Gaborone – the modern city that is home to about 10% of the entire population of Botswana – has an interesting name that does not immediately sound like a word in any language you know, until it is explained in just one short phrase. However, we are going to use more than just one short phrase to get to the bottom of the etymology and meaning of Gaborone. Botswana’s most important settlement by far is one of its youngest. Well,…
Setswana Language History Part 1: The Spoken Language The history of the Setswana language itself goes way into prehistoric times, and nobody can say for certain what happened all those thousands of years ago, during the times of the proto-Bantu. However, we can focus on the history of the orthography of the language, as well as other evolutionary factors that have influenced Setswana to be what it is today. This first section deals with the preliterary history of the language,…