Venda language
Encyclopedia
Venda, also known as or , is a Bantu
language and an official language of South Africa
. The majority of Venda speakers live in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province, but about 10% of speakers live 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.
below the letter (ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ) and an overdot for velar ṅ. Five vowel letters are used to write seven vowels. The letters C, J and Q are used only in quoting foreign words and names.
Venda distinguishes dental ṱ, ṱh, ḓ, ṋ, ḽ from alveolar
t, th, d, n, l, as well as (like Ewe
) labiodental f, v from bilabial fh, vh (the latter are slightly rounded). There are no clicks; x has the sound of ch in loch or Bach. As in other South African languages like Zulu
, ph, ṱh, th, kh are aspirated, p, ṱ, t, k ejective.
: when a word beginning with a high tone is preceded by that high tone, the initial high tone is lost. (That is, there cannot be two adjacent marked high tones in a word, though high tone spreads allophonically to a following non-tonic ("low"-tone) syllable.) There are only a handful of tone patterns in Venda words—no tone, a single high tone on some syllable, two non-adjacent high tones—which behave as follows:
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
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
language and an official language of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The majority of Venda speakers live in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province, but about 10% of speakers live in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. The Venda language is related to Kalanga
BaKalanga
The Kalanga, also known as the Bakalanga are one of the first Bantu speaking tribes to migrate to present day Botswana, followed by the Bakgalagadi and then the Batswana . The Kalanga had first settled in Mapungubwe in South Africa, the first Kalanga state. They later moved to the Great Zimbabwe...
(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
Bantustan
A bantustan was a territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa , as part of the policy of apartheid...
of Venda
Venda
Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo province. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language. It bordered modern Zimbabwe and South Africa, and is now part of Limpopo in South Africa....
was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
Writing system
The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with five additional accented letters—there are four dental consonants with circumflexCircumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
below the letter (ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ) and an overdot for velar ṅ. Five vowel letters are used to write seven vowels. The letters C, J and Q are used only in quoting foreign words and names.
| 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 |
Venda distinguishes dental ṱ, ṱh, ḓ, ṋ, ḽ from alveolar
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
t, th, d, n, l, as well as (like Ewe
Ewe language
Ewe is a Niger–Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately six million people. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, spoken in southeastern Ghana, Togo, and parts of Benin. Other Gbe languages include Fon, Gen, Phla Phera, and Aja...
) labiodental f, v from bilabial fh, vh (the latter are slightly rounded). There are no clicks; x has the sound of ch in loch or Bach. As in other South African languages like Zulu
Zulu language
Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population...
, ph, ṱh, th, kh are aspirated, p, ṱ, t, k ejective.
| letter(s) | value(s) in IPA | notes |
|---|---|---|
| a | [a], [ɔ] | |
| 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.' |
| xw | [xw] | |
| y | [j] | |
| z | [z] | |
| zh | [ʒ] | |
| zw | [ʐ] |
Tone
Venda has a single specified tone, , with unmarked syllables having a low tone. Phonetic falling tone occurs, but only in sequences of more than one vowel, or on the penultimate syllable, where the vowel is long. Tone patterns exist independently of the consonants and vowels of a word: that is, they are word tones. Venda tone also follows Meeussen's ruleMeeussen's rule
Meeussen’s rule is the name for a special case of tone reduction in Bantu languages. The tonal alternation it describes is the lowering in some contexts of the last tone of a pattern of two adjacent High tones , resulting in the pattern HL. The phenomenon is named after its first observer, the...
: when a word beginning with a high tone is preceded by that high tone, the initial high tone is lost. (That is, there cannot be two adjacent marked high tones in a word, though high tone spreads allophonically to a following non-tonic ("low"-tone) syllable.) There are only a handful of tone patterns in Venda words—no tone, a single high tone on some syllable, two non-adjacent high tones—which behave as follows:
| Word | Pattern | After L | After H | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thamana | –.–.– | thàmà:nà | thámâ:nà | Unmarked (low) tone is raised after a high tone. That is, the preceding tone spreads. |
| dukaná | –.–.H | dùkà:ná | dúkâ:ná | A preceding high tone spreads, but drops before the final high tone. |
| danána | –.H.– | dàná:nà | dánâ:nà | The pitch peaks on the tonic syllable; a preceding non-adjacent high tone merges into it |
| phaphána | –.H.– | phàphá:ná | pháphâ:nà | |
| mádzhie | H.– | má:dzhíè | mâ:dzhìè | Initial high tone spreads; with an immediately preceding high tone, that initial tone is lost. (The preceding tone also spreads, but not as far.) |
| dákalo | H.–.– | dáká:lò | dákà:lò | |
| khókholá | H.–.H | khókhô:lá | khókhò:lá |
Unicode
The extra letters have the following UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
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
External links
Software
- Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox web-browser, and Mozilla Thunderbird email program in Venda
- Translate.org.za Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Venda
- Keyboard with extra venda characters