Setswana Language History Part 2: The Written Language

The evolution of Setswana orthography is itself a story worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, with plot twists and whodunits that would rival any Alfred Hitchcock mystery. It started with European missionaries, each not only struggling with learning the new African language from the point of view of their various vernaculars and Christian denominational perspectives. And then when it was all eventually falling into place and the native speakers were now on board, it emerged that the primary dialects [Tlhaping/Rolong] which were used as a mold, are actually the ones that are quite different from “mainstream” dialects. And just when you thought all was finally resolved, it turned out that in fact another language had been mainstreamed into Setswana orthography: Sesotho (and later, Sepedi) would later be identified as different linguistic entities.

From Xhosa, Dutch, and German

In 1806, the first written Setswana text, “The language of the Beetjuana” was authored by German explorer and missionary, Hinrich Lichtenstein, but would not be published until 114 years later, in 1930. Lichtenstein’s work on Tswana orthography is said to be based on earlier work done by Dutch pioneering missionary, Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp, on the Xhosa language of South Africa’s Cape. Apparently, Lichtenstein initially thought Setswana to be a dialect is Xhosa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some example spellings of Setswana words, captured in this text include:

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sseaakja	seatla	hand
mochohru	mogodu	stomach
bussecho	bosigo	night
kammuhscho	kamoso	tomorrow

First Dictionary – Salt and Campbell

Scottish LMS missionary, John Campbell, who too briefly lived among the Xhosa and later Tswana people, published what could arguably be classified as the first Setswana dictionary, comprising 80 words. The text was called “Bootchuana Words”, and was principally based on the Setlhaping dialect.

 

Some example spellings of Setswana words, captured in this text include:

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chebbey	tsebe	ear
loonowho	lonao	foot

 

 

 

 

University of Botswana professor, TJ Otlogetswe also points us to the works of Henry Salt (famous for his “A Voyage to Abyssinia…”) in his 1814 recording “A few words of the Mutshuana language copied from a manuscript journal of Mr Cowan”, where numerous Setswana words are listed alongside the English equivalents.

Some example spellings of Setswana words, captured in this text include:

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let chãchi	letsatsi	sun
werri	ngwedi	moon
too na	tona	much
kom mo shu	ka moso	morning

 

 

Burchell’s Sichuana and Moffat’s Sechuana

In 1824, English explorer, William John Burchell published the largest Setswana text to date: a document titles Sichuana Language containing over a hundred words and grammar patterns, from which LMS Scottish missionary, Robert Moffat built a framework for his later works in the language that he would present instead as Sechuana. Once again it is important to remember that these men were greatly influenced by the Setlhaping/Serolong dialects, and although their pronunciation of the word “Setswana” seems slightly off, it was almost congruent with how it is pronounced in these dialects.

Some example spellings of Setswana words, captured in this text include:

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ncha	ntsa	dog
nuenjanni	nonyane	bird
mosarri o mungklje	mosadi yo montle	[a] beautiful woman
ka ki uklwi Sichuana	ga ke utlwe Setswana	I do not understand Setswana

Luke to Revelations, then Genesis to Malachi

Robert Moffat, for all his accolades, is also known for bringing Setswana into mainstream writing. Having lived and evangelised among the Batswana for a decade was better placed to appreciate the language and do something with it. And indeed he did: After translating several hymns and the Westminster Catechism to written Setswana, he then went on to translate the entire Biblical Gospel of Luke, together with endnotes on “difficult words”. This meant that by 1830, Setswana was the most developed Bantu language in terms of Western orthography, having overtaken Xhosa, which was the first to be written in Southern Africa. Moffat’s work continued to include the publication of the rest of the New Testament by 1840, and the entire Old Testament in 1857. These texts put up a total of about a million Setswana words written in prose, and therefore conforming to some grammar rules, which nevertheless still needed refining.
Some example spellings of Setswana words, captured in these works include:

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Morimo	Modimo	God
rumela	dumela	dumela
ka yeno	ka jeno	today

Robert and Mary Moffat lived among the Batlhaping and their work was also mainly based on this dialect. However, the Moffats were aware of other Tswana tribes and dialects, and actually projected the numbers and lands of Batswana to be much higher than were. In one of his writings, fellow pioneering missionary is quoted by Otlogetswe TJ (2013) as saying “Lichtenstein also notes that, “Under the name of Betjuana, Sihtjuana, Muhtjuana, are to be included all the tribes that inhabit the country that extends from the river Kuruhman, as its most southern boundary thirty or forty days journey northwards; several tribes inhabiting this latitude extend quite to the eastern coast of Africa.”
Although the 30-40 days journey is a bit much, it still remains true that Setswana is the most widely dispersed language in Southern Africa, whose coverage area increases significantly if you include its mutually intelligible sister languages like Sesotho, Sepedi, Sekgalagadi, and Serotsi.

Granma’s Grammar

With the vocabulary and semantics in place, focus was now given to the syntax. Between 1833 and 1837, English Methodist missionary, James Archbell worked on and published the first Setswana grammar book, “A Grammar of the Bechuana Language”. This work was based on the Serolong dialect, as Archbell lived amongst the Seleka Barolong of Thaba Nchu. The major advantage of this is that this dialect is the Setswana dialect closest to Sesotho, and as such this initial work became a sound foundation for the grammars of both languages. However, on the minus side, Archwell’s grammar text was also based on Xhosa grammar, and as such there were areas where it was impossible to properly represent Tswana constructions.

Pardon my French

French missionaries, Eugene Casalis from the Paris Evangelical Mission published “Etudes sur la langue Sechuana” in 1841 (and several years after, in 1864, Jean Fredoux published “A Sketch of the Sechuana Grammar”). This work was in French and gave a different perspective to how to deal with Tswana grammar from a European perspective. Another major development was Casalis’ ability to divorce Tswana from Xhosa, even though he had not been able to discern between the former and other Sotho-Tswana languages. This would come back to haunt the architects of written Sesotho and Sepedi afterwards, but did not present much of an obstacle for Setswana orthographers.

Dr David Livingstone, I Presume

Robert Moffat’s son-in-law, David Livingstone, who spent a lot more years among Batswana would also make his major contribution in his 1858 publication of “An analysis of the language of the Bechuanas”, which contained a critical analysis of the work done by Archwell and Casalis. Livingstone’s main contention was that most of his predecessors attempted to mold Tswana grammar on the basis of their native European languages and this sometimes led to mismatches and logical absurdities. In particular, was the observation that Bantu languages have very different phonological systems from the European vernaculars of the missionaries, and that a good starting point would be to align their syntax to these.

Native Writers

About a century after Lichtenstein’s initial writing, native Batswana started having their own publications. By far the most noteworthy is Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (pictured at the top of the page), a legendary pioneer who will have an article specifically about him in future. Plaatje assisted Professor Jones in authoring books called the Sechuana Reader and the Jones Secwana Nouns in 1929. Plaatje is said to have been the first Black South African novelist with his 1919 “Mhudi“, which unfortunately was not published until 1930, after R. R. R. Dhlomo’s “An African Tragedy” (in 1929).

 

Any discourse about the evolution of Setswana orthography would be incomplete without mentioning the immense contributions of the “White Morolong”, Prof Desmond Thorne Cole. Although originally of European decent, Cole was born in Bechuanaland and grew up among the Mahikeng Barolong, pretty much as a first-language user of Setswana. Although he made contributions to other Southern African languages, it is his relationship with Setswana that he will be most remembered by. In 1955, he published the version of noun classes (ditlhopha tsa maina) that has since been adopted as the standard for the past seven decades, in both Botswana and South Africa.

 

 

Much of the bulk of 20th century Setswana literature is by South African writers, but there are still significant contributions from Botswana authors, especially during the last 50 years. Language study and other scholarly books and publications have been on the increase both sides of the Limpopo River, and in South Africa PhD theses have even been written in the language. One that immediately comes to mind is by Dr Eileen Elizabeth Pooe who worked on a discussion of Plaatje’s Mhudi novel  mentioned above. In 2019, the North West University lecturer made history by being the first to be conferred a PhD from a thesis written 100% in Setswana.

 

Since its establishment in 1982, the University of Botswana has been at the forefront of education and research in Botswana. One of its oldest faculties is the Faculty of Humanities, which has over the years produced competent graduates, among whom are the multitudes of Setswana teachers, authors, artists, researchers, and other practitioners that continue to hoist the Blue, Black and White as true ambassadors and influencers for our National Language. A lengthier, stand-alone article on the contributions of the university will be published in the near future.

Language and Orthography Standardisation Conferences

Before Botswana’s independence in 1966, native speakers from Bechuanaland and the South African provinces of Transvaal, Cape, and Orange Free State would confer together to discuss standardisation of their language. However, one may note that earlier, the Sotho-Tswana languages were clumped together by the then South African government, which would then therefore result in such conferences focusing on all three languages.

The 1910 Orthography Conference was the first to be held, and attempted to create a universal orthography for the three languages. But this proved problematic, especially given some of the gaping (although few) differences between them. Subsequent conferences occurred in 1930, 1931, and 1937, where they agreed on the 1937 Orthography. Following the 1947 reunification of orthography committees by the Transvaal government, a new strategy was developed, which resulted with inter alia the 1957 publication of the Sotho Terminology and Orthography No.1. Three years later, in 1960, separate committees were instituted for each of the languages, but the Setswana 1960 Orthography remained the same as the 1957 one. This was the last joint standardisation committee/conference between South Africa and Botswana.
After independence in 1966, Botswana would in 1977, form its own Setswana Language Panel, which produced the [Botswana] 1981 Orthography, which is still in use today.

Long Time No ‘C’

One of the main changes that can be seen in the pre-1910 orthographies and now is the absence of some of the letters in the modern Setswana alphabet. The current Setswana alphabet has 23 letters: A,B,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,R,S,T,U,V,W,Y,Z, but if you include and count separately, the circumflexed Ê and Ô, we get 25. Another diacritic letter that is sometimes used is the caronned S (to produce the ‘SH’ sound, or in conjunction with a T to produce that sound that was initially represented with a C).

The removal of the C from the Setswana alphabet has resulted in numerous problems, as there are several words (particularly from Southern dialects) that require some representation in written form which is now currently difficult to do. In some cases, people just resort to using the letter C, such as in the name of the town Mochudi, while others hopscotch between using “TŠ” or TJ, many choosing to just write it as TS, since it is not always easy to find diacritic letters on a standard computer. I am one of the people who wrongly, but deliberately so, spell the dog as ntsa (as opposed to ntša), because there really is no easy way of writing it. In the past, it was just written nca (which is in fact the natural way of writing the unaspirated form of ncha [new]). Click here to read more about the pre-writing history of the Setswana language.