No comments about A Handbook of the Zulu language.

No comments about Musho!: Zulu Popular Praises (African Historical Sources).

No comments about Zulu Names.

No comments about Masikhulume Isizulu (Let's Speak African Language Series).

3 comments about Teach Yourself Zulu Complete Course (Teach Yourself).

1. This is a really terrific book. I fell in love with the language when I first heard it. One thing couldn't be emphasized strongly enough: Get the tapes. The click sounds of Zulu are probably what are best known to outsiders, but in the way of difficult sounds there is much, much more. I do think that the authors could perhaps have done a little more than they did to explain how the non-click sounds are articulated; their comment that "hl" is like the "ll" in Welsh would probably be a big help if I lived in Wales, but I don't. Still, with a lot of practice with the tapes, I can make most of these sounds pretty well. My advice would be to listen to the tapes quite a few times before trying to imitate the sounds- that and don't give up easily.

   The grammatical material is extremely well presented. The structure of Zulu is of course completely different from any European language, but even in the first lesson (devoted to greetings) one gets a good idea of what noun concords are and how they work. Zulu is perhaps a little unusual in that respect because greetings in most languages don't lend themselves nearly that well to analysis. Getting a deep look at the structure of the language just in phrases like "How are you?" and "How is it with you?" was really fun and exciting.

   I hope that there will be sufficient interest generated from this book that the authors would consider writing a sequel. I would await it eagerly!




2. This book is attractively printed and the tape is useful for learning pronounciation. However, I found the teaching style was not good. It jumps straight in to trying to teach all the different noun classes at once, which is enough to baffle and discourage any beginner. There are other much better books on the market, such as Phezulu, and the Sanibona series. which introduce the most common noun classes first, and teach more complicated gramma later.



3. This complete set is great. The cassette tapes are easily understood and the book that accompanies it is very clear with instructions. It really help me pass a class that I was taking. This set is highly recommended.

No comments about Halala Means Welcome! A Book of Zulu Words.

No comments about An English-Zulu Dictionary: With The Principles Of Pronunciation And Classification Fully Explained.

No comments about A Zulu Manual Or Vade-Mecum: Being A Companion Volume To The Zulu-Kafir Language And The English-Zulu Dictionary.

1 comments about Scholar's Zulu Dictionary: English-Zulu/Zulu-English.

1. Lacks many basic word meaning.e.g. "Impela" Dict. "Truely"
   Lit. "Good","correct","right". Could also add phonetics of each word

3 comments about Teach Yourself Zulu Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself . . . Complete Courses).

1. As a student of various languages, I have always been intrigued by the languages of South Africa; in particular, their click consonants. I was looking for resources in Xhosa, and instead came across this book. Zulu, I have been told (and can affirm), is easier than Xhosa. This book begins with a decent introduction to Zulu's phonology and orthography; but I think it could have been more detailed and with more examples (especially on the CDs). The course is decently structured and seems to cater to both serious students and casual students (ie, those going to South Africa or a neighbouring country). It goes beyond the language itself, into topics such as some aspects of the Zulu people's culture. This book is a great reference for beginners of Zulu; and worth the price.



2. I've just gotten into the book, and it seems fine to me. Definitely a beginners book, but that's what I wanted. I was under the impression it came with a cassette or CD (the book even refers to listening excercises on the cassette), but this one doesn't come with it. There is another item on Amazon (same book or at least the same general title and authors) that says Audiopackage specifically in the title - buy that one.



3. Overall, this is not a bad course but, unfortunately, I do have a couple of niggling peeves I'd like to get off my chest that will hopefully be of some help to others considering purchasing it.
   Generally the TY series is very good at balancing its presentation of functional language (phrase-book style "chunks") and grammatical explanations. This course however, leans too much in the "phrasebook" direction. It teaches a lot of good and useful language but too much of the structure of the language is explained in too cursory a manner or not at all. I am an experienced learner of languages with some linguistics training so I found myself able to "read between the lines" and deduce some of the rules from context but a beginner learning a foreign language for the first time would surely get lost.
   The other matter, that I would consider an especially important point for a book teaching a South African language, is the illustrations. The illustrations invariably depict white, European-looking people who for some bizarre reason, chat with each other in Zulu. Is it really that hard to draw black people, or, if you want a more "rainbow nation" feel at least make fewer whites than blacks!
   Some people may see this last point as "politically correct niggling" but anyone who knows anything about the history of apartheid in South Africa and the struggle of the black majority for basic human rights will surely see my point. Zulu is a native, black language not the everyday idiom of whites who mostly speak English or Afrikaans among themselves, and to depict white people going about their daily lives in Zulu is just plain misleading if not offensive.