A Bantu language and the most-spoken first language in Zimbabwe — also widely used in Mozambique, with a vibrant oral and musical tradition (especially mbira music).
Where it’s spoken
Shona is the most widely spoken language in Zimbabwe, where it has official status alongside English, Ndebele, and several others. It is also spoken in Mozambique (especially the Manica and Sofala provinces) and has communities in Botswana and South Africa. Shona’s major dialect clusters include Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika, Ndau, and Korekore.
What it sounds like
Shona has two contrastive tones (high and low), a five-vowel system, and prenasalized stops (mb, nd, ng). Whistled fricatives — sounds produced with rounded lips and a sharp whistle quality — are distinctive features that few other languages share. The noun class system uses about 20 classes with concord prefixes.
How it’s written
Standard Shona uses the Latin alphabet with no diacritics. The current orthography is a 1955 unification of older dialect-based spellings. Tone is not marked. The script is largely phonemic.
History
Shona literature emerged in the 1950s. The mbira (thumb piano) tradition has preserved much oral poetry. Modern Shona urban music (Sungura, Chimurenga) and Zimbabwean cinema have spread the language internationally.
Find more languages by letter
Shona starts with S and ends with A. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Shona":