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Northern Sotho Sesotho sa Leboa
Spoken in:	South Africa
Region:	Gauteng Limpopo Mpumalanga
Total speakers:	4,208,940
Language family:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Southern Bantoid       Narrow Bantu        Central Narrow Bantu         "S" Central Narrow Bantu          Sotho S.30 group           Northern Sotho            Northern Sotho
Official status
Official language in:	South Africa
Regulated by:	Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	nso
ISO 639-3:	nso

Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa in the language itself) is one of the official languages of South Africa, and is spoken by nearly five million—4,208,980 people (2001 Census Data)—in the South African provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga.

Northern Sotho is a language of the Bantu family within the Niger-Congo language phylum. Northern Sotho is specifically found within the Sotho languages branch of Zone S (S.30). Thus, this language is most closely related to Tswana (Setswana) and Sotho (Sesotho/Southern Sotho).

Northern Sotho is often, but erroneously, referred to as Sepedi, since for some years after the new South African constitution appeared, Pedi (or Sepedi) was the name used for Northern Sotho. There is thus some confusion as to which name to use.

The name "Pedi" is not, as some believe, synonymous with "Northern Sotho"; the official Northern Sotho language is intended to encompass approximately 30 closely related dialects, of which Pedi is but one. The name "Pedi" thus refers specifically to the language of the Pedi people, while Northern Sotho refers to the official language, which is a much broader category than merely Pedi. (Thus if speaking to a Pedi-speaker, it is not incorrect to say "Pedi", but if speaking about the official language, it is "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa").

Historically, the standard Northern Sotho language has been largely based on Pedi, as the missionaries who first developed the orthography had contact mainly with the Pedi people, and this is probably where the confusion originated. Further confusion arose when the South African constitution originally incorrectly cited "(Se)pedi" as being the official language. The Pan South African Language Board and the Northern Sotho National Lexicography Unit specifically endorse the names "Northern Sotho" or "Sesotho sa Leboa".

Very little published information is available on non-Pedi dialects of the Northern Sotho language. These include Lobedu, Setlokwa (pronounced Sedwokwa), Serwa, Pai and Pulana. The morphological and perhaps lexical variation across dialects of Northern Sotho has led some to claim that 'Northern Sotho' is a typological holding category for simply all the Sotho-ish languages and dialects of northeastern South Africa. Whether there is a coherent linguistic or ethnic identity among speakers of this range of languages is a matter for further research.

• Online Northern Sotho - English dictionary
• Online Northern Sotho explanatory dictionary
• Ethnologue report for Northern Sotho
• Pan South African Language Board

Northern Sotho language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Northern Sotho
• Translate.org.za Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Northern Sotho
• Keyboard with extra Northern Sotho characters

v • d • e  Languages of the Republic of South Africa
Official languages Afrikaans · English · isiNdebele · Northern Sotho · Sesotho · Siswati · Xitsonga · Setswana · Tshivenḓa · isiXhosa · isiZulu
Non-official languages Fanagalo · Kxoe · Lobedu · Nama · Northern Ndebele · Phuthi · Tsotsitaal · Other Khoisan · South African Sign Language