Shona

About Shona

Shona is the most widely spoken language of Zimbabwe, the first language of about 8.3 million people there and in neighbouring Mozambique. It is one of Zimbabwe's official languages and belongs to the Bantu family.

Shona is written in the Latin alphabet and read much as it is spelled. It is tonal, but tones are not marked in writing. Respect for elders is built into greetings: mhoro is hi to a friend, while the plural mhoroi is used for an older person or a group. Mangwanani means good morning and maita basa thank you.

FamilyNiger-Congo, Bantu
Native speakersabout 8.3 million (2007)
Official inZimbabwe
ScriptLatin alphabet
Codessn (ISO 639-1), sna (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Nationalencyklopedin (2007), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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