b has given way to bh when used at the beginning of a syllable, but remains as b when it appears in a cluster. Examples are ibhokisi, umbhali, imbeleko and izimbali.

6 has now given way to b.

The phonetic symbol for c is now indicated as [/], rather than Doke's [sk].

The phonetic symbol for q is now [!], no longer Doke's [ck].

The phonetic symbol for x is now [//]. No longer the Dokean [bk].

Dokes’ hh is now used in the new orthography. Examples are ihhashi and ihhotela.

The hyphen that separated the parts of speech forming a compound in isiZulu has been removed. Examples are ububhaxa-bhaxa > ububhaxabhaxa; umqoqi-zitembu > umqoqizitembu and ubucwazi-cwazi > ubucwazicwazi.

Vowels that were following each other have now been separated by a hyphen. An example is wase Afrika > wase-Afrika.

Capital letters, especially for days of the week and names of regiments, have been corrected, for example umsombuluko > uMsombuluko; imBokodwebomvu > iMbokodwebomvu.

Demonstrative pronouns and the nouns have been separated. For example, lomuntu is now lo muntu, lesisithombe is now lesi sithombe. Where these were separated by a hyphen, the hyphen has now been removed.

Some words that are not politically correct have been removed or corrected. For example, Amakula abhansela bonke abathenga kuwo > AmaNdiya abhansela bonke abathenga kuwo; Kaffircorn porridge (idokwe lamabele) > corn porridge (idokwe lamabele).