Shona language

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 6 .5 million people. The Manyika dialect of Shona^[7][8][9] is listed separately by Ethnologue, and is spoken by 1,025,000 people.

Shona
chiShona
Native to	Zimbabwe, Mozambique
Native speakers	6.5 million, Shona proper (2000 to 2007)^[1] 5.50 million Zezuru, Karanga,Chimanyika, Korekore (2000) 5.8 million incl. Manyika, (2000–2006)^[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Shona languages (S.10) Shona
Dialects	Korekore Zezuru Manyika Karanga
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, Korekore twl – Tavara (Korekore) mxc – Manyika twx – Tewe (Manyika)
Glottolog	core1255  Core Shona tawa1270  Tawara
Guthrie code	S.7–10^[3]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-a = List 99-AUT-aa (standardised Shona)+ 99-AUT-ab (chiKorekore incl. varieties -aba to -abk)+ 99-AUT-ac (chiZezuru -aca..-ack)+ 99-AUT-ad (north chiManyika -ada..-adk)+ 99-AUT-ae (central chiManyika -aea..-aeg)+ 99-AUT-af (chiKaranga -afa..-aff)+ 99-AUT-ag (chiNdau -aga..-age)+ 99-AUT-ah (chiShanga)+ 99-AUT-ai (chiKalanga)+ 99-AUT-aj (chiNambya -aja..-ajc)+ 99-AUT-ak (chiLilima -aka..-akf)
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]
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).

Instruction

 

Wikipedia in the Shona language.

 

Teacher Ignatio Chiyaka teaching the Shona language to U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Zhombe, Zimbabwe. The words on the blackboard are pfeka ("dress self") and hembe ("shirt").

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.^[3] 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.^{[10][self-published source?]}

Vowels

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?]}

Consonants

The consonant sounds of Shona are:

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
				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.

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".

Sound	example	translation	notes
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]}

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.^[14]

Alphabet

• A - a - [a]
• B - ba - [ɓ]
• Bh - bha - [b̤]
• Ch - cha - [t͡ʃ]
• D - da - [ɗ]
• Dh - dha - [d̤]
• E - e - [e]
• F - fa - [f]
• G - ga - [ɡ̤]
• H - ha - [ɦ]
• I - i - [i]
• J - ja - [d͡ʒ̤]
• K - ka - [k]
• M - ma - [m]
• N - na - [n]
• Nh - nha - [n̤]
• O - o - [o]
• P - pa - [p]
• R - ra - [r]
• S - sa - [s]
• Sh - sha - [ʃ]
• T - ta - [t]
• U - u - [u]
• V - va - [ʋ]
• Vh - vha - [v̤]
• W - wa - [w]
• Y - ya - [j]
• Z - za - [z̤]
• Zh - zha - [ʒ̤]^[15]

Orthography

 

Shona version of the Book of Mormon

• bv - [b͡v̤]
• dz - [d͡z̤]
• dzv - [d͡z̤ᵝ]
• dy - [d̤ʲg]
• mb - [ᵐb]
• mbw - [ᵐb]
• mh - [m̤]
• mv - [mʋ̤]
• nd - [ⁿd]
• ng - [ŋ]
• nj - [ⁿd͡ʒ̤]
• ny - [ɲ]
• nz - [ⁿz̤]
• nzv - [ⁿz̤ᵝ]
• pf - [p͡f]
• sv - [sᶲ]
• sw - [skw]
• ts - [t͡s]
• tsv - [t͡sᶲ]
• ty - [tʲk]
• zv - [z̤ᵝ]

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 ⟨sv⟩ or ⟨ş⟩ is used for ⟨ȿ⟩ and ⟨zv⟩ or ⟨z̧⟩ is used for ⟨ɀ⟩.

Grammar

Noun classes (mupanda)

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

1. Zvaanoreva ("their meanings") e.g. words found in mupanda 1 and 2 describe a person: munhu ("person") is in mupanda 1 and vasikana ("girl") is in mupanda 2.
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.
3. 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'.
4. Chivakashure ("prefix") e.g. words in mupanda 1 have prefix mu-, mupanda 8 zvi-, mupanda 10 dzi-, mupanda 11 ru-, etc.
5. 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.}

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"

See also

• Shona calendar

References

1. Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
2. . Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009.
4. Haberland, Eike (3 May 1974). Perspectives Des Études Africaines Contemporaines: Rapport Final D'un Symposium International. Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission. ISBN 9783794052257 – via Google Books.
5. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
6. "Shona". Ethnologue.
7. Stabilization in the Manyika Dialect of the Shona Group, Hazel Carter, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 26, No. 4, Oct., 1956, pp. 398-405
8. Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects. By Clement M. Doke. 1931
9. "Shona". plc.sas.upenn.edu.
10. "Shona phrasebook - Wikitravel".
11. "Shona phrasebook - Wikitravel".
12. Ryan K. Shorsed. (PDF). University of California. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2011. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
13. Clement M. Doke (1932). "Report on the unification of Shona dialects". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. JSTOR. 6 (4): 1097–1099. JSTOR 606944.
14. Ndambakuwa, Victor. "Shona word n'anga in the Shona Dictionary". VaShona Project. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
15. "Dzidzai Shona pa Kombiyuta - The Shona Alphabet". African Studies Center - African Languages at Penn. Retrieved 10 December 2020.

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 (in French)
• D. Dale:
  • Basic English – Shona dictionary, Afro Asiatic Languages Edition, Sept 5, 2000, ISBN 978-0869220146
  • Duramazwi: A Shona - English Dictionary, Afro Asiatic Languages Edition, Sept 5, 2000, ISBN 978-0869220146

External links

 

Shona edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• "The History of the Shona People".
• Pan African Localization report on Shona
• Example of Shona, Lyrikline.org page on poet Chirikure Chirikure, with audio and translations into English.
• 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
• Mipanda Yemazita Table of Noun Classes