| Venda | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tshivenḓa | |||||
| Spoken in | South Africa Zimbabwe |
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| Region | Limpopo Province | ||||
| Native speakers | 980,000 in South Africa (2006)[1] 84,000 in Zimbabwe (1989)[1] |
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| Language family | |||||
| Writing system | Latin | ||||
| Official status | |||||
| Official language in | South Africa | ||||
| Regulated by | No official regulation | ||||
| Language codes | |||||
| ISO 639-1 | ve | ||||
| ISO 639-2 | ven | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | ven | ||||
| Linguasphere | 99-AUT-ba incl. varieties 99-AUT-baa to 99-AUT-bad |
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Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Tshivenda at home.
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Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: density of Tshivenda home-language speakers.
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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 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.
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The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with five additional accented letters—there are four dental consonants with circumflex 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 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.
| 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] |
Venda has a single specified tone, high, 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 rule: 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 |
The extra letters have the following Unicode names
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