instance_of nguni languages
In the ___MASK24___ of African languages , Bantoid is a putative branch of the Benue  Congo branch of the Niger  Congo family . The term ' Bantoid ' was first used by Krause in 1895 for languages that showed resemblances in vocabulary to Bantu . Greenberg in his 1963 " The Languages of Africa " defined Bantoid as the group to which ( Narrow ) Bantu belongs together with its closest relatives ; this is the sense in which the term is still used today . The Bantoid languages probably do not actually form a coherent group . Swaziland , officially the Kingdom of Swaziland ( or ; Swazi : " Umbuso weSwatini " ; sometimes called kaNgwane or Eswatini ), is a ___MASK84___ in Southern Africa . It is neighboured by Mozambique to its northeast and by South Africa to its north , west and south . The country and its ___MASK25___ take their names from Mswati II , the 19th - century ___MASK71___ under whose rule Swazi territory was expanded and unified . Southern Africa is the southernmost ___MASK50___ of the African ___MASK3___ , variably defined by geography or geopolitics , and including several countries . The term " southern Africa " or " Southern Africa ", generally includes Angola , Botswana , Lesotho , Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia , South Africa , Swaziland , Zambia , and Zimbabwe . From a political perspective the ___MASK50___ is said to be unipolar with South Africa as a first regional power . South Africa , officially the ___MASK38___ of South Africa ( RSA ), is the southernmost country in Africa . It is bounded on the south by of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans , on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia , Botswana and Zimbabwe , and on the east and northeast by Mozambique and Swaziland , and surrounding the kingdom of Lesotho . South Africa is the 25th - largest country in the world by land area , and with close to 56 million people , is the world ' s 24th - most populous nation . It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere . It is the only country that borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean . About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub - Saharan African ancestry , divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages , nine of which have official status . The remaining population consists of Africa ' s largest communities of European ( white ), Asian ( Indian ), and multiracial ( coloured ) ancestry . The Eastern ___MASK92___ is a ___MASK16___ . Its capital is Bhisho , but its two largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London . It was formed in 1994 out of the Xhosa homelands of Transkei and Ciskei , together with the eastern portion of the ___MASK92___ Province . Landing place and home of the 1820 settlers , the central and eastern part of the province is the traditional home of the Xhosa people . This region is the birthplace of many prominent South African politicians , such as Nelson Mandela , Oliver Tambo , Walter Sisulu , Govan Mbeki , Raymond Mhlaba , Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe , Chris Hani , Thabo Mbeki , Steve Biko , Bantu Holomisa and Charles Coghlan . The Bantu languages , technically the Narrow Bantu languages ( as opposed to " Wide Bantu ", a loosely defined ___MASK20___ which includes other Bantoid languages ), constitute a traditional branch of the Niger  Congo languages . There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility , though the distinction between language and ___MASK22___ is often unclear , and " Ethnologue " counts 535 languages . Bantu languages are spoken largely east and south of present - ___MASK54___ Cameroon , that is , in the regions commonly known as Central Africa , Southeast Africa , and Southern Africa . Parts of the Bantu area include languages from other language families ( see map ). Nguni ___MASK25___ are a group of ___MASK25___ who primarily speak Nguni languages and currently reside predominantly in Southern Africa . The Nguni ___MASK25___ are Zulu , Xhosa , Ndebele and Swazi ___MASK25___ . They predominantly live in South Africa . Swazi ___MASK25___ live in both South Africa and Swaziland . In South Africa , the historic Nguni kingdoms of the Zulu , Xhosa , Ndebele and Swazi lie on the present provinces of the Eastern Cape , KwaZulu - Natal , Mpumalanga and Gauteng . The most notable of these kingdoms is the Zulu Kingdom which was ruled by Shaka Zulu , a powerful warrior ___MASK71___ whose conquest took place in the early nineteenth century . Gauteng , which means " place of gold ", is one of the ___MASK59___ provinces of South Africa . It was formed from ___MASK21___ of the old Transvaal ___MASK90___ after South Africa ' s first all - race elections on 27 April 1994 . It was initially named Pretoria  Witwatersrand  Vereeniging ( PWV ) and was renamed " Gauteng " in ___MASK78___ 1994 . The Nguni ___MASK40___ breed is special to southern Africa . A ___MASK9___ of different Indian and later European ___MASK40___ breeds , they were introduced by Bantu - speaking tribes to southern Africa during their migration from the north of the continent . The ___MASK40___ breed is medium - sized and adapted to grazing on the highveld . Mpumalanga ( ___MASK30___ changed from Eastern Transvaal on 24 ___MASK85___ 1995 ), is a ___MASK16___ . The ___MASK30___ means " east ", or literally " the place where the sun rises " in the Swazi , Xhosa , Ndebele and Zulu languages . Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa , bordering Swaziland and Mozambique . It constitutes 6 . 5 % of South Africa ' s land area . It shares borders with the South African provinces of Limpopo to the north , Gauteng to the west , the Free State to the southwest , and KwaZulu - Natal to the south . The capital is Nelspruit . Before 1994 , Mpumalanga was part of Transvaal Province . Africa is the world ' s second - largest and second - most - populous ___MASK3___ . At about 30 . 3 million km² ( 11 . 7 million square miles ) including adjacent islands , it covers 6 % of Earth ' s total surface area and 20 . 4 % of its total land area . With 1 . 1 billion people as of 2013 , it accounts for about 15 % of the world ' s human population . The ___MASK3___ is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast , the Indian Ocean to the southeast , and the Atlantic Ocean to the west . The ___MASK3___ includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states ( countries ), nine territories and two " de facto " independent states with limited or no recognition . In linguistics , mutual intelligibility is a ___MASK19___ between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort . It is generally used as the most important ___MASK91___ for distinguishing languages from dialects , although sociolinguistic factors are often also used . The Nguni languages are a ___MASK56___ of Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni ___MASK25___ . Nguni languages include Xhosa , Zulu , Swati , Hlubi , Phuthi , Bhaca , Lala , Nhlangwini and the three languages called Ndebele : Southern Transvaal Ndebele , Northern Ndebele and Sumayela Ndebele ( the latter sometimes also being referred to as `` Northern Ndebele '' ) . The appellation `` Nguni '' derives from the Nguni cattle type . Ngoni ( see below ) is an older , or a shifted , variant . It is sometimes argued that use of Nguni as a generic label suggests a historical monolithic unity of the peoples in question , where in fact the situation may have been more complex . The linguistic use of the label ( referring to a subgrouping of the Bantu languages ) is relatively stable . Shaka kaSenzangakhona ( circa 1787  22 ___MASK100___ 1828 ), also known as Shaka Zulu , was one of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu Kingdom . Cameroon , officially the ___MASK38___ of Cameroon , is a country in Central Africa . It is bordered by Nigeria to the west ; Chad to the northeast ; the Central African ___MASK38___ to the east ; and Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , and the ___MASK38___ of the Congo to the south . Cameroon ' s coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny , part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean . The Highveld is the portion of the South African inland ___MASK10___ which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m , but below 2100 m , thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south - east of the Highveld . It is home to some of the country ' s most important commercial farming areas , as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres , especially the Gauteng conurbation , which accommodates one - third of South Africa ' s population . Central Africa is a core ___MASK50___ of the African ___MASK3___ which includes Burundi , the Central African Republic , Chad , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , and Rwanda . Middle Africa ( as used by the United Nations when categorising geographic subregions ) is an analogous term that includes Angola , Cameroon , the Central African Republic , Chad , the Republic of the Congo , the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Equatorial Guinea , Gabon , and São Tomé and Príncipe . All of the states in the UN subregion of Middle Africa , plus those otherwise commonly reckoned in Central Africa ( 11 states in total ), constitute the Economic Community of Central African States ( ECCAS ). Since its independence in 2011 , South Sudan has also been commonly included in the ___MASK50___ . The Niger  Congo languages constitute one of the world ' s major ___MASK72___ families , and Africa ' s largest in terms of ___MASK42___ area , number of speakers , and number of distinct languages . They may constitute the world ' s largest ___MASK8___ in terms of distinct languages , although this question is complicated by ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct ___MASK72___ . Ethnologue : Languages of the World is a web - based ___MASK79___ that contains ___MASK99___ for 7 , 457 languages in its 19th edition , which was released in 2016 . Of these , 7 , 097 are listed as living and 360 are listed as extinct . " Ethnologue " provides information on the number of speakers , location , dialects , linguistic affiliations , availability of the Bible in each language and dialect described , and an estimate of language viability using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption ___MASK80___ ( EGIDS ). The ___MASK79___ is well respected and widely used by linguists . KwaZulu - Natal ( also referred to as KZN and known as " the ___MASK55___ ___MASK90___ ") is a ___MASK16___ that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu (" Place of the Zulu " in Zulu ) and Natal Province were merged . It is located in the southeast of the country , enjoying a long shoreline beside the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique , Swaziland and Lesotho . Its capital is Pietermaritzburg and its largest city is Durban . It is the 2nd most populous ___MASK90___ in South Africa , with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng .