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Venda language

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Not to be confused with Vedda language.
For other uses of the term Venda, please see Venda (disambiguation).
Venda
Tshivenḓa
Native to South Africa
 Zimbabwe
RegionLimpopo Province
Native speakers
875 000[1]
Latin
Official status
Official language in
 South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1ve
ISO 639-2ven
ISO 639-3ven
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 known as Tshivenḓa, or Luvenḓa, is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa, but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. The Venda language is related to Kalanga (Western Shona, different from Shona, official language of Zimambwe) which is spoken in Botswana and Zimbabwe. During the Apartheid era of South Africa, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.

Classification

Venda belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo languages.

Geographic distribution

Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Tshivenda at home.

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a <div>...</div> open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.
Column templates
Type Family
Handles wiki
table code?†
 Responsive/
mobile suited 		Start template Column divider End template
Float "col-float" Yes Yes {{col-float}} {{col-float-break}} {{col-float-end}}
"columns-start" Yes Yes {{columns-start}} {{column}} {{columns-end}}
Columns "div col" Yes Yes {{div col}} – {{div col end}}
"columns-list" No Yes {{columns-list}} (wraps div col) – –
Flexbox "flex columns" No Yes {{flex columns}} – –
Table "col" Yes No {{col-begin}},
{{col-begin-fixed}} or
{{col-begin-small}} 		{{col-break}} or
{{col-2}} .. {{col-5}} 		{{col-end}}
† Can template handle the basic wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, special templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}})—or HTML tags (<table>...</table>, <tr>...</tr>, etc.)—need to be used instead.
Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: density of Tshivenda home-language speakers.

Column-generating template families

The templates listed here are not interchangeable. For example, using {{col-float}} with {{col-end}} instead of {{col-float-end}} would leave a <div>...</div> open, potentially harming any subsequent formatting.
Column templates
Type Family
Handles wiki
table code?†
 Responsive/
mobile suited 		Start template Column divider End template
Float "col-float" Yes Yes {{col-float}} {{col-float-break}} {{col-float-end}}
"columns-start" Yes Yes {{columns-start}} {{column}} {{columns-end}}
Columns "div col" Yes Yes {{div col}} – {{div col end}}
"columns-list" No Yes {{columns-list}} (wraps div col) – –
Flexbox "flex columns" No Yes {{flex columns}} – –
Table "col" Yes No {{col-begin}},
{{col-begin-fixed}} or
{{col-begin-small}} 		{{col-break}} or
{{col-2}} .. {{col-5}} 		{{col-end}}
† Can template handle the basic wiki markup {| | || |- |} used to create tables? If not, special templates that produce these elements (such as {{(!}}, {{!}}, {{!!}}, {{!-}}, {{!)}})—or HTML tags (<table>...</table>, <tr>...</tr>, etc.)—need to be used instead.

Venda is spoken by about 666,000 people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province, as well as 84,000 people in Zimbabwe.


Writing system

The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with 5 additional accented letters—there are 4 consonants with circumflex below the letter (ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ) and an overdot (ṅ). The letters C, J and Q are used only in quoting foreign words and names.

The Venda alphabet
A a B b (C c) D d Ḓ ḓ E e F f
G g H h I i (J j) K k L l Ḽ ḽ
M m N n Ṋ ṋ Ṅ ṅ O o P p (Q q)
R r S s T t Ṱ ṱ U u V v W w
X x Y y Z z
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] Similar to English "j"
dzw [d͡zw]
ḓ [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]
ḽ [l̪]
m [m], [m̩] M is syllabic, [m̩], when the following syllable begins with m.
n [n], [n̩] N is syllabic, when the following syllable begins with n.
ng [ŋɡ]
ny [ɲ]
nz [nd͡z]
ṋ [n̪]
ṅ [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]
ṱ [t̪]
ṱh [t̪h]
u [u]
v [v]
vh [β]
w [w]
x [x] Similar to the ch in Scottish 'loch.'
y [j]
z [z]
zh [ʒ]
zw [ʐ]

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


References

  1. ^ "Venda | African Tribe". Kruger National Park. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
Venda edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Software

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