e.g. nazi, siya, wabo, ikati, tafola
e.g. cap, net, umama, amasi Sesotho: letata, rula,
bin, dog, hut isiZulu/isiNdebele: idada, tafola
irula, itafula Setswana: pidipidi, rula,
isiXhosa: idada, irula, tafole
itafile Tshivenḓa: ruḽa, forogo,
gunubu
Siswati: lidada, irula,
litafula Xitsonga: tafula, foroko,
dokodela
SETSWANA ENGLISH ISIZULU
NGUNI SOTHO
ENGLISH LANGUAGES LANGUAGES
Word Later Early use of prefixes for Early use of prefixes,
structures: introduction of pronouns and plurals especially for plurals
prefixes prefixes in the e.g. u-, ngo-, ngu-, uku- e.g. leoto-maoto,
Intermediate ndi/ngi, ama-, izi/ii, ezi borikgwe-marikgwe,
Phase segwete-digwete
and also for agreement
(automatic,
disappear,
tricycle,
submarine)
NGUNI
ENGLISH SOTHO LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Word *plural *plural indicated by *plural indicated by prefix and
structures: indicated by prefix and there is more there is more than one
plurals suffix (usually - than one indicator of indicator of plural depending
s or -es) e.g. plural depending on the on the noun e.g. ba-, bo-, di-,
socks, brushes noun, e.g. ama-, izi-, ii-, me-, ma-
aba-, vha-, imi-, swi- Sepedi: sehlare (tree) →
isiXhosa: utata (father) dihlare (trees)
→ ootata (fathers) Sesotho: sefate (tree) →
isiZulu: umuthi (tree) → difate (trees)
imithi (trees) Setswana: setlhare (tree) →
isiNdebele: ilihlo (eye) ditlhare (trees), monna (man)
→ amehlo (eyes) → banna (men)
Siswati: lishiya
(eyebrow) → emashiya
(eyebrows)
Tshivenḓa: nḓevhe (ear)
→ dzinḓevhe (ears)
Xitsonga: yindlu (house)
→ tiyindlu (houses)NGUNI SOTHO
ENGLISH LANGUAGES LANGUAGES
Word Disjunctive, Agglutinative, Sepedi, Sesotho,
length: opaque, deep conjunctive, transparent, Setswana, Tshivenḓa,
phonics and orthography: shallow orthographies: Xitsonga: agglutinative,
syllabication short words unavoidable long words disjunctive, transparent,
when when beginning reading shallow orthographies:
beginning e.g. Ngipenda ngombala mixture of mostly shorter
reading oluhlaza njengesibhaka- words with some long
e.g. I can run bhaka. words e.g. Selemo re qala
and hop but I Ngiyamthanda. ho jala. so phonic skills
can’t skip. are important but still
means a greater need to
some need to syllabicate
Phonic skills syllabicate
e.g. morutabana,
are important Short sight words are very diphoofolo, futhumetse
and sight uncommon and, unlike
word English, sight words are Sight words are short,
knowledge. usually high-frequency phonically regular, high-
words, e.g. kakhulu, futhi, frequency words e.g.
lapha monate, tharo, legaeExamples of high frequency
words in ISIXHOSA
Sight words vs
high-frequency words
ENGLISH ISIXHOSA
but ukuba
can umama
went
kakhulu
one
wakhe
where
are kodwa
come watsho
could incwadi
abantwana
yachtNGUNI
ENGLISH SOTHO LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Pronouns Short, Prefix added to root word; Like English, short, separate
separate non-gender specific: words, non-gender specific
words e.g. I, e.g. isiXhosa: ndiyahamba, e.g. ke, nna, a, o, re, rona,
we, it, she, sinxiba, ufaka hae, wena, lona
our, his isiXhosa/isiZulu: Setswana/Sesotho: Ke a
Many denote bayasebenza tsamaya.
gender isiZulu: ngiyadla, ufuna, Setswana/Sepedi: O ja
he/him/his ngigqoka, sigqoka bogobe.
and isiNdebele: Ngithanda Tshivenḓa: Ndi funa.
she/her/hers Siswati: Ngiyakutsandza Xitsonga: Ndzi rhandza.SOTHO
ENGLISH NGUNI LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Adjectives Adjective Adjective comes after the Adjective comes after
usually comes noun singular and plural the noun. Same form is
before the form agreement used for singular and
noun – same e.g. ijezi obomvu - iijezi plural, with a
form for ezibomvu / amajezi prepositional change
singular and abomvu e.g. kgoho e kgubedu,
plural e.g. red IsiXhosa: intliziyo opinki dijeresi tse kgubedu
car-red cars (pink heart) Sepedi: pelo ye pinki
isiZulu: inhliziyo ephinki (pink heart)
isiNdebele: ihliziyo epinki Sesotho/Setswana: pelo
Siswati: inhlitiyo lepinki e pinki
Tshivenḓa/Xitsonga:
mbilu ya pinkiSOTHO
ENGLISH NGUNI LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Articles Definite article Article appears as a prefix Article appears as a prefix
the appears before the noun and before some nouns and
before a depends on human or non- depends on human or non-
singular and human characteristics. human characteristics.
plural noun Prefix often starts with a * Proper nouns (names) do
e.g. the vowel e.g. u-; i-; a-. For not usually receive a prefix,
children, the example: as in English
dog, the chairs isiXhosa/isiZulu/isiNdebele: Setswana/Sepedi: motho
amanzi; Siswati: emanti (the person), batho (the
Indefinite
articles a/an *In English, the article is not people), legapu (the
come only used before a proper noun watermelon), magapu (the
before a (name). In the Nguni watermelons), katse (the
singular noun languages, the article cat), dikatse (the cats)
e.g. a dog, an appears before proper Sepedi: meetsi
apple nouns unless used in direct Tshivenḓa: maḓi
speech (e.g uSindi) Xitsonga: matiNGUNI SOTHO
ENGLISH
LANGUAGES LANGUAGES
Verbs Tenses are used in a Different tenses can be Different tenses can
and consistent manner used together in a piece appear together in a
tenses – either present of writing piece of writing
tense, or present
progressive or past
tenseNGUNI SOTHO
ENGLISH
LANGUAGES LANGUAGES
Rhyme Concepts of onset and rime Concepts of onset Concepts of onset
very important for and rime do not and rime do not
phonemic awareness, exist – patterning is exist – patterning is
emergent phonic learning syllabic and syllabic and
and spelling, e.g. rhythmical instead. rhythmical instead.
dog, jog, log, frog Any rhyming is Any rhyming is
d-og, j-og, l-og, fr-og incidental and incidental and
grammatical grammatical
ball, tall, wall, small
b-all, t-all, w-all, sm-all e.g. lami, wami, e.g. bona, lona,
zami; bakhe, rona, tsona; eng,
lick, tick, quick, brick, stick lakhe, wakhe; leng, seng, teng
l-ick, t-ick, qu-ick, br-ick, st-ick bonke, sonke,
zonkeENGLISH NGUNI LANGUAGES SOTHO LANGUAGES
Tone Important for Very important for Very important for meaning
emphasis and meaning but not marked in but not marked in writing:
expression writing Setswana: go rêma (to chop)
e.g. ubulele (s/he killed) and go rema (to become
and ubulele (s/he thanked) thick as milk)
isiXhosa: uyamthanda Sepedi: legâga (cliff) and
(you love him) and legăga (sloughed skin)
uyamthanda (s/he loves Sesotho: noka (river) and
him) nôka (hip)PROMOTING MULTILINGUALISM
❝You can never understand one language
until you understand at least two.❞
Geoffrey Willans
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