What’s love got to do with it?

ASK someone to name a language they find most beautiful and the odds are that they will name a romance language.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today.

The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (410million), Portuguese (216million), French (75million), Italian (60millon) and Romanian (25million).

Most people seem to like French and Italian for some reason.

I understand the French, but Italian to me; sounds just like IsiZulu – aggressive.

Out of this number, none of the 11 official languages of South Africa are considered a romantic language.

Discrimination at its peak if you ask me!

I could not imagine a day going by without old Frikkie looking me in the eye and whispering ‘Ek is lief vir jou my skat’.

Our country’s Constitution guarantees equal status to our 11 official languages, this caters for our country’s diverse people and their cultures.

South Africa’s linguistic diversity means all 11 languages have had a profound effect on each other.

Truth be told, there is nothing romantic about Romanian, except chocolate ‘Romany Creams’ and a cup of coffee on a chilly evening (which everyone will assume that’s where they are baked).

To embrace the romance of our diversity, here is a list of those 3 little words in all 11 languages:

1. English – I love you
2. Afrikaans – Ek is lief vir jou
3. IsiNdebele – Niyakutanda
4. IsiXhosa – Ndiyakuthanda
5. IsiZulu – Ngiyakuthanda
6. Sepedi – Ke a go rata
7. Sesotho – Ke a go rata
8. Setswana – Ke a go rata
9. SiSwati – ngiyakutsandza
10. Tshivenda – Ngiyakutsandza
11. Xitsonga – Ndzakurhandza