M.A. / Idioms, sayings and poetry in the Bantu languages are examples of idiomatic usage of language. Idiomatic language or figurative language differ in certain respects from literal or non-figurative language usage. Many studies on proverbs and idioms in Zulu have been published but none have as yet made an in depth study of the linguistic characteristics of proverbs and idioms. A comparison between proverbs and Zulu poetry has also never been attempted. Thorough studies concerning the Sotho languages have been made in this regard. In this study, the linguistic characteristics of Zulu proverbs and idioms are compared to findings made in Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho in order to determine if linguistic peculiarities and other aspects found in the Sotho languages are also present in Zulu proverbs and idioms. Chapter 2 deals with the basic linguistic characteristics of Zulu proverbs. The characteristics are similar to those found in Northern and Southern Sotho. The basic linguistic characteristics include a complete and unchanging syntactical structure. A small number of Zulu proverbs have syntactical differences. In such cases a proverb has been recorded by various writers, each with a difference, mainly in the verb. The variants include changes in verb tenses, the presence or absence of verb extensions and the deletion of the copulative particle.