Swazi, also known as siSwati, is spoken by about 1.7 million people, mainly in Eswatini and South Africa, where it holds official status. A Bantu language in the Niger-Congo family, Swazi is tonal and agglutinative, with a large system of noun classes. Written in the Latin alphabet, it follows a subject-verb-object word order. Swazi culture is deeply tied to traditional ceremonies such as the Umhlanga (Reed Dance) and Incwala, which emphasize community, heritage, and the monarchy’s role in national identity.
Stats
Language Family: Niger-Congo
Writing System: Latin
Writing System Type: Alphabet
Writing Direction: L to R
Tones / Pitch Accent: 3
Morphology: Agglutinative
Cases: 0
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: 17
Number of Verb Tenses: 3
Word Order: SVO
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 5
Number of Consonants: 42
Areas Where Spoken
Eswatini (official) (89.9%) (1.12 mil)
South Africa (official) (2.5%) (1.6 mil)