Venda - Tshivenda
< Umbundu | Major Languages | Wolof >
Categories: Languages, South Africa, Southern Zimbabwe
On this page... (hide)
- 1. Classification / Classification
- 2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
- 3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
- 4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
- 5. Usage / Utilisation
- 6. Orthography / Orthographe
- 7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
- 8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
- 9. Comments / Remarques
- 10. References / Références
1. Classification / Classification
Venda belongs to the Venda Group of Bantu (Guthrie S21). (Webbook?)
It is also known as Tshivenda or Tsivenda.
Ethnologue? lists the classification as: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Venda (S.20)
2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
It is spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
According to Ethnologue:
- 876,409 in South Africa (1996 census)
- 84,000 in Zimbabwe (1989)
- Population total all countries: 960,409
4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
According to Ethnologue:
- Phani
- Tavha-Tsindi
- Ilafuri
- Manda
- Guvhu
- Mbedzi
- Lembetu
- Tavhatsindi
5. Usage / Utilisation
Venda is an official language in South Africa.
Venda is used in government notices in South Africa. It is also an important regional language and used on internal radio broadcasts by the South African Broadcasting Company. (Webbook)
Literacy rate in South Africa (according to Ethnologue):
- L1: ?
- L2: Fairly low
6. Orthography / Orthographe
6.1 Status / Statut
Venda has a Latin-based orthography that includes five diacritic characters (each in upper and lower case). See the detailed discussion at Venda orthography.
6.2 Sample Alphabet / Alphabet exemple
The diacritic characters are: Ṅ ṅ Ḓ ḓ Ḽ ḽ Ṋ ṋ Ṱ ṱ
See http://www.africanlanguages.com/venda/ for more information.
See also:
- Mimer "Venda Alphabet Collation Chart" http://developer.mimer.com/charts/venda.htm
- Geonames "Unicode test page...: Venda alphabet" http://www.geonames.de/alphtz.html#ven
A sample text is shown on the "Language Museum" site: http://www.language-museum.com/v/venda.php
7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
7.1 Fonts / Polices
A Unicode font should suffice (need info on ranges).
7.2 Keyboard layouts / Dispositions de clavier
A South African multilingual keyboard for different operating systems is available at http://translate.org.za/content/view/24/41/
7.3 Content on computers & internet / Contenu en informatique et sur l'Internet
The South African language site "Batho Portal" http://www.sediba.org.za/ has a section on & in TshiVenda.
AfricanLanguages.com has three short stories by Mbodi Khorombi online:
- Lushaka lwo senwaho http://africanlanguages.com/venda/lushaka_lwo_senwaho.html
- Zwanda zwi a tanzwana http://africanlanguages.com/venda/zwanda.html
- Tshilamba u vhudzwa ndi tshilila u vhona http://africanlanguages.com/venda/tshilamba.html
Wikipedia in Venda at http://ve.wikipedia.org/ (about 70-80 articles as of 5-2007)
7.4 Localized software / Logiciels localisés
Translate.org.za has facilitated localisation of the following into Venda (list not necessarily complete):
- The OpenOffice suite of software applications. See http://translate.org.za/content/view/17/54/
- Tux Paint was translated into Venda (9/2006)
7.5 Language codes / Codes de langue
- ISO 639-1: ve
- ISO 639-2: ven
- ISO 639-3: ven
7.6 Locales / Paramètres régionaux
7.7 Other / Autre
8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
8.1 Individuals (experts) / Individuelles (experts)
8.2 Institutions / Institutions
8.3 On the internet / Sur la toile
Open-Tran.eu supports Venda: http://ven.open-tran.eu
9. Comments / Remarques
10. References / Références
AfricanLanguages.com, "Tshivenda (Venda)," http://africanlanguages.com/venda/
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://africa.isp.msu.edu/afrlang/hiermenu.html (page on "Venda," http://africa.isp.msu.edu/afrlang/Venda_root.html )
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Venda," http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ven
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "TshiVenḓa," https://ve.wikipedia.org/wiki/TshiVenḓa
______, "Venda language," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_language
< Umbundu | Major Languages | Wolof >
Categories: Languages, South Africa, Southern Zimbabwe