In keeping with our focus on South Africa’s official languages, here is another overview of Sesotho sa Leboa in order to help differentiate between Sesotho, Sesotho sa Leboa and Sepedi. We found this on africanlanguages.com
Name: Sesotho sa Leboa
English name: Northern Sotho
Other names: North Sotho, Sepedi, Pedi
Population: 4,208,980
ISO code: nso
Spoken in the following countries: South Africa (Official), Botswana
Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho, or literally, “Sotho of the North”) is mostly spoken in the North-Eastern parts of South Africa, generally North-East of Tshwane (Pretoria), in parts of Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga (see map). Sesotho sa Leboa is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa.
Sesotho sa Leboa is most closely related to two other languages in the Sotho language group,Southern Sotho and Setswana. These two also encompass a number of dialects, and all three overlap somewhat. The division into these three main “languages” has generally been based more on historical and social factors than linguistic factors. There is a fairly large amount of mutual intelligibility between all three; a speaker of one of the three languages is usually able to understand most of what a speaker of one of the others is saying.
“Sepedi” or “Sesotho sa Leboa”?
The “official” Northern Sotho language attempts to encompass a collection of approximately 30 related dialects, all generally mutually intelligible, and all related to Sepedi, which specifically is the language of the Bapedi (Pedi people).
Historically, what is now the official language has been based primarily on Sepedi, as the missionaries who developed the orthography mainly had contact with the Bapedi. The name “Sepedi” thus came to be regarded, somewhat incorrectly, as being synonymous with “Sesotho sa Leboa”, and further confusion arose when the constitution cited “Sepedi” as being the official language. This is not strictly correct, as it would exclude other Northern Sotho dialects from official recognition. Thus when referring to the official language, it is preferable to use the term “Sesotho sa Leboa” or “Northern Sotho”. When referring to the language of the Bapedi, the correct term is “Sepedi”.