🗣️ A Bantu language 🧑🏿 A Bantu person

Tswana

1 8.9

A person from an ethnic group mostly living in Botswana and western South Africa

noun

: tswana

In South Africa, Tswana is one of the official languages spoken by millions.
Tswana and Sotho

Examples

And we always returned to his loneliness, how he was the only Tswana on a farm of Hereros, Damaras, Namas, Coloureds, and Ovambos.

Fiction book (2002)
Many Tswana people celebrate their cultural heritage during annual festivals.
"Because not only was he the only Tswana, he was the only boy with such fancy lace-up shoes.

Fiction book (2002)
Obadiah also said the boy was a Tswana, the only Tswana at Goas at the time he drowned, and that he only visited our morning coffee fire for a little warmth and to be remembered.

Fiction book (2002)
Huge inequalities in standards and resources exist between schools available to Xhosa, Zulu, and Tswana children and those available to Afrikaner and English-speaking children.

Academic text (1997)
Elsewhere, notably among the Tswana, bridewealth was very low in relation to average cattle holdings (Kuper 1982:167-8).

Academic text (1990)
Zulu-speaking Sowetans tend to have a greater sense of connection to ancestral clans and places than Sotho or Tswana speakers.

Academic text (1996)
Although 90% of the population are not Tswana speakers, the area was nevertheless incorporated into the ostensibly Tswana "homeland" of Bophuthatswana when it was granted independence in December 1977.

Academic text (2005)
Although 90% of the population are not Tswana speakers, the area was nevertheless incorporated into the ostensibly Tswana "homeland" of Bophuthatswana when it was granted independence in December 1977.

Academic text (2005)
According to Schapera (1952), there are no witches in Botswana, meaning that the Tswana do not believe that people are born with the innate capacity to do unwitting evil to others.

Academic text (2000)

Synonyms

Batswana

vsTswana

1 8.1

People from Botswana who are part of the Tswana group

is the same meaning but uses a different name form

Bechuana

vsTswana

Archaic

1 9.9

A person from a group of people who live mainly in Botswana and western South Africa

is the same meaning but is an alternative name form

Surface Forms

Tswana singular

Tswanas plural

Etymology

Tswana is the name the people use for themselves. The country name Botswana literally means 'land of the Tswana', so remembering Botswana helps you remember that Tswana are the people of that land.