Shona language

Shona (; sn, chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to ''Ethnologue'', Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7.5 million people. The Manyika dialect of Shona is listed separately by ''Ethnologue'', and is spoken by 1,025,000 people.

The larger group of historically related languages—called Shona languages by linguists—also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Kalanga (Western Shona).

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 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.

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.

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 (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):

* S14 Karanga dialect (Chikaranga). Spoken in southern Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It is also mostly spoken in the Midlands province, most notably in Mberengwa and Zvishavane districts.
:Subdialects: Duma, Jena, Mhari (Mari), Ngova, Venda (not the Venda language), Nyubi (spoken in Matabeleland at the beginning of the colonial period is now extinct), Govera.

* S12 Zezuru dialect (Chizezuru, Bazezuru, Bazuzura, Mazizuru, Vazezuru, Wazezuru). Spoken in Mashonaland east and central Zimbabwe, near Harare. The standard language.
:Subdialects: Shawasha, Gova, Mbire, Tsunga, Kachikwakwa, Harava, Nohwe, Njanja, Nobvu, Kwazvimba (Zimba).

* S11 Korekore dialect (Northern Shona, Goba, Gova, Shangwe). Spoken in northern Zimbabwe, Mvurwi, Bindura, Mt Darwin, Guruve, Chiweshe, Centenary.
:Subdialects: Gova, Tande, Tavara, Nyongwe, Pfunde, Shan Gwe.

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. Manyika gave birth to a smaller language group dialect chibarwe originally spoken in mashonaland east.

Phonology and alphabet

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.

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?" (Where do you go?) is pronounced . Vowels in Shona always make the same sound.

Consonants

The consonant sounds of Shona are:

Shona has two tones, a high and a low tone, but these tones are not indicated in spelling.

Whistled sibilants

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".

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" .

Special characters

*' - the apostrophe can be used after the character "n" to create a sound similar to the "-ng" from the English word "ping". An example word is "n'anga", which is the word for a traditional healer.

Alphabet

* A - a - * B - ba - �* Bh - bha - ̤* Ch - cha - ͡ʃ* D - da - �* Dh - dha - ̤* E - e - * F - fa - * G - ga - �̤* H - ha - �* I - i - * J - ja - ͡ʒ̤* K - ka - * M - ma - * N - na - * Nh - nha - ̤* O - o - * P - pa - * R - ra - * S - sa - * Sh - sha - �* T - ta - * U - u - * V - va - �* Vh - vha - ̤* W - wa - * Y - ya - * Z - za - ̤* Zh - zha - �̤ref>

Orthography

* bv - ͡v̤* dz - ͡z̤* dzv - ͡z̤ᵝ* dy - ̤ʲg* mb - ��b* mbw - ��b* mh - ̤* mv - ʋ̤* nd - ��d* ng - �* nj - ��d͡ʒ̤* ny - �* nz - ��z̤* nzv - ��z̤ᵝ* pf - ͡f* sv - ᶲ* sw - kw* ts - ͡s* tsv - ͡sᶲ* ty - ʲk* zv - ̤ᵝ

Old alphabet

From 1931 to 1955, Unified Shona was written with an alphabet developed by linguist Professor Clement Martyn Doke. This included these letters:

: ɓ (b with hook),
: ɗ (d with hook),
: ŋ (n with leg),
: ȿ (s with swash tail),
: ʋ (v with hook),
: ɀ (z with swash tail).

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 .

Grammar

Noun classes (''mupanda)''

''Mupanda'', or noun class, is the way in which Shona words are grouped:

# ''Zvaanoreva'' ("their meanings") e.g. words found in ''mupanda'' 1 and 2 describe a person: ''munhu'' ("person") is in ''mupanda'' 1 and ''musikana'' ("girl") is in ''mupanda'' 2.
# ''Uwandu neushoma'' ("singular and plural form") e.g. words found in ''mupanda'' 8 are plurals of ''mupanda'' 7: zvikoro ("schools") in ''mupanda'' 8 is a plural form of ''chikoro'' ("school") in ''mupanda'' 7.
# ''Sungawirirano'' (accordance) words in ''mupanda'' 5 have ''sungawirirano'' -ri- e.g. ''garwe'' ''iri'' ("this crocodile"), ''dombo'' ''iri'' ("this stone"), ''gudo'' ''iri'' ("this baboon"); 'iri' means 'this'.
# ''Chivakashure'' ("prefix") e.g. words in ''mupanda'' 1 have prefix ''mu''-, ''mupanda'' 8 ''zvi''-, ''mupanda'' 10 ''dzi''-, ''mupanda'' 11 ''ru''-, etc.
#Empty prefix units refer to words that do not require a prefix

There are 21 ''mupanda''. ''Mupanda'' 20 was omitted because it is considered vulgar.Mupanda 19 is 'svi', Mupanda 20 is 'ra' (chirimi - form of lisp). However, svi + ra in Shona loosely means sex, that's why it was omitted.}

See also

* Shona calendar

References

Bibliography

* Biehler, E. (1950) ''A Shona dictionary with an outline Shona grammar'' (revised edition). The Jesuit Fathers.
* Brauner, Sigmund (1995) ''A grammatical sketch of Shona : including historical notes''. Köln: Rüdiger Koppe.
* Carter, Hazel (1986) ''Kuverenga Chishóna: an introductory Shona reader with grammatical sketch'' (2nd edition). London: SOAS.
* Doke, Clement M. (1931) ''Report on the unification of the Shona dialects''. Stephen Austin Sons.
* Fortune, George (1985). ''Shona Grammatical Constructions Vol 1''. Mercury Press.
* Mutasa, David (1996) ''The problems of standardizing spoken dialects: the Shona experience'', ''Language Matters'', 27, 79
* Lafon, Michel (1995), ''Le shona et les shonas du Zimbabwe'', Harmattan éd., Paris
* D. Dale:
** ''Basic English – Shona dictionary'', Afro Asiatic Languages Edition, Sept 5, 2000,
** ''Duramazwi: A Shona - English Dictionary'', Afro Asiatic Languages Edition, Sept 5, 2000,

External links

*

Pan African Localization
report on Shona

Example of Shona
Lyrikline.org page on poet Chirikure Chirikure, with audio and translations into English.

Basic Shona language course (book + audio files)
USA Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
Biblical study material in Shona language
(publications, video and audio files
online bible
by Jehovah's Witnesses

Shona Dictionary
Shona Dictionary

Table of Noun Classes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shona language

Shona languages
Languages of Botswana
Languages of Mozambique
Languages of Zambia
Languages of Zimbabwe
Languages of South Africa