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27-536: The larger group of historically related languages—called Shona or Shonic languages by linguists—also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Kalanga (Western Shona). In Guthrie's classification of Bantu languages, zone S.10 designates the Shonic group. Shona is closely related to Ndau , Kalanga and is related to Tonga , Chewa , Tumbuka , Tsonga and Venda . Ndau and Kalanga are former dialects of Shona but became independent languages in 2013 because their grammar

54-635: A bachelor's degree from Transvaal University College in Pretoria (now the University of Pretoria ). He decided to devote his life to missionary activity. In 1913, he accompanied his father on a tour of north-western Rhodesia , to an area called Lambaland, now known as Ilamba . It is at the watershed of the Congo and Zambesi rivers. Part of the district lay in Northern Rhodesia and part of

81-469: A catalyst for the admission of Africans to the university. As early as 1925 a limited number were admitted to the vacation course in African Studies. Doke supported the appointment of Benedict Wallet Vilakazi as member of the staff, as he believed a native speaker was essential for acquiring a language. That provoked a storm of criticism and controversy from the public. Both of them collaborated on

108-584: A spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Shona languages The Shona languages (also called the Shonic group) are a clade of Bantu languages coded Zone S.10 in Guthrie's classification . According to Nurse & Philippson (2003), the languages form a valid node. They are: In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration was faced with

135-491: Is not the general medium of instruction for subjects other than Shona grammar and literature. The last systematic study of varieties and sub-varieties of the Central Shona dialect continuum was that done by Clement Doke in 1930, so many sub-varieties are no longer functional and should be treated with caution. According to information from Ethnologue: Languages with partial intelligibility with Central Shona, of which

162-550: Is quite common cross-linguistically, with similar systems occurring in Greek , Spanish , Tagalog , Swahili and Japanese . Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they fall in succession. For example, Unoenda kupi ? ("Where do you go?") is pronounced [u.no.e.nda.ku.pi] . The consonant sounds of Shona are: Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include whistling sounds , (this should not be confused with whistled speech ). Shona's whistled sibilants are

189-496: Is very slightly less similar to those of Manyika, Korekore, and Zezuru. Shona is also similar to Swahili and Tswana . Shona is a written standard language with an orthography and grammar that was codified during the early 20th century and fixed in the 1950s. In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration was faced with the challenge of preparing schoolbooks and other materials in the various languages and dialects and requested

216-534: The Baptist Church for some generations. His father, Reverend Joseph J. Doke , left England and travelled to South Africa in 1882, where he met and married Agnes Biggs. They returned to England, where Clement was born as the third of four children. The family moved to New Zealand and eventually returned to South Africa in 1903, where it later settled in Johannesburg . At the age of 18, Clement received

243-619: The Zezuru , Karanga and Manyika dialects. However, Doke's orthography was never fully accepted, and the South African government introduced an alternative, which left Shona with two competing orthographies between 1935 and 1955. During his tenure, Doke developed and promoted a method of linguistic analysis and description of the Bantu languages that was based upon the structure of these languages. The "Dokean model" continues to be one of

270-483: The Zulu-English Dictionary . First published in 1948, it is still one of the best examples of lexicography for any Bantu language. At the request of the government of Southern Rhodesia, Doke investigated the range of dialect diversity among the languages of the country and made recommendations for Unified Shona , which formed the basis for Standard Shona. He devised a unified orthography based on

297-752: The fricatives "sv" and "zv" and the affricates "tsv" and "dzv". Whistled sibilants stirred interest among the Western public and media in 2006, due to questions about how to pronounce the name of Morgan Tsvangirai , the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. The BBC Pronunciation Unit recommended the pronunciation "chang-girr-ayi" / ˈ tʃ æ ŋ ɡ ɪ r eɪ i / . The letters "L", "Q", and "X" are not used in Shona and are used only in loanwords. From 1931 to 1955, Unified Shona

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324-565: The Baptist Union of South Africa. It was on that trip that Doke's father contracted enteric fever and died soon afterwards. Mahatma Gandhi attended the memorial service and addressed the congregation. Clement assumed his father's role. The South African Baptists decided to take over Kafulafuta Mission, and its founder, Reverend Phillips, remained as superintendent. Clement Doke returned to Kafulafuta as missionary in 1914, followed by his sister Olive two years later. At first, Clement Doke

351-681: The Belgian Congo. The Cape-Cairo Railway threaded through its eastern portion; otherwise, most travel had to be on foot. The Reverend William Arthur Phillips of the Nyasa Industrial Mission in Blantyre had established a Baptist mission there in 1905; it served an area of 25,000 square miles (65,000 km ) and 50,000 souls. The Dokes were supposed to investigate whether the mission in Lambaland could be taken over by

378-611: The Shonic group in Southern Bantu , with the other Zone S languages; others treat it separately. This Bantu language -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Clement Martyn Doke Clement Martyn Doke (16 May 1893 in Bristol , United Kingdom – 24 February 1980 in East London , South Africa ) was a South African linguist working mainly on African languages. Realizing that

405-533: The challenge of preparing schoolbooks and other materials in the various languages and dialects and requested the recommendation of the South African linguist Clement Doke . Based on his 1931 report, Standard Shona was developed from the Central Shona varieties. Because of the presence of the capital city in the Zezuru region, that variety has come to dominate in Standard Shona. Some classifications include

432-642: The dominant models of linguistic description in Southern and Central Africa. His classification of the Bantu languages was for many years the dominant view of the interrelations among the African languages. He was also an early describer of Khoisan and Bantu click consonants, devising phonetic symbols for a number of them. Doke served the University of the Witwatersrand until his retirement in 1953. He

459-511: The grammatical structures of Bantu languages are quite different from those of European languages, he was one of the first African linguists of his time to abandon the Euro-centric approach to language description for a more locally grounded one. A most prolific writer, he published a string of grammars , several dictionaries, comparative work, and a history of Bantu linguistics. The Doke family had been engaged in missionary activity for

486-461: The next syllable. For example, mangwanani ("morning") is syllabified as [ma.ᵑɡwa.na.ni] ; Zimbabwe is [zi.ᵐba.ɓwe] . Shona is written with a phonemic orthography, with only slightly different pronunciation or grammatical differences according to variety. Shona has two tones, a high and a low tone, but these tones are not indicated in the standard writing system. Shona has a simple 5- vowels system: [a, e, i, o, u] . This inventory

513-509: The peoples of Central Africa. For Doke, literacy was part of evangelisation since it was required so that people to appreciate the Bible's message, but it was only after his retirement that he completed the translation of the Bible into Lamba. It was published under the title of Amasiwi AwaLesa ("The Words of God") in 1959. In 1919, Doke married Hilda Lehmann, who accompanied him back to Lambaland. Both contracted malaria during their work, and she

540-414: The recommendation of South African linguist Clement Doke . The language is now described through monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (chiefly Shona – English). The first novel in Shona, Solomon Mutswairo 's Feso , was published in 1957. Subsequently, hundreds of novels, short story collections and poetry volumes in Shona have appeared. Shona is taught in the schools, but after the first few grades it

567-626: The speakers are considered to be ethnically Shona, are the S15 Ndau language , spoken in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and the S13 Manyika language , spoken in eastern Zimbabwe, near Mutare specifically Chipinge. Ndau literacy material has been introduced into primary schools. Maho (2009) recognizes Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika, Karanga, and Ndau as distinct languages within the Shona cluster. Shona allows only open syllables . Consonants belong to

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594-612: Was available, he eventually had to change his language to Zulu . Doke took up his appointment in the new Department of Bantu Studies at the University of Witwatersrand in 1923. In 1925 he received his D.Litt. for his doctoral thesis The Phonetics of the Zulu Language and was promoted to Senior Lecturer. In 1931 he was appointed to the Chair of Bantu Studies and thus headed the Department of Bantu Studies. The department acted as

621-553: Was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Rhodes University and the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1972. The former missionary always remained devoted to the Baptist Church. He was elected President of the South African Baptist Union in 1949 and spent a year visiting churches and mission stations. He used his presidential address in condemning

648-488: Was forbidden to return to Lambaland. Clement Doke also realised that his field work could not continue much longer, and he left in 1921. He was recruited by the newly founded University of the Witwatersrand . So that he could secure a qualification as a lecturer, the family moved to England, where he registered at the School of Oriental and African Studies . His major languages were Lamba and Luba , but as no suitable examiner

675-542: Was frustrated by his inability to communicate with the Lamba . The only written material available at the time was a translation of Jonah and a collection of 47 hymns. Soon, however, he mastered the language and published his first book, Ifintu Fyakwe Lesa ("The Things of God, a Primer of Scripture Knowledge") in 1917. He enrolled in Johannesburg as the extension of Transvaal University College for an MA degree. His thesis

702-443: Was published as The Grammar of the Lamba language . The book is couched in traditional grammatical terms, as Doke had not yet established his innovative method to analyse and describe the Bantu languages. His later Textbook of Lamba Grammar is far superior in that respect. Doke was also interested in ethnology . In 1931 he compiled The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia , which remains one of the outstanding ethnographic descriptions of

729-772: Was written with an alphabet developed by linguist Clement Martyn Doke . This included these letters: In 1955, these were replaced by letters or digraphs from the basic Latin alphabet. For example, today ⟨sv⟩ is used for ⟨ȿ⟩ and ⟨zv⟩ is used for ⟨ɀ⟩ . Noun classes ( mupanda ) Shona nouns are grouped by noun class ( mupanda ) based on: Vanhu vese vanoberekwa vakasununguka uyewo vakaenzana pahunhu nekodzero dzavo. Vanhu vese vanechipo chokufunga nekuziva chakaipa nechakanaka saka vanofanira kubatana nomweya wohusahwira. Translation All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in

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