There are many regional Shona dialects. Shona language presented here has been limited
to Shona words and sample sentences commonly used in the four major Shona dialects;
Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika and Korekore. Minor Shona language dialects have, to a large
extent, been ignored. However, they are still part of the Shona language. Korekore
is one minor Shona dialect that I have elected to include because of its richness
in vocabulary. There are numerous words that, as far as I know, are nonexistent in
the major dialects, but are common words in Korekore. Indoctrination by colonialists
has led to the general mindset of the average Zimbabwean that it is uncivilized to
speak in these dialects. It is for this reason that Shona people such as Ndau, Korekore,
and others, are ashamed to speak vernacular in public.
Written Shona is constantly evolving. Unfortunately the language is deteriorating
because of the tendency to assimilate foreign languages. It is no longer a pure language
as spoken by my grand parents. The corruption of the language is recent.
Topics covered include the following:
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Description
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Shona-English |
This Shona Language page contains a searchable Shona-English dictionary for converting
Shona words to English. |
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English-Shona
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This Shona Language page contains a searchable English-Shona dictionary for converting
common English words to Shona. |
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Examples |
This Shona Language page has a pretty good number of sample sentences in Shona with
English translations. |
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Cousins |
This Shona Language page shows how gender affects the way cousins are addressed or
described.
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Numbers |
This Shona Language page covers the subject of numbers in Shona and is mainly for
those unfamiliar with the subject.
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Shona Names |
Here you will find common names of animals, birds, fish and reptiles in Shona language.
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Navigate through the menu, on this page, to get an idea of the approach I am taking
to make this site a good reference for Shona language as spoken in Zimbabwe. See additonal
notes on working with these pages.
Our Shona Language Website Address has moved to a new domain:
http://www.mashumba.com
Please take a moment to add the new website to your bookmarks.
Thank you for your interest in our site. |
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