Shona
Description
Shona is a language from the Bantu family which is spoken in Zimbabwe. It is the mother tongue of 75% of the people of Zimbabwe. There are a multiplicity of Shona dialects and sub-dialects, the major groups being
- Karanga: spoken by the Karanga people who live mostly in Masvingo province and large parts of the Midlands provinces.
- Zezuru:spoken by the Zezuru people who live in the capital, Harare and in most parts of the surrounding Mashonaland provinces.
- Manyika: spoken by the Manyika people who reside in the Manicaland province. It is these three major dialects that form the group known as the central dialects around which Standard Shona is based. Standard Shona is the language that is taught in most of Zimbabwes schools. Most people in Zimbabwe use their original dialects whenever they are speaking, but express themselves in Standard Shona when writing.
In addition to these major dialects, there are:
- Ndau: spoken by the Ndau people who reside in some parts of Manicaland province, especially around the Chipinge area. Ndau speakers also extend to Mozambique.
- Korekore: spoken by the Korekore people who reside to the north-west of the Zeruru area, up to the Zambian border.
- Kalanga: spoken by the Kalanga people who inhabit the western parts of the country and Kalanga speakers extend to Botswana. The Kalanga were cut off from the main concentration of the Shona people by the invading Ndebele. Their speech shows considerable differences from that of the Shona people. Kalanga is, for instance, the only dialect to have the l sound; the rest of the Shona dialects have r only.
(Source: African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania)
Instructor
Mr. Esau Mavindidze
Email
ejmavindi@yahoo.com