Editing Northern Sotho (section)

==Name==
{{more citations needed section|date=February 2023}}
The Northern Sotho written language was based largely on the Sepedi dialect. Missionaries studied this dialect the most closely and first developed the orthography in 1860 by [[Alexander Merensky]], Grutzner, and Gerlachshoop.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rakgogo |first1=Tebogo Jacob |last2=van Huyssteen |first2=Linda |date=2019-07-03 |title=A constitutional language name, lost in translation and its impact on the identity of the first language speakers |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02572117.2019.1618015 |journal=South African Journal of African Languages |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=165–174 |doi=10.1080/02572117.2019.1618015 |s2cid=199161866 |issn=0257-2117}}</ref>  This subsequently provided a common writing system for 20 or more varieties of the Sotho-Tswana languages spoken in the former Transvaal, and also helped lead to "Sepedi" being used as the umbrella term for the entire language family.  However, there are objections to this synecdoche by other Northern Sotho dialect speakers, such as speakers of [[Modjadji|Modjadji's]] [[Lobedu people|Lobedu]] dialect.{{Citation needed|date=July 2018}}