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Venda
Tshivenḓa
Spoken in: Flag of South Africa South Africa
Flag of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 
Region: Limpopo Province
Total speakers: 750,000
Language family: Niger-Congo
 Atlantic-Congo
  Volta-Congo
   Benue-Congo
    Bantoid
     Southern Bantoid
      Narrow Bantu
       Venda 
Official status
Official language in: Flag of South Africa South Africa
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ve
ISO 639-2: ven
ISO 639-3: ven
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election Limpopo (lɪmˈpoʊpoʊ is the northernmost province of South Africa. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number In the classification of African languages, Atlantic-Congo constitutes the core of the Niger-Congo family, with the Noun class systems stereotypical In the classification of African languages Volta-Congo is a hypothetical major branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family both in terms of sheer number of languages of which 880 are known (per Ethnologue In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum In the classification of African languages, Narrow Bantu is a term commonly used to designate the branch of Niger-Congo containing the numerous Bantu languages The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Venda, also known as Tshivenḓa, or Luvenḓa, is a Bantu language. The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election During the Apartheid era of South Africa, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa A bantustan or more commonly black african homeland or simply homeland, was territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South-West Venda was a Bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo province

Contents

Classification

Venda belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Bantu may refer to Bantu expansion, a series of migrations of Bantu speakers Bantu languages Bantu people The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number

History

Not much is known about the ancient history of the Venda people. The language Tshivenda is also mainly regarded as a language isolate. The Venda people first settled in the Soutpansberg Mountains region. The first Venda capital, Dzata's, ruins are still there today. The Tshipani variety of Tshivenda is used as the standard.

The Venda people are culturally closer to the Shona people of Zimbabwe rather than any other South African group. The language also shares features with Shona and Northern Sotho. There has also been some influence on the language from the Nguni languages.

A number of diacritical signs is used in Tshivenda and they are not found in all fonts (mainly accommodated by Unicode fonts). Alternative fonts and more information can be found on this site and at the Africanlanguage. com site. The Tahoma font available for MS Word on Windows seem to work quite well as well. For more on how to add these diacritic characters to your documents see Tshivenda : Characters.

The Vhavenda (Venda people) live mainly from north to east of Makhado (Louis Trichardt) in the Limpopo province of South Africa.

CLASSIFICATION: Family: Bantu (or rather Ntu) Language Family Group: South Eastern Bantu (or rather Ntu) No Subgroup

VARIETIES: Tshiilafuri (Western Venda; has traces of Sotho); Tshimanda (Central Venda; commonly used by the Luonde and Lwamondo); Venda proper (found in Tshivhase and Mphaphuli's areas); Tshimbedzi (Eastern Venda); Tshilembethu (North-Easter Venda) and Extreme Eastern Venda (influenced by Karanga from Zimbabwe); as well as Tshironga (Southern Venda) and South-Eastern Venda (shows influence of Tonga and Sotho)

[1]

Geographic distribution

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. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Limpopo (lɪmˈpoʊpoʊ is the northernmost province of South Africa. See also Great Zimbabwe National Monument. For information about the March and June 2008 presidential elections see Zimbabwean presidential election

Official status

Venda is an official language in South Africa.

Origins of the Language

As with most of the other peoples of South Africa the Venda (VhaVenda) came from the Great Lakes of Central Africa. They first settled down in the Soutpansberg Mountains. The Soutpansberg (previously Zoutspansberg meaning "Salt Pan Mountain" in Afrikaans is a range of Mountains in the far north of South Africa. Here they built their first capital, D’zata, the ruins of which can still be seen today.

Venda culture is an interesting mix of other cultures - it appears to have incorporated a variety of East African, Central African, Nguni, and Sotho characteristics. For example, the Venda forbid the consumption of pork, a prohibition that is common along the East African coast. They also practice male circumcision, which is common among many Sotho, but not among most Nguni peoples.

The Venda language, TshiVenda or LuVenda, emerged as a distinct dialect in the 16th Century. In the 20th Century, the TshiVenda vocabulary was similar to SeSotho, but the grammar shares similarities with Shona dialects, which are spoken in Zimbabwe. Today about 875 000 people in South Africa speak Tshivenda.

The history of the Venda starts from the Mapungubwe Kingdom (9th Century). According to historical studies King Shiriyadenga was the first king of Venda and Mapungubwe. [2]


Writing system

The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with 5 additional accented letters. 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]
bw [bγw] 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 as [h] before e.
hw [ɣw]
i [i]
k [kˀ]
kh [kʰ]
khw [kʰw]
l [ɭ]
ḽ [l̪]
m [m], [ɱ] Pronounced as [ɱ] before v and vh. M is syllabic, [m̩], when following syllable begins with m.
n [n] Pronounced as [n̪] before ḓ and ṱ. N is syllabic, [n̩], when following syllable begins with n.
ng [ŋɡ]
ny [ɲ]
nz [nʣ]
ṋ [n̪]
ṅ [ŋ]
ṅw [ŋw]
o [ɔ], [o]
p [pˀ]
ph [pʰ]
r [r]
s [s]
sh [ʃ]
sw [ʂ]
t [tˀ]
th [tʰ]
ts [t͡s]
tsh [t͡ʃʰ]
tsw [t͡sw]
ty [c]
ṱ [t̪]
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]


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