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Venda language

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tshivenda
Tshivenḓa
Native toSouth Africa, Zimbabwe
RegionLimpopo Province
Native speakers
1.3 million (2011 census)[1]
1.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)[2]
Latin (Venda alphabet)
Venda Braille
Signed Venda
Official status
Official language in
 South Africa
 Zimbabwe
Language codes
ISO 639-1ve
ISO 639-2ven
ISO 639-3ven
Glottologvend1245
S.20 (S.21)[3]
Linguasphere99-AUT-b incl. varieties
99-AUT-baa to 99-AUT-bad
Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Tshivenda at home.
  0–20%
  20–40%
  40–60%
  60–80%
  80–100%
Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: density of Tshivenda home-language speakers.
  <1 /km²
  1–3 /km²
  3–10 /km²
  10–30 /km²
  30–100 /km²
  100–300 /km²
  300–1000 /km²
  1000–3000 /km²
  >3000 /km²
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Venda, also called Tshivenḓa or Luvenḓa, is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. Most Venda speakers live in South Africa, but some speakers live in Zimbabwe. The Venda language is very similar to the Kalanga language, which is spoken in Botswana and Zimbabwe. During the Apartheid era of South Africa, Venda speakers lived in the bantustan of Venda.

Venda is a language in the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

Venda is spoken by about 666,000 people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province. Around 84,000 people in Zimbabwe also speak the language.

The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet. It has five (5) extra accented letters. Four consonants have a circumflex below the letter (, , , ) and one consonant has an overdot ().

The Venda alphabet
A a B b D d Ḓ ḓ E e F f
G g H h I i K k L l Ḽ ḽ
M m N n Ṋ ṋ Ṅ ṅ O o P p
R r S s T t Ṱ ṱ U u V v
W w X x Y y Z z

The letters C, J, and Q are used when writing foreign words and names.

letter(s) value(s) in IPA notes
a [a]
b [b]
bv [b̪v]
bw [bɣw] or [bj] Varies by dialect
d [d]
dz [d͡z]
dzh [d͡ʒ] Like the English "j"
dzw [d͡zw]
[d̪]
e [ɛ], [e]
f [f]
fh [ɸ]
g [ɡ]
h [ɦ], [h] Pronounced h] before e.
hw [ɣw]
i [i]
k [kˀ]
kh [kʰ]
khw [kʰw]
l [ɭ]
[l̪]
m [m], [m̩] M is syllabic, [m̩], when the next syllable begins with m.
n [n], [n̩] N is syllabic, when the next syllable begins with n.
ng [ŋɡ]
ny [ɲ]
nz [nd͡z]
[n̪]
[ŋ]
ṅw [ŋw]
o [ɔ], [o]
p [pˀ]
ph [pʰ]
pf [p̪f]
pfh [p̪fʰ]
r [ɾ]
s [s]
sh [ʃ]
sw [ʂ]
t [tˀ]
th [tʰ]
ts [t͡s]
tsh [t͡ʃʰ]
tsw [t͡sw]
ty [c]
[t̪]
ṱh [t̪h]
u [u]
v [v]
vh [β]
w [w]
x [x] Like the ch in Scottish 'loch.'
y [j]
z [z]
zh [ʒ]
zw [ʐ]

The extra letters have these Unicode names

  • U+1E12 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E13 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E3C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E3D LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E44 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
  • U+1E45 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
  • U+1E4A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E4B LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E70 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
  • U+1E71 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW

References

[change | change source]
  1. Tshivenda at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78
  3. Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online

Other websites

[change | change source]

Computer programs

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