Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Shona
SOURCE
Hudson Simbarashe & Tafadzwa Mukome
Shona
Language Profile
TOTAL SPEAKERS
7,000,000 (1990)
USAGE BY COUNTRY (OFFICIAL LANGUAGE)
Home Speakers: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, BotswanaBACKGROUND
It is spoken by at least 9 million people as a first language (the other main language spoken in Zimbabwe is Ndebele) and belongs to the Benue-Congo family, Bantu group. In Zimbabwe it is also spoken as lingua franca. The main varieties are Karanga, Korekore, Zezuru and Kalanga, but modern Standard Shona is "Union Shona", a koiné based on some of these important varieties.