Venda language

Venḓa or Tshivenḓa is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Tshivenda language is related to Shona which is spoken in Southern Africa. During the apartheid era of South Africa, the Bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
According to the 2011 census, Venda speakers are concentrated in the following areas: Makhado Local Municipality, with 350,000 people; Thulamela Local Municipality, with 370,000 people; Musina Local Municipality, with 35,000 people; and Mutale Local Municipality, with 89,000 people. The total number of speakers in Vhembe district currently stands at 844,000. In Gauteng province, there are 275,000 Venda speakers. Fewer than 10,000 are spread across the rest of the country—for a total number of Venda speakers in South Africa at 1.2 million people or just 2.2% of South Africa's population, making Venda speakers the second smallest minority language in South Africa, after the Ndebele language, which number 1.1 million speakers. The population statistics of the Venda people in Zimbabwe are not clear but may currently stand at a million. The people are concentrated in the South of the country but also spread to other towns and cities. There is also a significant number of them in neighbouring South Africa where they are migrant workers.

Writing system

The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with five additional accented letters. There are four dental consonants with a circumflex accent below the letter and an overdot for velar ṅ. Five vowel letters are used to write seven vowels. The letters C, J and Q are used only for foreign words and names.

letter	value in IPA	notes
a	,
b
bv
bw	or	Varies by dialect
d
dz
dzh		Similar to English "j"
dzw
ḓ
e	,
f
fh
g
h	,	Pronounced before e.
hw
i
j		In the word Jerusalema
k
kh
khw
l	~	Heard as in free variation.
ḽ
m	,	M is syllabic, when the following syllable begins with m.
n	,	N is syllabic when the following syllable begins with n.
ng
ny
nz
ṋ
ṅ
ṅw
o	,
p
ph
pf
pfh
r
s
sh
sw
t
th
ths
thsh
ts
tsh
tsw
ty
ṱ
ṱh
u
v
vh
w
x		Similar to the ch in Scottish loch.
xw
y
z
zh
zw

Unicode

The extra letters have the following Unicode names:

Ḓ U+1E12 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
ḓ U+1E13 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
Ḽ U+1E3C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
ḽ U+1E3D LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
Ṅ U+1E44 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
ṅ U+1E45 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
Ṋ U+1E4A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
ṋ U+1E4B LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
Ṱ U+1E70 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
ṱ U+1E71 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo

The sintu writing system Isibheqe Sohlamvu/Ditema tsa Dinoko, known technically in Venda as Luṱhofunḓeraru lwa Mibvumo, is also used for the Venda language.

ṱala "divorce"

File:Ṱala.jpg|thumbnail|none|

tala "draw a line"

File:Tala2.jpg|thumbnail|none|

Phonology

Venda distinguishes dental ṱ, ṱh, ḓ, ṋ, ḽ from alveolar t, th, d, n, l as well as labiodental f, v from bilabial fh, vh. There are no clicks. As in other South African languages like Zulu, ph, ṱh, th, kh are aspirated and the "plain" stops p, ṱ, t, and k are ejective.

Vowels

There are five vowel sounds in Tshivenḓa.

Consonants

A labiodental nasal sound appears in prenasalised consonant sounds. is mostly heard as an allophone of in free variation and in loanwords. Labiovelar sounds occur as alternatives to labiopalatal sounds and may also be pronounced. Fortition of occurs after nasal prefixes, likely to.

Tones

Venda has a specified tone,, with unmarked syllables having a low tone. Phonetic falling tone occurs only in sequences of more than one vowel or on the penultimate syllable if the vowel is long. Tone patterns exist independently of the consonants and vowels of a word and so they are word tones. Venda tone also follows Meeussen's rule: when a word beginning with a high tone is preceded by that high tone, the initial high tone is lost. There are only a few tone patterns in Venda words, which behave as follows:

Word	Pattern	After L	After H	Notes
thamana	–.–.–	thàmà:nà	thámâ:nà	Unmarked tone is raised after a high tone. That is, the preceding tone spreads.
dukana	–.–.H	dùkà:ná	dúkâ:ná	A preceding high tone spreads but drops before the final high tone.
danana	–.H.–	dàná:nà	dánâ:nà	The pitch peaks on the tonic syllable, and a preceding non-adjacent high tone merges into it.
phaphama	–.H.–	phàphá:ná	pháphâ:nà	The pitch peaks on the tonic syllable, and a preceding non-adjacent high tone merges into it.
madzhie	H.–	má:dzhíè	mâ:dzhìè	Initial high tone spreads. With an immediately preceding high tone, that initial tone is lost.
dakalo	H.–.–	dáká:lò	dákà:lò	Initial high tone spreads. With an immediately preceding high tone, that initial tone is lost.
khokhola	H.–.H	khókhô:lá	khókhò:lá	Initial high tone spreads. With an immediately preceding high tone, that initial tone is lost.

Software

Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa, including Venda

Category:Southern Bantu languages
Category:Languages of South Africa
Category:Languages of Zimbabwe
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