The polite answer to "how are you" in most languages is some version of "fine". Shona answers with a condition. Greet an older person with Makadii? and the polite reply is Ndiripo kana makadiiwo: "I'm well, if you are well." The courtesy runs both ways, and it's built into the language.
That's the right place to start if you want to learn Shona: the greetings and the respect forms inside them. From there the work is noun classes, which organize the whole grammar, then the whistled sounds written sv and zv, which English doesn't have, and a steady vocabulary habit. With twenty minutes a day you can manage a polite greeting exchange inside two weeks and build simple sentences by the end of the first month.
Where Shona is spoken
Shona, or chiShona, is the most widely spoken language in Zimbabwe and the first language of most Zimbabweans, from Harare to Mutare to Masvingo. In Bulawayo and the southwest you'll hear more Ndebele. Shona is also spoken in parts of Mozambique and by Zimbabwean communities in South Africa, the UK and elsewhere. Altogether that comes to more than ten million speakers. Zimbabwe's constitution recognizes 16 official languages, but English still dominates government, business and higher education, which shapes how and why people learn Shona. People come to it through family or work, and some through music: the mbira, the thumb piano at the heart of much traditional Zimbabwean music, is closely tied to Shona culture, and a lot of popular music is sung in Shona too.
There are several main dialects: Zezuru around Harare, Karanga in the south, Manyika in the east, Korekore in the north, and Ndau in the southeast, which is sometimes counted as a language of its own. Standard written Shona draws on several of them, and the speech you'll hear most in Harare is Zezuru.
Family, alphabet and the whistles
Shona is a Bantu language, part of the Niger-Congo family, which makes it a relative of Swahili, Zulu and Xhosa. Unlike Xhosa, it has no clicks. Its unusual sounds are whistles.
It's written in the Latin alphabet, and spelling follows pronunciation closely. Syllables end in vowels, so words sound open and even. A few letter combinations need attention:
- sv and zv are whistled versions of s and z, made with rounded lips, as in kusvika (to arrive) and zvakanaka (good, fine)
- bh, dh and vh are breathy versions of b, d and v
- mh and nh are breathy versions of m and n
Shona is a tone language with high and low tones, but tones aren't marked in standard writing. You'll learn them from people, not from the page.
Noun classes and respect: the hard parts
Like other Bantu languages, Shona sorts nouns into classes marked by prefixes, which usually change in the plural:
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| munhu | vanhu | person, people |
| mwana | vana | child, children |
| chinhu | zvinhu | thing, things |
| muti | miti | tree, trees |
| imba | dzimba | house, houses |
The class then controls agreement elsewhere in the sentence. Mwana anotamba is "the child plays"; vana vanotamba is "the children play". Munhu uyu is "this person"; vanhu ava, "these people". Learn nouns in pairs and agreement in whole sentences.
Respect is part of the grammar too. To friends and children you say wakadii; to elders and strangers, the plural makadii, even when you're talking to one person. Using the plural with a single elder isn't a mistake. It's manners. When greeting or thanking an older person, a soft clap of cupped hands is traditional as well.
