The world’s top most country, Zimbabwe, with the most official languages
In our final look at the languages across the continent of Africa, we are taking a stop in the country that has not only the most spoken languages in Africa, but the entire world. ZIMBABWE! Wooo…W!
According to the Guinness Book of Records, “The country with the most official languages is Zimbabwe with 16 languages… The legal status is codified by Zimbabwe’s new constitution, approved by parliament on 9 May 2013.”
More about the great Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a beautiful landlocked country in southern Africa that is known for its; dramatic landscapes, hardworking people and diverse wildlife, much of it within parks, reserves and safari areas. It’s a Home to the Great Zimbabwe Monument, Victoria falls on the Zambezi River which make a thundering 108m drop into narrow Batoka /gorge, where there’s white-water rafting and bungee-jumping. Downstream the country also boasts of world class national parks in which a variety of animals, including the Big Five, can be found; Hwange park in the west, Gonarezhou Transfrontier park in the south, Matusadona and Mana Pools national parks, home to hippos, rhinos and birdlife. Zimbabwe has a total land area of 390,000 square kilometers and a well educated population of around 14 million people. Readmore
Check-out Zimbabwe’s top 16 languages listed below:-
· Shona
· Ndebele
· English
· Xhosa
· Chewa
· Southern Sotho
· Venda
· Tswana/Shangani
· Tsonga
· Tonga
· Chibarwe
· Kalanga
· Koisan
· Nambya
· Ndau
· Sign language
All the above languages are listed in Zimbabwean constitution as recognized dialects. Nonetheless, Shona, Ndebele and English are mostly spoken throughout the country.
Let’s look at each language in brief:-
Shona
The Shona language is one of the top three languages spoken in Zimbabwe. It is spoken by over 10 million people in Zimbabwe, most of them having it as their mother tongue. It is a Bantu language spoken in the country, as well as in Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana. Shona’s different dialects include Manyika, Ndau, Karanga, Zezuru, and Korekore. It is taught in urban schools as a subject and not as medium of instruction (except for the rural areas).
Ndebele
The Ndebele language, commonly called Sindebele, on the other hand is second to the Shona language as to the number of people speaking and using the language. It is related to the Zulu language of South Africa (Ndebeles are descendants of the Zulu tribe).
English
English is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic family of languages. It is the official language of Zimbabwe and is used as means of communication in most regions of the country especially in the urban areas. Especially now that the economy of Zimbabwe has been dollarized where the US Dollar is the current currency used throughout the country, Zimbabweans have all the more embraced the language and used it in their everyday lives. The Zimbabwean English accent is quite unique. In schools, English is used as the medium of instruction from Grade 1 until the university level. However, in rural areas where English language has not yet developed in the people’s culture, the medium of instruction in the schools is their mother tongue from Grade 1 to Grade 2. In Grade 3, though, students are taught through their mother tongue in transition to learning the English language. From then on, English remains as the primary medium of instruction and the mother tongue is taught as a subject.
Xhosa
Xhosa is a tonal/Nguni Bantu language, mostly spoken in South Africa, with around 8.2 million native speakers using the language across South Africa, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is one of Zimbabwe’s official languages. “Ishe Komborera Africa”, the former Zimbabwean national anthem, was based on a Xhosa hymn. Xhosa is considered one of the most recognized of Bantu languages because of its unique use of clicks and tonality, meaning works can have multiple meanings depending on how you say them.
Chewa
Chewa, also known as Nyanja, is a Bantu language and a member of the Niger-Cong language family. It is believed to be the third most spoken language of Zimbabwe, and across South Africa as a whole, it is spoken by some 15million people. The name Nyanja means lake, so the name of this language refers to the Chewa tribes where the language is thought to have originated.
Southern Sotho
The Sotho language, also known as Sesotho, is a Bantu language of the Sotho-Tswana group. There are around 5.6 million native speakers of Sotho, as well as 7.9 people speaking the language as a second language.
Venda
Venda is also known as Tshivenda or Luvenda, and is spoken in a minority in Zimbabwe by the Lemba people potentially only around 150,000 people. The letters C,J and Q are only found in the language when describing foreign words and names.
Tswana
Tswana is a Bantu language spoken by around 5.1 million people across Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, although official numbers of native speakers for these countries, especially Zimbabwe, are hard to come by. There is both a signed and Braille version of Tswana available for those needing assistance, and Tswana was actually once mistaken as a dialect of the Xhosa language family.
Shangani/Tsonga
The Shangani language is spoken by tribes along the Shangani river of Zimbabwe. The area is a small farming settlement, and as rapidly seems the norm for most of Africa, the language name Shangani is in fact only for this region; outside of Zimbabwe the language is referred to as Tsonga.
Tonga
Tonga language, or Chitonga, is native to both Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a Bantu language spoken by approximately 1.5 million people, and was purely a spoken language until it was put into written form by missionaries using the Latin alphabet. For this reason the language is not standardized, and you can find many grades of dialects throughout the regions it is spoken in.
Chibarwe
Chibarwe is known as Barwe in Zimbabwe, and also comes under the name of Sena when spoken in other countries. Like Chewa it is also a Bantu language and therefore a member of the Niger-Congo language family.
Kalanga
In what is becoming a theme, Kalanga is a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family. Around 700,000 people speak Kalanga in Zimbabwe, and it is mostly found in the south-western part of the country.
Koisan
Like many of the languages of Africa, Koisan is known by other names, and in this case, Tshwa or Tsoa. It is a member of the Khoe language family and has few native speakers, around 4,100 split between Botswana and Zimbabwe (approxiamately 3500 in Zimbabwe alone).
Nambya
The Nambya language is called Chinambya by its native speakers, of which there are around 80,000 in north-western Zimbabwe. As you have probably already guessed, it is a Bantu language, and shares around 75% of its core vocabulary with the Shona language. Nambya is under threat by local languages Tonga and Ndebele, with a lot of loanwords exchanges between the languages.
Ndau
Ndau is a Bantu language of the Shona dialects, spoken in the Chipinge region of Zimbabwe. There is an international border separating Zimbabwe from Mozambique, yet those speaking Ndau sprawl this line both sides, and there are 2.4 million native speakers between the two countries.
Sign language
There are several independent Zimbabwean sign languages that have developed separately in different schools over the last fifty or more years. Masvingo School Sign is one of the most widely spoken forms of sign language, and is thought to be quite different from other sign languages spoken in Zimbabwe. There are 280,000 deaf members of the Zimbabwe National Association of the Deaf, proving that sign language absolutely has a right to be one of the many official languages of Zimbabwe.
Did you know!
Apart from being praised by the rest of the World as the top most country with the most official languages; Zimbabwe’s leadership prides and encourages its citizens to love and appreciate their native languages. Check-out a few statements just about the same:
In 2016, Vice President Nelson Chamisa expressed the need for Zimbabweans to exercise pride in their languages, “Zimbabweans must be proud of their languages and, as such, parliament must ensure there was translation.”
And as a response to the Vice President Nelson Chamisa; Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda commented, “we want to put electronic systems that will have automatic translation so if someone speaks in Venda, the minister can switch on to English and understand the question and when he replies, the person who asked the question will switch to Venda to get the reply.” Readmore
Wow, the struggle is real!
Planning to travel to Zimbabwe someday!
Here are a few phrases to help you as you travel to Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans are generally warm friendly people so go ahead and say Hello…
Hi/Hello — -Mhoroi/Ndeipi/Salibonan
Good Morning — -Mangwanani/Livukenjani
Good afternoon — -Masikati/Litshonile
Good evening — -Manheru/Litshone Njani
Goodbye — -Chisarai zvakanaka/Lisakhule
Yes — -Hongu/Yebo
No — -Aiwa/Kwete/Hayi
Thank you — -Tatenda/Mazvita/Siyabonga
Please — -Ndapota/Uxolo
All in all
We hope you’ve enjoyed our brief look at the languages of Zimbabwe the great and have inspired you to learn new things. Happy travelling and learning more of the beauty and greatness of Zimbabwe.