Zulu for Business in South Africa

Zulu is the most widely spoken of the eleven official languages in South Africa. As well as the 10 to 11 million Zulu people, many other people speak Zulu as a second or third language. Zulu also has many similarities to Xhosa spoken by around 8 million Xhosa people. When we consider that at least 20 Million South Africans can speak or understand Zulu- roughly 33% of the approximate 59 Million inhabitants- we can see how important the Zulu language is.

Clearly any company wanting to conduct business in South Africa would do well to think about using Zulu for their promotions and advertising. A business not providing information about their products in Zulu is missing an opportunity to attract customers! Every human has a fondness for their own native language. When we are addressed in our own language we automatically identify with the speaker- and that is the icebreaker for finding common ground.

Zulu is, however, a complicated language with a complex grammatical structure. There is also no easy way to translate from English, for example, into Zulu. Internet tools like Google translate do not provide accurate  translation. They translate literally word for word which does not account for change of word order in different languages, grammar or correct word usage .

Additional difficulties arise from the tonal nature of Zulu. Many words having the same spelling have diverse meanings when pronounced differently.

This is where a human translation service will benefit any business with a product, service or concept to advertise. The Cape based Intelligent Verbatim has translators on their team who speak Zulu as a first language, have an excellent command of English, and are able to translate English to Zulu and vice versa. In fact with the resources at hand, a wide range of African and other languages can be translated into Zulu. Depending on how different to Nguni an African language is, it is often necessary to first translate into English, have the English translation proofread, then translated into Zulu.  SeSotho speaking people often also speak and write fluent Xhosa,  whereas Zulu speakers (like English speakers) often fail to see the necessity of learning another language when their language is the most prevalent.

By making use of a South African language service, business customers benefit from local knowledge. South Africans use many terms in everyday life which are derived from other languages – South African English contains Zulu words, Zulu contains English words. This is true of all our official languages. Terms such as ‘nyama’ (pronounced as it’s spelled) are a Zulu word for meat, specifically beef. However in South African society ‘nyama’ (or ‘shishnyama’) can have a more specific meaning; a spicy hot meat dish sold at local shebeens and taverns.  Shisanyama meanss ‘hot and delicious’.

Open the doors to a large portion of South African society, and get your web and printed advertising material translated into Zulu.