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Shona Bible
By:
American Bible
Society
ISBN-10: 0797417281
ISBN-13: 9780797417281
Publisher:
American Bible
Society -
2005-01-01
Format:
Hardcover
Shona
(or
chiShona)
is a
Bantu
language,
native
to the
Shona
people
of
Zimbabwe
and
southern
Zambia;
the term
is also
used to
identify
peoples
who
speak
one of
the
Shona
language
dialects,
namely
Zezuru,
Karanga,
Manyika,
Ndau and
Korekore.
Shona is
a
principal
language
of
Zimbabwe,
along
with
Ndebele
and the
official
language,
English.
Shona
speakers
comprise
more
than 80%
of
Zimbabwe's
population
and
number
about
6,225,000.[1]
Shona is
also
spoken
by a
substantial
number
of
people
in
Mozambique.
Other
countries
that
host
Shona
language
speakers
are
Zambia
and
Botswana.
The
total
number
of Shona
speakers
is at
least
7,000,000.[citation
needed]
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.
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).
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
great
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 a
variety
of
consonants,
including
the
peculiar
"whistling
sounds"
transcribed
as "zv"
(possibly
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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