izibalo (n.) -mathematics

OR more precisely ulwazi ngeziganga zezibalo. The knowledge about the magnitude of calculations (1).

This is the first of many posts which simply relate how different authors and dictionaries explain mathematical ideas in isiXhosa. All dictionaries will be cited, of course.

One of the reasons commonly given for not teaching mathematics and other technical subjects in indigenous languages is the lack of lexicon development in those languages. What is interesting, however, is how some seem to think that lexicon development is always natural and instinctive: not so. Linguists all over the world have spent lifetimes explicitly developing words to describe new phenomena that they cannot yet capture. Afrikaans is a good example of where this has happened as an explicit language development project in (almost) living memory*.

Some excellent dictionaries based on the work of South African linguists to develop mathematical register and words in isiXhosa are available.…