Shona language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Shona | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: |  Zimbabwe Mozambique Zambia Botswana |
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| Region: | Africa | |
| Total speakers: | 7,000,000 | |
| Ranking: | 58 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Narrow Bantu Central Shona |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | Zimbabwe |
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| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | sn | |
| ISO 639-2: | sna | |
| ISO 639-3: | sna | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Shona (or ChiShona) is native language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify those Bantu-language speaking peoples in Southern Africa who speak one of the Shona language dialects, namely Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore. The word "Shona" is derived from the Ndebele word itshonalanga ("where the sun set"). Shona is an official language of Zimbabwe, along with Ndebele and English. Numbering about 6,225,000 (SIL 1989), Shona speakers comprise more than 80% of Zimbabwe's population. Shona is also spoken by a substantial number of residents of Mozambique. Other countries that host Shona language speakers are Zambia and Botswana. The total number of Shona speakers is at least 7,000,000 (UBS 1990).
Shona is a written standard language with an orthography and grammar that was codified during the early 20th century and fixed in the 1950s. The first novel in Shona, Solomon Mutswairo's Feso, was published in 1957. It 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). Modern 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.
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 Shona proper, Manyika, Nambya, and Ndau, spoken in Zimbabwe and central Mozambique; Tawara and Tewe, found in Mozambique; and Ikalanga of Botswana.
Shona speakers most likely moved into present day Zimbabwe during the great Bantu expansion.
Shona has five vowels: a, e, i, o, u and has a rich consonant inventory, whose peculiarity probably features with "whistling sounds" transcribed as "zv" (possibly one of the most frequent; e.g. zvakanaka, very well), "dzv", "sv" and "tsv" . It is a tonal language, though tone is not represented in spelling.
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[edit] Pronunciation
Shona's five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) are pronounced as in Italian: ah, eh, ee, oh, oo. Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they fall in succession. For example, "Unoenda kupi?" (Where do you go?) is pronounced: oo noh eh ndah koo pee
Most consonants are pronounced as in English with several notable exceptions:
- -d is pronounced by release of pressure when the tongue is pulled away from the roof of the mouth; the English "d" sound is spelled -dh
- -b is pronounced by implosion (reducing the pressure in the mouth by pressing the lips together); the English "b" (pronounced by increasing the pressure) is spelled -bh
- -sv means make an "ee" mouth but say "sh"
- -zv is the voiced equivalent of sv, pronounced by making an "ee" mouth, but saying "zh"
- -ty is prounounced as if the "y" were a "ch"
- -dy is prounounced as if the "y" were a "g"
[edit] Orthography
All syllables in Shona end in vowels. Consonants always belong to the next syllable. "Mangwanani" which means "morning" would be separated like this: ma/ngwa/na/ni
All verbs end in -a.
kuda - to like, love, want kuenda - to go kusvika - to arrive kudya - to eat kutamba - to dance or play kurara - to sleep (kuvata) kudzoka - to come back kuseka - to laugh kuchema - to cry
[edit] Other
Mangwanani, the Shona word for "Good Morning" is also the title of a song written to raise money for Comic Relief by a collaboration band called "Z-trolleee". The band, based in Leicester, United Kingdom, released the single for Comic Relief Week 2007. The website link is here.[1] However, it must be noted that the band do pronounce the word mangwanani incorrectly throughout the song. The band Dispatch uses Shona in its song "Elias".
[edit] 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, C. M. (1931) Report on the Unification of the Shona Dialects. Stephen Austin Sons.
- Mutasa, David (1996) 'The Problems of Standardizing Spoken Dialects: The Shona Experience', Language Matters, 27, 79&ndash
Lafon, Michel (1995), Le shona et les shonas du Zimbabwe, Harmattan éd., Paris (in French)
[edit] Dialect Survey
Although there are many dialect differences in Shona, a standardized dialect is recognized. (Webbook)
According to information from Ethnologue:
Shona Toko & Hwesa
Karanga (Chikaranga) - spoken in southern Zimbabwe, near Masvingo Duma, Jena, Mhari (Mari), Ngova, Venda, Nyubi, Govera.
Zezuru (Chizezuru, Bazezuru, Bazuzura, Mazizuru, Vazezuru, Wazezuru) - spoken in central Zimbabwe, near Harare Shawasha, Gova, Mbire, Tsunga, Kachikwakwa, Harava, Nohwe, Njanja, Nobvu, Kwazwimba (Zimba).
Korekore (Northern Shona, Goba, Gova, Shangwe) - spoken in northern Zimbabwe, near Mvurwi Budya, Gova, Tande, Tavara, Nyongwe, Pfunde, Shan Gwe,
Ndau (partially intelligible with Shona; Closer to Manyika, and much more divergent from Union Shona ... lexical similarity 74% to 81% between Ndau dialects and Manyika) - spoken in Mozambique Ndau (Cindau) Shanga (Cimashanga, Mashanga, Chichanga, **Chixanga, Xanga, Changa, Senji, Chisenji) Danda (Cidanda, Ndanda, Cindanda, Vadanda, **Watande) Dondo (Cidondo, Wadondo, Chibabava) Gova (Cigova) (Danda and Ndanda may be the same. Gova in Mozambique is closer to Ndau, but in Zambia and Zimbabwe it is closer to Korekore dialect of Shona. Lexical similarity 92% between Danda and Dondo dialects, 85% between Dondo and Shanga)
Manyika (A little more divergent from Shona than Karanga, Zezuru, and Korekore. At least partially intelligible with Shona. Manyika has 74% to 81% lexical similarity with Ndau.) - spoken in eastern Zimbabwe, near Mutare Bocha (Boka), Bunji, Bvumba, Domba, Guta, Here, Hungwe, Jindwi, Karombe, Nyamuka, Nyatwe, Unyama.
It's also recognised in Zimbabwe that Chewa, spoken in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi is actually a Shona dialect; and should be respected as such, since the similarities between the two languages are astounding. [2]
[edit] Palatally Whistled Fricatives
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008) |
In today's societies, whistling only communicates emotions. However, information can be communicated through whistling and it does occur in some parts of South and Eastern Africa. Most whistle languages, of which there are several hundred, are based on tonal languages. Only the tone of the speech is saved in the whistle, things such as articulation and phonation are eliminated. These are replaced by other features such as stress and rhythmical variations. However, some languages, llike that of the people of Aas in the Zezuru who speak a Shona-derived dialect, however, some languages include articulation so that consonants interrupt the flow of the whistle. A similar language is the Tsonga whistled language used in the highlands in the Southern parts of Mozambique. Both of the languages share the common traits of being based on Shona, the method of whistling, the similarity of the signals in the Shona linguistic framework and the functional purpose of the signaling. discussing Shona, describes “whistling,” which. is not heard in Nothern Ndebele, which instead has a unique trademark of click-sound consonants found in all Nguni languages. One of the names that has been absorbed into the mainstream, Western media is Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe. The Pronunciation Unit's recommendation of Tsvangirai's surname is chang-girr-ayi. This recommendation has recently stirred up public and media interest, because of different opinions of how the Shona -tsv cluster should be pronounced in English. In this language, which also largely survived the effects of the Bantu expansion by being adopted by the eventual Bantu conquerers, dates back about 23000 years ago, when San peoples first dominated the region. The whistled fricatives are in fact double labial alveolar fricatives, made with a palatal whistling position.
Other consonant clusters include,
-SV (.e.g., MASVOSVOBWA, which translates 'shooting stars' and MASVOSVE, which translates 'ants').
-TSV (.e.g., TSVAIRA, which translates from Standard Shona to the word, 'sweep').
-SVW (.e.g., MUSVAVEMBASVWI, which translates 'schemer', from the Shangwe, Korekore branch of Shona).
-ZV (.e.g., ZVIZVUVHUTSWA, which literary translates 'gold nuggets', from the Tsunga branch of Zezuru).
-DZV (.e.g., AKADZVA, which translates 'he/she was unsuccesssful' ).
-ZVW (.e.g., HUZVWEVERERE, which translates from the Gova, Korekore branch of Shona to 'emotions').
-NZV (.e.g., NZVENGA, which translates 'dodge' or 'avoid', in Standard Shona).
-ZVC & SVC (uniquely found in the Ngova, Karanga dialect of Shona, which also has substantial Ndebele influences, hence featuring the dental 'c' click sound, merged with the palatal whistle sounds of Standard Shona. e.g., The Karanga words MUZVCAZI and CHISVCAMBA, wich translate to 'The Milky Way Strip' and 'tortoise', respectively).
Although written with the same Roman alphabet, the -tsv consonant cluster in Shona is not equivalent to -tsv in English (as in the phrase "its vanguard" minues the "i"); Shona has what are commonly referred to as "whistling" fricatives ("s" and "z"), which sound and are produced differently from English "s" and "z". The "v" does not have the same quality as English "v"; for many Shona speakers, the "v" in -tsv is co-articulated; that is to say, the quality of the "v" adjusts to that of the neighbouring consonants.
[edit] External links
- Ethnologue report on Shona
- The Shona Podcast - an Englishman and his Zimbabwean wife discuss the Shona language and culture
- The History of the Shona People.
- Pan African Localization report on Shona
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