Date:  Fri, 4 Aug 1995 11:59:03 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Re: oxford help--found!



> Thanks. What is the relationship between sotho (and why is the word

> not capitalized?) and, say, Kiswahili, Kikuyu, etc?



it's not capitalized in my notes only because i capitalize nothing.

( i read once that this is the e-mail equivalent of mumbling, which

everyone who's not from western new york tells me i do in person too,

but i maintain it's a regional thing--not mumbling, but my accent).



if one is using the appropriate prefix, it's sesotho (Sesotho,

seSotho or SeSotho)--but "sesotho" is usually used to refer to

southern sotho, and i was talking about northern sotho, which is

considered in these parts to be a different language (though

practically mutually intelligible), the major dialect of which is

sepedi (sePedi/SePedi/Sepedi), so northern sotho is often (sometimes

erroneously) called "sepedi".  they're southern bantu languages.

kikuyu and kiswahili are from different branches of the family--

central and eastern, i believe.



if you've got more questions, perhaps we should take this off the

list.



lynne