| Introductory Shona Language Available from: Introductory Shona Language (http://www.shonalanguage.info/) |
| Lesson 1: | Pronunciation (http://www.shonalanguage.info/lesson1.htm#pron) | Greetings (http://www.shonalanguage.info/lesson1.htm#greet) | Introductions (http://www.shonalanguage.info/lesson1.htm#intro) |
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| This is a very basic introduction: if you are in Zimbabwe the best bet is a little booklet called 'Fambai Zvakanaka muZimbabwe', available for about the equivalent of 50p in most bookshops. Shona, or chiShona, is spoken as a first language by over 9 million people in Zimbabwe (the other main language is Ndebele.) Although there are various regional dialects, it is one language, and most people have no problem understanding other dialects. 'My' version is a bit of a mish-mash, including textbook grammar, Harare and Guruve words, and some modern 'slang'. It works for me! |
General Greetings: Used to those you already know quite well, or people you meet in passing, eg at a shop, or waving from a truck. There are lots of combinations. The letters in brackets are added to show respect: use them until you know someone, unless they're a child: a bit like French 'vous'.
These can make a good impression if used in a formal meeting, especially with a 'senior' person, such as an elder, or someone whose home you are visiting.
These are confusing at first, but widely used in both polite and less formal situations. They take the form of two or three 'steps' of which many are often skipped, as you'll learn. In the morning, up till about 11am, you say:
Can be accompanied by clapping and waving.
These are very important. There isn't really a word for 'please', as its contained in the politeness of the request, but there are lots of ways of saying thanks, again with claps.
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1. All verbs in shona start from a stem, which ends in'a'. For the examples which follow, I'll use the stem 'enda' which means 'go'. If you say it on its own it's an order, so don't use it like this except for children: for adults add an 'I' to the end: 'endai'. From now on I'll write the stem in capitals,so you don't get it mixed up with the other parts of the verb, but you say it as normal. 2. Next, by putting 'ku' in front of the stem we get an infinitive and a participle, so: kuENDA means going or to go. 3. All we need to make a sentence is the word 'ndiri' which means'I am (doing something)' So... ndiri kuENDA means I am going. To use other verbs just use the stems at the bottom of this page,so 'ndiri kuCHERA' means 'I am digging'. 4. To change the 'person' who is doing something just use the personal pronouns at the bottom plus '-ri': so: Tiri kuENDA means we are going, ari kuENDA means he/she is going. 5. Now you can add an 'object' to the sentence. This is pretty similar to English: some verbs take a 'direct' object, others need to use a preposition (see list). So... Ndiri kuTAKURA badza......I am carrying the hoe. A direct object. Ndiri kuENDA kuGuruve.....I am going to Guruve. An indirect object. 6. Try making a few sentences: don't worry if you're not sure exactly which prepositions to use: people will get the idea.
Personal pronouns:
Prepositions: there are three main ones, each of which has quite a variety of meanings, so keep your ears open to see how they are used.
Nouns:
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Personal pronoun + tense indicator + stem. You already know about pronouns and stems. The tense indicators are: -no-...present -cha-...future -ka-...past (before today). So: ndichaENDA...I will go. ndinoENDA...I go (regularly). ndakaENDA...I went Notice that the last vowel of the pronoun changes to an 'a' if it is not already for the past tense. I have listed these 'past pronouns'at the bottom. They are very important as they can be used to make one of the simplest and most useful tenses of all, what I call the 'today past'. This is formed by adding the 'past pronoun' to the stem: so: ndaENDA...I dug (today) ndaPEDZA...I've finished (today) 2. Here are some examples: read and understand them to get the hang of how things work. New vocabulary is at the bottom of this page. NdichaTENGA miriwo...I will buy vegetables. aFAMBA ku chikoro...he walked to school. TinoBVA kuScotland...we come from Scotland. VakaGARA pa moto...they sat by the fire. 3. Now we can change the subject of our sentences, instead of just saying 'I, they' etc. This is easily done by just putting the word for the subject in front of a verb in the correct form. vana vaENDA kuchikoro...the children went to school. John ari kuSHANDA...John is working. 4. However, be careful of doing this for things other than people: they use other pronouns which we'll get to later! 5. We can combine all the things we know to make longer sentences, e.g..... TichaTENGA miriwo mu/pa musika...We'll buy vegetables in/at the market vakadzi vari kuSENZA mu munda...the women are working in the garden. 6. Some other useful things... To say 'I want....' Use 'ndinoDA' + object, e.g... ndinoDA miriwo...I want (some) vegetables (though a more polite way is to say 'ndipei' miriwo'...'please give me (some) vegetables') To say 'I want to ....' use 'ndinoDA' + infinitive, e.g... ndinoDA kuENDA...I want to go. ndinoDA kuFUNDA chiShona...I want to learn Shona. You can use the stem 'DA' like others in the present tense: anoDA kuBATSIRA...he wants to help. To say 'I have/ I've got' use the stem '-ne', so ndine badza...I've got a/the hoe In the negative its like any other verb, but the last vowel changes to 'a', eg. 'handina'...'I don't have'
The negative of 'ndinoda' is 'handidi', and can be used in the same way, eg: 'handidi kuTENGA'...I don't want to buy Finally, the negative past is the negative of 'have' ('ha' + pronoun + 'na') followed by infinitive, e.g. havana kuENDA...they didn't go. Finally, a very useful word is 'shamwari' which means 'friend, mate, pal'. You can add it to just about all of the words and phrases above, where it would seem right in English. Try it and see! That's about it. To finish off there is another exercise and some useful vocabulary below.
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| Lesson 4 - Who does it belong to? This lesson is about one of the most important things in any language - possessives! This means how to say 'mine' or 'yours', 'of' etc, whether in a colloquial or ownership sense. It also brings in an idea you might have noticed already: that nouns can affect the words around them. Let's start with an example in English. Compare the two phrases:
Firstly, many nouns have concords which are very similar to the start of the noun, for instance: my children - vana vangu We will see more of this later. Secondly, nouns in the same group tend to be a similar kind of thing in real life: for instance almost all nouns for people are in the same group, while most plants are in another group. So if you don't know or can't remember the right concord, you can often make a fair guess. Finally, if you get it wrong people will probably still understand you, and probably be happy to correct you if you ask. Anyway, once you have the right concord, you have to add it to the right possessive 'stem': like you have already been adding prefixes to noun stems. The stems are:
In the table below I will put more details than you need to know just now, as they may be helpful for your own further learning. The noun group number is irrelevant for speaking, but useful for looking up grammar books and some dictionaries. The verb concord is added to the start of a verb stem, but I will not deal with this here.
Here are some more examples:
In this last case, the 'kw- ' of 'kwangu' goes with the 'ku-' of 'kuenda': another concord which is used sometimes. Its hard to know when to use it so just listen to people and learn. top of page (http://www.shonalanguage.info/lesson4.htm#top)
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| Internet | top of page (http://www.shonalanguage.info/resources.htm#top) |
| Ethnologue (http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/) Checked 4/12/04 | A great online language database with details about where languages and their dialects are spoken, and by who. |
| Human Languages Page (http://www.ilovelanguages.com/) Checked 4/12/04 | This site doesn't have anything for Shona but has a lot of useful sites for other languages. |
| Martin Shumba's Shona Language (http://www14.brinkster.com/mshumba/) Checked 4/12/04 | A small but growing Shona page which includes a searchable dictionary. |
| 'Online' Shona Dictionary (http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages/nigecong.html#shona) Checked 4/12/04 | This is part of a large site with dictionaries of all languages. It has an MS-Word or plain text version of Hannan's 'Standard Shona Dictionary' (see below) available for download - cumbersome but useful. Unfortunately the download is only of the first half of the dictionary, up to 'M'. |
| Shona verb conjugator Checked 4/12/04 | A free service - type in a Shona verb stem (such as 'enda') and it will go through all the main tenses, as well as suggesting english translations. A good way to check your grammar. Note: the site prompts you to 'fill in the infinitive' (such as 'kuenda') - this is incorrect, it means fill in the stem (such as 'enda'). |
| WorldLanguage.com (http://www.worldlanguage.com/search/language/289.html) Checked 4/12/04 | This is the shona section of a commercial site retailing language products and services. It has a sample piece of shona text and describes the courses and software it sells. If anyone tries these out, please let me know what you think of them. |
| Yale Kmt Guide Interactive (http://research.yale.edu/swahili/links/Language/Shona/) Checked 4/12/04 | This is part of a wide-ranging travel guide site. So far it only has a few links. |
| Duramazwi RechiShona (http://www.dokpro.uio.no/allex/gsd.html) Checked 4/12/04 | An online Shona-Shona dictionary. That is, the explanations for shona words, given in Shona. |
| Nyarai.com - Shona Vocabulary Online (http://www.nyarai.com/) Checked 4/12/04 | Innovative vocabulary tutor - each day it randomly provides a set of nouns, verbs, adjectives etc for you to learn. Then there is the opportunity to take an online test on what you have just learnt. |
| Printed | top of page (http://www.shonalanguage.info/resources.htm#top) |
| email: | info@Kmtbookcentre.com (mailto:info@Kmtbookcentre.com) |
| postal address: | Kmt Book Centre, 38 King Street, ukkk WC2E 8JT, United Kingdom |
| Learning Shona Dambudzo Ruzhowa Available online | A good, simple introduction. Not as comprehensive as the Mawadza book but explains concepts in a more step-by-step fashion. |
| Shona Dictionary and Phrasebook Aquilina Mawadza, May 2000 Available online ISBN: 0781808138 | This is the first book I have come across that should be readily available outside of Zimbabwe. It contains a dense but quite comprehensive grammar as well as modern vocabulary. Full title: Shona-English/English-Shona Dictionary and Phrasebook : A Language of Zimbabwe Chishona Dialect |
| Shona Mini - Companion Desmond Dale Zim only | This is a small but quite comprehensive introductory text. It covers a lot of grammar but is not very user-friendly: it would be useful as a reference if you were in Zim and could practise what you read in it. |
| Shona Companion Desmond Dale I have seen this in UK bookstores | A larger 'sequel' to the above book. It is pretty comprehensive. I would not recommend it as an introductory text: it might scare you off! But if you already know another Bantu language (eg Swahili, Zulu) it might not be so bad. |
| Fambai Zvakanaka muZimbabwe (Have a nice day in Zimbabwe) I have seen this in UK bookstores | An excellent 'quick-start' to the language which brings in useful phrases from the start, without ignoring grammar. This little booklet is very cheap and a must-buy if you are in Zimbabwe for any length of time. Pity its not available elsewhere. |
| Standard Shona Dictionary M. Hannan May be out of print | The most comprehensive Shona-English dictionary I know of. An 'online' version is available (see 'Internet' section above). But its rather out-of-date and far too big to lug around if you are travelling. For that, see below. |
| Shona-English Dictionary D. Dale, 1981 Zim only | Cheap and light, though not totally up-to-date, this dictionary has useful illustrations and example uses of words. Proper title: Dura Mazwi |
| English-Shona Dictionary D. Dale, 1975 Zim only | Companion to the above, separate volume, in similar format. |