The Northern Ndebele (siNdebele saseNyakatho) language, also called isiNdebele, Sindebele, Ndebele,[1] or North Ndebele,[4][5] and formerly known as Matabele, is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe.

isiNdebele is related to the Zulu language spoken in South Africa. This is because the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe descend from followers of the Zulu leader Mzilikazi, who left KwaZulu in the early 19th century during the Mfecane.

Northern Ndebele and Transvaal Ndebele are separate languages. Both fall in the Nguni group of Bantu languages, but Zimbabwean Ndebele is essentially a dialect of Zulu, and Transvaal Ndebele is within a different subgroup.

Source: Wikipedia

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