Shona language
Shona is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It is one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages.
The larger group of historically related languages also includes Ndau and Karanga, but speakers of those languages prefer their distinct identities and usually reject any connection to the term Shona.
Speakers
According to Ethnologue, Shona, comprising the Karanga, Zezuru and Korekore dialects, is spoken by about 10.8 million people. The Manyika and Ndau dialects of Shona are listed separately by Ethnologue, and are spoken by 1,025,000 and 2,380,000 people, respectively.Instruction
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 the 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. 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.
Classification
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.Origins
Shona speakers most likely moved into present-day Zimbabwe from the Mapungubwe and K2 communities in Limpopo, South Africa, before the influx of European, primarily British, colonizers. A common misconception is that the speakers of the Karanga dialect were absorbed into the Ndebele culture and language turning them into Kalanga. The Kalanga language is widely spoken in Zimbabwe and Botswana where the Ndebele were never present. The Kalanga language is thought to have been the language used by the Mapungubweans. If this is accurate it follows that the Karanga dialect of Shona is a derivative of Kalanga. Karanga is closer to Kalanga than the rest of the aforementioned dialects. Karanga and Kalanga are both closer to Venda than the other Shona dialects.Dialects
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 spoken by 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 :- S14 Karanga dialect. Spoken in southern Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It is also mostly spoken in the Midlands province, most notably in Mberengwa and Zvishavane districts.
- S12 Zezuru dialect. Spoken in Mashonaland east and central Zimbabwe, near Harare. The standard language.
- S11 Korekore dialect. Spoken in northern Zimbabwe, Mvurwi Bindura, Mt Darwin, Guruve, Chiweshe, Centenary.
Maho recognizes Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika, Karanga, and Ndau as distinct languages within the Shona cluster, with Kalanga being more divergent.
Phonology and alphabet
All syllables in Shona end in a vowel. Consonants belong to the next syllable. For example, mangwanani is syllabified as ma.ngwa.na.ni; "Zimbabwe" is zi.mba.bwe.Vowels
Shona's five vowels are pronounced as in Spanish:. Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they fall in succession. For example, "Unoenda kupi?" is pronounced.Consonants
The consonant sounds of Shona are:Whistled sibilants
Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include whistling sounds, unlike most other languages where whistling signals a speech disorder.Shona's whistled sibilants are the fricatives "sv" and "zv" and the affricates "tsv" and "dzv".
| Sound | example | translation | notes |
| sv | masvosvobwa | "shooting stars" | "sv" can be represented by S͎, from the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet |
| sv | masvosve | "ants" | "sv" can be represented by S͎, from the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet |
| tsv | tsvaira | "sweep" | |
| svw | masvavembasvi | "schemer" | |
| zv | zvizvuvhutswa | "gold nuggets" | |
| dzv | akadzva | "he/she was unsuccessful" | |
| zvw | huzvweverere | "emotions" | |
| nzv | nzvenga | "to dodge" | |
| zvc | muzvcazi | "the Milky Way" | Dental clicks. Only found in Ngova, Karanga dialect. |
| svc | chisvcamba | "tortoise" | Dental clicks. Only found in Ngova, Karanga dialect. |
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".
Mupanda
Mupanda is the way in which Shona words are grouped:
1. Zvaanoreva e.g. words found in mupanda 1 and 2 describe a person: munhu is in mupanda 1 and musikana is in mupanda 2.
2. Uwandu neushoma e.g. words found in mupanda 8 are plurals of mupanda 7: zvikoro in mupanda 8 is a plural form of chikoro in mupanda 7.
3. Sungawirirano words in mupanda 5 have sungawirirano -ri- e.g. garwe iri, dombo iri, gudo iri; 'iri' means 'this'.
4. Chivakashure e.g. words in mupanda 1 have prefix mu-, mupanda 8 zvi-, mupanda 10 dzi-, mupanda 11 ru-, etc.
There are 21 mupanda. Mupanda 20 was omitted because it is considered vulgar.
Old alphabet
From 1931 to 1955, Unified Shona was written with an alphabet developed by the linguist Professor Clement Martyn Doke. This included the following letters:In 1955, these were replaced by letters or digraphs from the basic Latin alphabet. For example, today or is used for and or is used for.