Northern Sotho language

Sepedi , formerly called Sesotho sa Lebowa an official language for Lebowa homeland during apartheid, is a Sotho-Tswana language group spoken in the northeastern provinces of South Africa. It is commonly referred to in its standardized form as Pedi or Sepedi and holds the status of an official language in South Africa.

This article is about the northeastern South African language. For the Lesotho and central South African language, see Sotho language.

Sepedi
Native toSouth Africa
RegionGauteng, Limpopo, parts of Mpumalanga
EthnicityPedi
Lobedu
Pulana
Tlôkwa
Native speakers
4.7 million (2011 census)
9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)
Early forms
Tswaniac
  • Hurutshe
    • Kgatla
Standard forms
 Pedi
Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet)
Sotho Braille
Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed Northern Sotho
Official status
Official language in
 South Africa
Regulated byPan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-2nso
ISO 639-3nso
Glottologpedi1238  Pedi
S.32,301–304
Linguasphere99-AUT-ed
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home.
  0–20%
  20–40%
  40–60%
  60–80%
  80–100%
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho home-language speakers.
  <1 /km²
  1–3 /km²
  3–10 /km²
  10–30 /km²
  30–100 /km²
  100–300 /km²
  300–1000 /km²
  1000–3000 /km²
  >3000 /km²
Sotho
PersonMopedi
PeopleBapedi
LanguageSepedi

According to the South African National Census of 2011, it is the first language of over 4.6 million (9.1%) people, making it the 5th most spoken language in South Africa. The Sepedi language is spoken most commonly in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Limpopo provinces.

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