In the remote, cloud-draped Daliwe valley of southern Lesotho, a quiet linguistic revolution is taking place. Here, a language spoken by just a few thousand people, siPhuthi, has not only been meticulously documented but has also achieved official recognition, marking a dramatic turnaround in its fortunes.
From the Brink: Documenting a Dying Tongue
The revival story begins with the work of two determined linguists. Sheena Shah, a British researcher, and Matthias Brenzinger, her German colleague, first heard about siPhuthi while at the University of Cape Town. Discovering there had been no academic study of it since the 1990s, they embarked on a mission in January 2016 to find its speakers.
Their initial journey was challenging. After a two-day hike to one village, they found only three elderly siPhuthi speakers. Many communities were either unaware of the language or hesitant to admit they knew it. The breakthrough came when they were directed to the Daliwe valley, home to roughly 1,000 people. Here, they found children still speaking siPhuthi, a vital sign of intergenerational transmission.
Gaining the trust of the community was paramount. They joined Libadla le baPhuthi, a local association campaigning for recognition, and began collaborating with interpreters. A pivotal moment occurred in the village of Ha Sekhobe, where they recorded traditional healer Tsotleho Mohale. Initially wary, senior healer Mathabang Hlaela later emerged from her hut adorned in beads, insisting she too be interviewed in her native tongue, a powerful endorsement of their project.
Building a Language: Dictionaries and Bibles
Since 2016, Shah and Brenzinger have worked with around 20 local consultants, like shop owner Malillo Mpapa, to record over 40 hours of video in siPhuthi. The footage captures everything from marriages and funerals to poems and recipes. Between 2019 and 2022, they hosted workshops to establish a standard orthography—an agreed way of writing the language.
The tangible outputs of this labour are now emerging. The linguists plan to publish a 3,000-word dictionary next year and are conducting a census of speakers. Perhaps most significantly for the deeply Christian community, a translation of the Bible is underway in the town of Alwyn's Kop.
Six locally trained linguists are translating scripture into both written and audio siPhuthi. Starting with Bible stories on solar-powered audio devices in 2019, the group has completed Genesis, Romans, and Luke. Translator Phuthi Mats'abisa expressed the profound impact: "Before the Bible, I thought [siPhuthi] was going to perish. At first, I felt like a nobody. Now I have pride in my own identity."
Official Recognition and the Road Ahead
The culmination of decades of activism came in August of this year, when siPhuthi was declared an official language of Lesotho, alongside Xhosa and sign language. Letzadzo Kometsi, president of Libadla le baPhuthi, called it a mission accomplished but stressed the need for government resources to implement this status, particularly in education.
This legal change is crucial. Community members report that forcing ebaPhuthi children to learn solely in English and Sesotho has led to academic struggles and entrenched poverty. Research supports mother-tongue education for improving learning outcomes. Bongani Peete, a teacher at Daliwe primary school, confessed he had previously been mandated to punish children for speaking siPhuthi. Learning of the new official status, he said with relief, "It is very good indeed. I will now no longer punish children for speaking their mother tongue."
Despite this progress, siPhuthi remains endangered outside its Daliwe valley heartland, threatened by the dominant national languages of Sesotho and Xhosa. As Brenzinger notes, in Africa, it is often these regional giants, not English, that pose the greatest risk to linguistic diversity. The story of siPhuthi, however, stands as a powerful testament to what can be achieved when academic dedication meets fierce community pride.
