The History of Setswana Language
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/tswana
The four major ethnic divisions among Black South Africans are the Nguni, Sotho-Tswana, Shangaan-Tsonga and Venda. Together the Nguni and Sotho account for the largest percentage of the total Black population. The major Sotho groups are the South Sotho (Basotho and Sotho), the West Sotho (Tswana), and the North Sotho (Pedi).
Language, culture and beliefs:
About 4 million Tswana people live in southern Africa; 3 million in South Africa and 1 million in the nation of Botswana. In South Africa, many Tswana live in the area that formed the numerous segments of the former homeland, Bophuthatswana, as well as neighboring areas of the North-West Province and the Northern Cape. Tswana people are also found in most urban areas throughout South Africa.
Tswana culture, social organizations, ceremonies, language and religious beliefs are similar to that of the other two Sotho groups (Pedi and Sotho), although some Tswana chiefdoms were more highly stratified than those of other Sotho groups or the Nguni. Tswana culture is often distinguished for its complex legal system, involving a hierarchy of courts and mediators, and harsh punishments for those found guilty of crimes.
Like many neighbouring Nguni peoples, the Sotho traditionally relied on a combination of livestock raising and crop cultivation for subsistence. Most Sotho people were traditionally herders of cattle, goats, and sheep, and cultivators of grains and tobacco. In addition, Sotho were skilled craftsmen, renowned for their metalworking, leatherworking, and wood and ivory carving.
Also like the Nguni, most Sotho people lived in small chiefdoms, in which status was determined in part by relationship to the chief. Unlike the Nguni, Sotho homesteads were grouped together into villages, with economic responsibilities generally shared among village residents. Villages were divided into wards, or residential areas, often occupied by members of more than one patrilineal descent group.
The village chief (a hereditary position) generally appointed ward leaders, whose residences were clustered around the chief's residence. Sotho villages sometimes grew into large towns of several thousand people. Farmland was usually outside the village, not adjacent to the homestead. This village organization may have enabled the Sotho villagers to defend themselves more effectively than they could have with dispersed households, and it probably facilitated control over ward leaders and subjects by the chief and his family.
The cattle kraal is central to most traditional Tswana villages and is the focus of life. Tswana believe in voluntary work on behalf of other families, especially during the ploughing and harvesting seasons. This form of voluntary work is known as letsema. The South African government has presently adopted the word letsema to encourage its citizens in volunteerism.
Sotho villages were also organized into age-sets, or groups of men or women who were close in age. Each age-set had specific responsibilities; men organized for warfare and herding, depending on age-set, and women for crop cultivation and religious responsibilities. An entire age-set generally graduated from one task to the next, and the village often celebrated this change with a series of rituals and, in some cases, an initiation ceremony. In the past initiations into adulthood. were elaborate ceremonies lasting a few months, in which girls and boys were taken separately to the bush in the winter. The boys were circumcised. Increasingly, funerals have become the most elaborate life-cycle rituals.
Greetings and Courtesies
Hello (one person) – Dumela
Hello (more than one person) – Dumelang
How are you? (plural) – Le kae?
(Reply to how are you) We are fine – Re teng
Asking for help
Asking for help – Kopa thuso
Thank you – Ke a leboga
Thank you so much – Ke leboga go menagane
Emergencies
Emergencies - Potlako
Numbers
Days of the week
Monday – Mosupulogo
Tuesday – Labobedi
Wednesday – Laboraro
Thursday – Labone
Friday – Labotlhano
Saturday – Lamatlhatso
Sunday – Latshipi
Months of the year
January – Ferikgong
February – Tlhakole
March – Mopitiwe
April – Moranang
May – Motsheganong
June – Seetebosigo
July – Phukwi
August – Phathwe
September – Lwetse
October – Diphalano
November – Ngwanatsele
December – Sedimonthole
Seasons of the year
Summer- Selemo
Autumn – Letlhafula
Winter – Mariga
Spring – Dikgakologo