History
The Swazi people originated from the Pongola river valley in KwaZulu-Natal. They were ruled there by King Dlamini I (1750 to 1770). They were driven up by the Zulus. From 1903 to 1968 Swaziland was under British control.

Even though the language Siswati is closely related to IsiZulu a lot has been done in the last quarter of a century to enforce the differences between the languages for the sake of standardization of Siswati - especially in Swaziland but also in South Africa due to political reasons.

CLASSIFICATION:  
Family: Bantu (or rather Ntu) Language Family 
Group: South Eastern Bantu (or rather Ntu) 
Subgroup: Nguni (Tekela Subgroup) 

VARIETIES: Thithiza and Yeyeza

Speakers
Around 1 013 193  people in South Africa use it as their home language.

Internet Links
Africanlanguages.com: Siswati - short introduction
Batho Portal: Siswati - introduction to the people (only in Siswati)
ETHNOLOGUE: Swati

Ligwalagwala FM SiSwati Radio Station

© J. Olivier (2009)
SAlanguages.com