Shona language

Shona /ˈʃoʊnə/[6] (chiShona) 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 (called Shona languages by linguists) also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Karanga (Western Shona), but speakers of those languages prefer their distinct identities and usually reject any connection to the term Shona.

Native toZimbabwe, Mozambique
Native speakers
8.3 million, Shona proper (2007)[1]
10.8 million Zezuru, Karanga, Korekore (2000)
Latin script (Shona alphabet)
Shona Braille
Official status
Official language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1sn
ISO 639-2sna
ISO 639-3Variously:
sna – Zezuru, Karanga, Korekore
twl – Tavara (Korekore)
mxc – Manyika
twx – Tewe (Manyika)
ndc – Ndau
Glottologcore1255  Core Shona[3]
tawa1270  Tawara[4]
Linguasphere99-AUT-a =


Shona is the most spoken Bantu language in Southern Africa by the criterion of number of native speakers. According to Ethnologue,[7] Shona, comprising the Karanga, Zezuru and Korekore dialects, is spoken by about 10.8 million people. The Manyika and Ndau dialects of Shona[8][9][10] are listed separately by Ethnologue,[11] and are spoken by 1,025,000[12] and 2,380,000[13] people, respectively.


Wikipedia in the Shona language.

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.



Shona is a member of the large family of Bantu languages. In Guthrie's zonal classification of Bantu languages, zone S10 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 witch doctor (Zimbabwe)
Shona n'anga or traditional healer (Zimbabwe)

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.[14] 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.


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 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 (when excluding S16 Kalanga):

  • S12 Zezuru dialect (Chizezuru, Bazezuru, Bazuzura, Mazizuru, Vazezuru, Wazezuru). Spoken in Mashonaland east and central Zimbabwe, near Harare. The standard language.
  • 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.


Phonology and alphabet



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 [].


The consonant sounds of Shona are:

Bilabial Labio-
Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain lab. plain whistled
Plosive voiceless p t k
breathy ɡ̤
implosive ɓ ɗ
prenasalized ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s sᶲ ʃ
breathy z̤ᵝ ʒ̤ ɦ
prenasalized ⁿz̤ ⁿz̤ᵝ
Nasal plain m n ɲ ŋ
breathy mʋ̤
Affricate voiceless p͡f t͡s t͡sᶲ t͡ʃ
breathy b͡v̤ d͡z̤ d͡z̤ᵝ d͡ʒ̤
prenasalized ⁿd͡ʒ̤
Trill r
Approximant ʋ j w

Whistled sibilants

Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include whistling sounds, unlike most other languages where whistling signals a speech disorder (this should not be confused with whistled speech).


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 masvavembasvi "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)
svc chisvcamba "tortoise"



Mupanda 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 musikana (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- eg garwe (crocodile) iri, dombo (stone) iri, gudo (baboon) iri; '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.

There are 21 mupanda. Mupanda 20 was omitted because it is considered vulgar.

Mupanda Muenzaniso weIzwi(word example) Word construction


English translation
Chivakashure body
1 mu mukomana mu- -komana boy
2 va vakomana va- -komana boys
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

Old alphabet


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⟩ is used for ⟨ȿ⟩ and ⟨zv⟩ is used for ⟨ɀ⟩.


  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Core Shona". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tawara". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  7. ^ Ethnologue's Shona entry
  10. ^ University of Pennsylvania Language Center
  11. ^ Ethnologue's list of Shona (S.10) languages
  12. ^ Ethnologue's Manyika entry
  13. ^ Ethnologue's Ndau entry
  14. ^ Department of Archeology, Wits University
  15. ^ "?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2011.
  16. ^ 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.


  • Fortune, George (1985). Shona Grammatical Constructions Vol 1. Mercury Press.
  • Lafon, Michel (1995), Le shona et les shonas du Zimbabwe, Harmattan éd., Paris (in French)
  • D. Dale:

External links

42 (number)


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Chimurenga is a word in the Shona language. The Ndebele equivalent, though not as widely used since the majority of Zimbabweans are Shona speaking, is Umvukela, roughly meaning "revolutionary struggle" or uprising. In specific historical terms, it also refers to the Ndebele and Shona insurrections against administration by the British South Africa Company during the late 1890s—the Second Matabele War, or First Chimurenga—and the war fought between African nationalist guerrillas and the predominantly white Rhodesian government during the 1960s and 1970s—the Rhodesian Bush War, or Second Chimurenga/Imvukela.

The concept is also occasionally used in reference to the land reform programme undertaken by the Government of Zimbabwe since 2000, which some call a Third Chimurenga. Proponents of land reform regard it as the final phase in what they hold to be the liberation of Zimbabwe through economic and agrarian reforms intended to empower indigenous people, despite the economic collapse that soon followed, which some have labeled the Third "Chimurenga" as being the catalyst.

In a modern context, the word may denote a struggle for human rights, political dignity and social justice. The expression is also used in context with modern Zimbabwean music, Chimurenga music.

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The city was founded in 1890 by the Pioneer Column, a small military force of the British South Africa Company, and named Fort Salisbury after the British prime minister Lord Salisbury. Company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian (later Rhodesian) government and, between 1953 and 1963, the capital of the Central African Federation. It retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence.

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According to a 2018 survey, 50% of gay men in Zimbabwe had been physically assaulted and 64% had been disowned by their families. 27% of lesbians also reported disownment.Homosexuality, same-sex relations and cross-dressing used to be accepted and commonplace in Zimbabwe prior to colonisation and post-independence anti-white government policies, which in turn has spread the erroneous belief that homosexuality is un-African or a Western product. Homosexual activity has been documented among the San people, the Khoikhoi people, the Ndebele people and the Shona people.

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During a turbulent period in Nguni and Sotho-Tswana history known as the Mfecane or “the crushing’, Mzilikazi’s regiment, initially numbering 500 soldiers, moved west towards the present-day city of Pretoria, where they founded a settlement called Mhlahlandlela. The Great Trek in 1838 saw Mzilikazi defeated by the Voortrekkers at Vegkop after which he was exiled into present-day Zimbabwe where the Ndebele overwhelmed the local Lozvi, eventually carving out a home now called Matabeleland and encompassing the west and southwest region of the country. In the course of the migration, large numbers of conquered local clans and individuals were absorbed into the Ndebele nation, adopting the Ndebele language and culture. Historically the assimilated people came from the Southern Ndebele, Swazi, Sotho-Tswana, and amaLozwi ethnic groups.

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Velar nasal


As a phoneme, the velar nasal does not occur in many of the indigenous languages of the Americas or in a large number of European or Middle Eastern or Caucasian languages, but it is extremely common in Australian Aboriginal languages and is also common in many languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Polynesia. While almost all languages have /m/ and /n/, /ŋ/ is rarer. Only half of the 469 languages surveyed in Anderson (2008) had a velar nasal phoneme; as a further curiosity, a large proportion of them limits its occurrence to the syllable coda. In many languages that do not have the velar nasal as a phoneme, it occurs as an allophone of /n/ before velar consonants. An example of it used this way is the English word ingredient, which can be pronounced as either [ɪnˈɡriːdiənt] or [ɪŋˈɡriːdiənt].

An example of a language that lacks a phonemic or allophonic velar nasal is Russian, in which /n/ is pronounced as laminal denti-alveolar [n̪] even before velar consonants.Some languages have the pre-velar nasal, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar nasal, though not as front as the prototypical palatal nasal - see that article for more information.

Conversely, some languages have the post-velar nasal, which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of a prototypical velar nasal, though not as back as the prototypical uvular nasal.

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