Shona (/ˈʃoʊnə/;[5] Shona: chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to Ethnologue,[6] Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7.5 million people. The Manyika dialect of Shona[7][8][9] is listed separately by Ethnologue, and is spoken by 1,025,000 people.
This article or section should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. (June 2021) |
Shona | |
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chiShona | |
Native to | Zimbabwe, Mozambique |
Native speakers | 12 million, Shona proper (2000 to 2007)[1] 7.50 million Zezuru, Karanga,Chimanyika, Korekore (2000) 11 million incl. Manyika, (2000–2006)[2] |
Language family | |
Dialects |
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Writing system | Latin script (Shona alphabet) Arabic script (formerly) Shona Braille |
Official status | |
Official language in | Zimbabwe |
Recognised minority language in | Mozambique |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | sn |
ISO 639-2 | sna |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:sna – Zezuru, Karanga, Korekoretwl – Tavara (Korekore)mxc – Manyikatwx – Tewe (Manyika) |
Glottolog | core1255 Core Shonatawa1270 Tawara |
S.7–10 [3] | |
Linguasphere | 99-AUT-a = |
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. |
Person | MuShona[4] |
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People | VaShona |
Language | chiShona |
Country | Mashonaland |
The larger group of historically related languages—called Shona languages by linguists—also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Kalanga (Western Shona).
Shona is a written standard language with an orthography and grammar that was codified during the early 20th century and fixed in the 1950s. In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration was faced with the challenge of preparing schoolbooks and other materials in the various languages and dialects and requested the recommendation of South African linguist Clement Doke.
The first novel in Shona, Solomon Mutswairo's Feso, was published in 1957. Shona is taught in the schools, but is not the general medium of instruction in other subjects. It has a literature and is described through monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (chiefly Shona – English). Standard Shona is based on the dialect spoken by the Karanga people of Masvingo Province, the region around Great Zimbabwe, and Zezuru people of central and northern Zimbabwe. However, all Shona dialects are officially considered to be of equal significance and are taught in local schools.
Shona is a member of the large family of Bantu languages. In Guthrie's zonal classification of Bantu languages, zone S.10 designates a dialect continuum of closely related varieties, including Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Budya, spoken in Zimbabwe and central Mozambique; Tawara and Tewe, found in Mozambique; and Nambya and Kalanga in Botswana and Western Zimbabwe.
Shona is used to refer to a standardised language based on the central dialects of the Shona region. Shona languages form a dialect continuum from the Kalahari desert in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east and the Limpopo river in the south and the Zambezi in the north. While the languages are related, evolution and separation over the past 1000 years has meant that mutual intelligibility is not always possible without a period of acculturation. Therefore, Central Shona speakers have a difficult time understanding Kalanga speakers even though lexical sharing can be over 80% with some western Karanga dialects. In the same manner eastern dialects (Shanga) spoken along the Indian Ocean are also very divergent. There are many dialect differences in Shona, but a standardized dialect is recognized. According to information from Ethnologue (when excluding S16 Kalanga):
Languages with partial intelligibility with Shona, of which the speakers are considered to be ethnically Shona, are the S15 Ndau language, spoken in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and the S13 Manyika language, spoken in eastern Zimbabwe, near Mutare specifically Chipinge. Ndau literacy material has been introduced into primary schools.
Maho (2009) recognizes Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika, Karanga, and Ndau as distinct languages within the Shona cluster, with Kalanga being more divergent.[3] Manyika gave birth to a smaller language group dialect chibarwe originally spoken in mashonaland east.
All syllables in Shona end in a vowel. Consonants belong to the next syllable. For example, mangwanani ("morning") is syllabified as ma.ngwa.na.ni; "Zimbabwe" is zi.mba.bwe. No silent letters are used in Shona.[10][self-published source?]
Shona's five vowels are pronounced as in Spanish: [a, e, i, o, u]. Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they fall in succession. For example, "Unoenda kupi?" (Where do you go?) is pronounced [u.no.e.nda.ku.pi]. Vowels in Shona always make the same sound.[11][self-published source?]
The consonant sounds of Shona are:
Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
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plain | whistled | |||||||
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
breathy | b̤ | d̤ | ɡ̤ | |||||
implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ||||||
prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | |||||
Affricate | voiceless | p͡f | t͡s | t͡sᶲ | t͡ʃ | |||
breathy | b͡v̤ | d͡z̤ | d͡z̤ᵝ | d͡ʒ̤ | ||||
prenasalized | ⁿd͡ʒ̤ | |||||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sᶲ | ʃ | |||
breathy | v̤ | z̤ | z̤ᵝ | ʒ̤ | ɦ | |||
prenasalized | ⁿz̤ | ⁿz̤ᵝ | ||||||
Nasal | plain | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
breathy | m̤ | mʋ̤ | n̤ | |||||
Trill | r | |||||||
Approximant | ʋ | j | w |
Shona has two tones, a high and a low tone, but these tones are not indicated in spelling.
This section needs attention from an expert in Languages or Africa. The specific problem is: we need a better explanation & preferably some sound files. (August 2008) |
Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include whistling sounds, (this should not be confused with whistled speech).
Shona's whistled sibilants are the fricatives "sv" and "zv" and the affricates "tsv" and "dzv".
Sound | example | translation | notes |
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sv | masvosvobwa | "shooting stars" | "sv" can be represented by S͎, from the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet |
masvosve | "ants" | ||
tsv | tsvaira | "sweep" | (Standard Shona) |
svw | masvavembasvwi | "schemer" | (Shangwe, Korekore dialect) |
zv | zvizvuvhutswa | "gold nuggets" | (Tsunga, Zezuru dialect) |
dzv | akadzva | "he/she was unsuccessful" | |
zvw | huzvweverere | "emotions" | (Gova, Korekore dialect) |
nzv | nzvenga | "to dodge" | (Standard Shona) |
zvc | muzvcazi | "the Milky Way" | Dental clicks. Only found in Ngova, Karanga dialect. |
svc | chisvcamba | "tortoise" |
Whistled sibilants stirred interest among the Western public and media in 2006, due to questions about how to pronounce the name of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. The BBC Pronunciation Unit recommended the pronunciation "chang-girr-ayi" /ˈtʃæŋɡɪreɪi/.[12][page needed][13]
From 1931 to 1955, Unified Shona was written with an alphabet developed by linguist Professor Clement Martyn Doke. This included these letters:
In 1955, these were replaced by letters or digraphs from the basic Latin alphabet. For example, today ⟨sv⟩ or ⟨ş⟩ is used for ⟨ȿ⟩ and ⟨zv⟩ or ⟨z̧⟩ is used for ⟨ɀ⟩.
Noun classes (mupanda)
Mupanda, or noun class, is the way in which Shona words are grouped:
There are 21 mupanda. Mupanda 20 was omitted because it is considered vulgar.[clarification needed]
This George Fortune in 'Shona Grammatical Constructions' only says this class exists in Kalanga only. Confusion likely arises from classification of these languages. The Kalanga language is one of the Shona languages, and these noun classes cover all the Shona languages. Perhaps this is the reason for omitting the class? provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (November 2022) |
Noun class | Muenzaniso weIzwi ("word example") |
Word construction Prefix+body=word |
English translation | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prefix | Body | ||||
1 | mu | mukomana | mu- | -komana | "boy" |
1a | – | baba | -baba | "father" | |
2 | va | vakomana | va- | -komana | "boys" |
2a | va | vasahwira | va- | -sahwira | "best friend" |
2a | vana | vanatezvara | vana- | -tezvara | "father-in-law" |
2b | a | atete | a- | -tete | "aunt" |
3 | mu | muti | mu- | -ti | "tree" |
4 | mi | miti | mi- | -ti | "trees" |
5 | ri | rize | ri- | -ze | "scorpion" |
6 | ma | marize | ma- | -ze | "scorpions" |
7 | chi | chingwa | chi- | -ngwa | "bread" |
8 | zvi | zvingwa | zvi- | -ngwa | "bread" |
9 | i | imba | i- | -mba | "house" |
10 | dzi | dzimba | dzi- | -mba | "houses" |
11 | ru | rwizi | ru- | -izi | "river" |
12 | ka | kambwa | ka- | -mbwa | "that little dog" |
13 | tu | tumbwa | tu- | -mbwa | "those little dogs" |
14 | u | upfu | u- | -pfu | "mealie meal" |
15 | ku | kuenda | ku- | -enda | "going" |
16 | pa | pamba | pa- | -mba | "home" |
17 | ku | kumusha | ku- | -musha | "rural home" |
17a | – | zasi | -zasi | "below" | |
18 | mu | mumunda | mu- | -munda | "in the farm" |
19 | svi | svimbudzi | svi- | -mbudzi | "goat" |
21 | zi | zigomana | zi- | -gomana | "big boy" |
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Languages of Zimbabwe | |
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Languages of Mozambique | |
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Languages of Zambia | |
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Note: The Guthrie classification is geographic and its groupings do not imply a relationship between the languages within them. |
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