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Venda, also known as Tshiven?a, or Luven?a, is a Bantu
Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo languages family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree....
 language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa
South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
 (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
. During the Apartheid era of South Africa, the bantustan
Bantustan

A bantustan or euphemistically black african homeland or simply homeland, was territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South-West Africa , as part of the policy of South Africa under apartheid....
 of Venda
Venda

Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo Province province. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language....
 was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
a belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages
Niger-Congo languages

The Niger?Congo languages constitute one of the world's major Language family, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages....
.

much is known about the ancient history of the Venda people.






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Encyclopedia


Venda, also known as Tshiven?a, or Luven?a, is a Bantu
Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo languages family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree....
 language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa
South Africa

The Republic of South Africa, also known by Official names of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa....
 (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
. During the Apartheid era of South Africa, the bantustan
Bantustan

A bantustan or euphemistically black african homeland or simply homeland, was territory set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South-West Africa , as part of the policy of South Africa under apartheid....
 of Venda
Venda

Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo Province province. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language....
 was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.

Classification

Venda belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages
Niger-Congo languages

The Niger?Congo languages constitute one of the world's major Language family, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages....
.

History

Not much is known about the ancient history of the Venda people. 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)



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.

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
Soutpansberg

The Soutpansberg meaning "Salt Pan Mountain" in Afrikaans, is a range of mountains in the far north of South Africa. It is named for the Salt pan located at its western end....
 Mountains. 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 1 100 000 people in South Africa speak Tshivenda[ref].

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.

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.
style="font-size:smaller;" | The Venda alphabet
A a B b (C c) D d ? ? E e F f  
G g H h I i (J j) K k L l ? ?  
M m N n ? ? ? ? O o P p (Q q)  
R r S s T t ? ? U u V v W w  
X x Y y Z z  


letter(s) value(s) in IPA notes
a []  
b []  
bw [] or [] Varies by dialect
d []  
dz []  
dzh [] Similar to English "j"
dzw []  
? []  
e [], []  
f []  
fh []  
g []  
h [], [] Pronounced as [] before e.
hw []  
i []  
k []  
kh []  
khw []  
l []  
? []  
m [], [] Pronounced as [] before v and vh. M is syllabic, [], when following syllable begins with m.
n [] Pronounced as [] before ? and ?. N is syllabic, [], when following syllable begins with n.
ng []  
ny []  
nz []  
? []  
? []  
?w []  
o [], []  
p []  
ph []  
r []  
s []  
sh []  
sw []  
t []  
th []  
ts []  
tsh []  
tsw []  
ty []  
? []  
u []  
v []  
vh []  
w []  
x [] Similar to the ch in Scottish 'loch.'
y []  
z []  
zh []  
zw []  


External links



Software

  • , , , and in Venda
  • Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Venda