The Shona languages (also called the Shonic group) are a
clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...
of
Bantu language
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
s coded Zone S.10 in
Guthrie's classification. According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the languages form a valid node. They are:
* Shona
** Eastern Shona group
***
Ndau (S.15)
** Central Shona group
*** Korekore (S.11) and
Tawara
*** Zezuru (S.12)
***
Manyika (S.13) and
Tewe
*** Karanga (S.14)
** Western Shona group
***
Kalanga (S.16)
***
Nambya
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. Based on his 1931 report,
Standard Shona was developed from the Central Shona varieties. Because of the presence of the capital city in the Zezuru region, that variety has come to dominate in Standard Shona.
Some classifications include the Shonic group in
Southern Bantu, with the other Zone S languages; others treat it separately.
References
* Doke, Clement ''M. Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects''. Government of Southern Rhodesia: Government Blue Book, 1931.
*
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