Shona language

Spoken in

• Niger - Congo languages Benue - Congo languages Bantoid languages Bantu languages Shona

Sn

Sna

Sna

Shona ( with class prefix Chishona, according to German orthography often " the Shona ") is an in Zimbabwe ( about 70 % of the population ) and Mozambique widespread Bantu language.

Dissemination

Shona is spoken by about nine million people of the population of Shona as their mother tongue and in Zimbabwe has the status of a national language, where it is since 1980 a compulsory subject in schools.

Among the Bantu languages ​​of southern Africa, the Chishona own position is held alongside the Nguni languages ​​, the Sotho - Tswana languages ​​, Venda and Tsonga (cf. Nomenclature of Niger -Congo languages).

Dialects

Shona is divided into several dialect groups: Korekore (north), Zezuru ( center ), Manyika ( East), Karanga (south), Ndau and Kalanga (west). The standard language is based on a v. the Zezuru and Karanga dialects.

Font

The Latin -based Verschriftung began at the end of the 19th century. In the 1950s, the language has been standardized.

Classes

Like all Bantu languages ​​is a class Chishona language. Nouns take a class prefix, which is about a grammatical genders after 10 and singular and plural differentiated, indicated inflected ( locatives ) corresponds to Article. Phrases that refer to a noun, carry the same determined by the noun class prefix. The prefix of the predicate ( verb ) thus depends on the respective subject.