There are eleven official names of South Africa, one in each of its eleven official languages. The number is surpassed only by India. These languages include English, Afrikaans, the Nguni languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, and Swazi), as well as the Sotho languages, which include Tswana, Sotho and Northern Sotho. The remaining two languages are Venda and Tsonga.
There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoi-San languages which are not official languages, but are one of the eight un-officially recognised languages. There are even smaller groups of speakers of endangered languages, many of which are from the Khoi-San family, but receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival. As a result, there are many official names for the country. These are:
| Language | Long form | Short form |
|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Republiek van Suid-Afrika | Suid-Afrika |
| English | Republic of South Africa | South Africa |
| Northern Sotho | Repabliki ya Afrika-Borwa | Afrika Borwa |
| Southern Ndebele | IRiphabliki yeSewula Afrika | iSewula Afrika |
| Southern Sotho | Rephaboliki ya Afrika Borwa | Afrika Borwa |
| Swazi | iRiphabhulikhi yeNingizimu Afrika | iNingizimu Afrika |
| Tsonga | Riphabliki ra Afrika Dzonga | Afrika-Dzonga |
| Tswana | Rephaboliki ya Aforika Borwa | Aforika Borwa |
| Venda | Riphabuḽiki ya Afurika Tshipembe | Afurika Tshipembe |
| Xhosa | iRiphabliki yomZantsi Afrika | uMzantsi Afrika |
| Zulu | iRiphabhuliki yaseNingizimu Afrika | iNingizimu Afrika |
And one former name:
| Language | Long form | Short form | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Republiek van Zuid-Afrika | Zuid-Afrika | 1961 — 1983 |
South Africa's country code, ZA, is an abbreviation of this former official name, Zuid-Afrika.
Famous quotes containing the words south africa, official, names, south and/or africa:
“I don’t have any doubts that there will be a place for progressive white people in this country in the future. I think the paranoia common among white people is very unfounded. I have always organized my life so that I could focus on political work. That’s all I want to do, and that’s all that makes me happy.”
—Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
“I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To lib and die in Dixie!
Away, away, away down South in Dixie!”
—Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815–1904)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)