Venda language

**Venda**, also called ***' or ***', is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. Most Venda speakers live in South Africa, but some speakers live in Zimbabwe. The Venda language is very similar to the Shona and Pedi languages, which is spoken in South Africa and Zimbabwe. During the Apartheid era of South Africa, Venda speakers lived in the bantustan of Venda.

Venda is a language in the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

Venda is spoken by about 666,000 people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province. Around 84,000 people in Zimbabwe also speak the language.

## Writing

The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet. It has five (5) extra accented letters. Four consonants have a circumflex below the letter (_ḓ_, _ḽ_, _ṋ_, _ṱ_) and one consonant has an overdot (_ṅ_).

|A a|B b|D d|Ḓ ḓ|E e|F f||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|G g|H h|I i|K k|L l|Ḽ ḽ||
|M m|N n|Ṋ ṋ|Ṅ ṅ|O o|P p||
|R r|S s|T t|Ṱ ṱ|U u|V v||
|W w|X x|Y y|Z z||||

The letters C, J, and Q are used when writing foreign words and names.

|letter(s)|value(s) in IPA|notes|
| --- | --- | --- |
|a|||
|b|||
|bv|||
|bw|or|Varies by dialect|
|d|||
|dz|||
|dzh||Like the English "j"|
|dzw|||
|ḓ|||
|e|,||
|f|||
|fh|||
|g|||
|h|,|Pronounced  before _e_.|
|hw|||
|i|||
|k|||
|kh|||
|khw|||
|l|||
|ḽ|||
|m|,|_M_ is syllabic, , when the next syllable begins with _m_.|
|n|,|_N_ is syllabic, when the next syllable begins with _n_.|
|ng|||
|ny|||
|nz|||
|ṋ|||
|ṅ|||
|ṅw|||
|o|,||
|p|||
|ph|||
|pf|||
|pfh|||
|r|||
|s|||
|sh|||
|sw|||
|t|||
|th|||
|ts|||
|tsh|||
|tsw|||
|ty|||
|ṱ|||
|ṱh|||
|u|||
|v|||
|vh|||
|w|||
|x||Like the _ch_ in Scottish 'loch.'|
|y|||
|z|||
|zh|||
|zw|||

### Unicode

The extra letters have these Unicode names
- U+1E12 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E13 LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E3C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E3D LATIN SMALL LETTER L WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E44 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
- U+1E45 LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH DOT ABOVE
- U+1E4A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E4B LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E70 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW
- U+1E71 LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH CIRCUMFLEX BELOW

## Other websites

- Ethnologue entry for Venda
- Tshivenda - South African Languages
- Batho Portal Welcome page in Venda
- PanAfrican L10n page on Venda

### Computer programs

- Spell checker for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla , OpenOffice.org , Mozilla Firefox web-browser , and Mozilla Thunderbird email program  in Venda
- Translate.org.za  Project to translate Free and Open Source Software into all the official languages of South Africa including Venda
- Keyboard with extra venda characters

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Tshivenda
- **nativename**: Tshivenḓa
- **states**: South Africa, Zimbabwe
- **region**: Limpopo Province
- **speakers**: million
- **date**: 2011 census
- **ref**: e18
- **speakers2**: 1.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)
- **familycolor**: Niger-Congo
- **fam2**: Atlantic–Congo languages, Atlantic–Congo
- **fam3**: Benue–Congo languages, Benue–Congo
- **fam4**: Southern Bantoid languages, Southern Bantoid
- **fam5**: Bantu languages, Bantu
- **fam6**: Southern Bantu
- **script**: Latin script, Latin (Venda alphabet)
Venda Braille
- **nation**:

- **iso1**: ve
- **iso2**: ven
- **iso3**: ven
- **lingua**: [http://linguasphere.info/?page=linguascale&linguacode=99-AUT-b 99-AUT-b] incl. varieties
 99-AUT-baa to 99-AUT-bad
- **guthrie**: S.20 (S.21)
- **map**: South Africa Venda speakers proportion map.svg
- **mapcaption**: Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Tshivenda at home.
- **map2**: South Africa Venda speakers density map.svg
- **mapcaption2**: Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: density of Tshivenda home-language speakers.
- **notice**: IPA
- **sign**: Signed Venda
- **glotto**: vend1245
- **glottorefname**: Venda