Editing Shona language (section)

==Phonology==
Shona allows only [[open syllable]]s. Consonants belong to the next syllable. For example, {{lang|sn|mangwanani}} ("morning") is syllabified as {{IPA|[ma.ᵑɡwa.na.ni]}}; {{lang|sn|Zimbabwe}} is {{IPA|[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.

=== Vowels ===
Shona has a simple 5-[[vowels]] system: {{IPA|sn|a, e, i, o, u|}}. This inventory is quite common cross-linguistically, with similar systems occurring in [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Swahili language|Swahili]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. Each vowel is pronounced [[Hiatus (linguistics)|separately]] even if they fall in succession. For example, {{lang|sn|Unoenda kupi}}? ("Where do you go?") is pronounced {{IPA|[u.no.e.nda.ku.pi]}}.

===Consonants===
The consonant sounds of Shona are:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |[[Bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Labiodental consonant|Labio-<br>dental]]
! colspan="2" |[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan="2" |[[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
!<small>plain</small>
!<small>whistled</small>
|-
! rowspan="4" |[[Stop consonant|Plosive]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
| {{IPA link|p}}
|
| {{IPA link|t}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
|
|-
!<small>breathy</small>
| {{IPA link|b̤}}
|
| {{IPA link|d̤}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ̤}}
|
|-
!<small>implosive</small>
| {{IPA link|ɓ}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɗ}}
|
|
|
|
|-
!<small>prenasalized</small>
| {{IPA link|ᵐb}}
|
| {{IPA link|ⁿd}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ᵑɡ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |[[Affricate]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|
| {{IPA link|p͡f}}
| {{IPA link|t͡s}}
| {{IPA|t͡sᶲ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
|
|
|-
!<small>breathy</small>
|
| {{IPA link|b͡v̤}}
| {{IPA link|d͡z̤}}
| {{IPA link|d͡z̤ᵝ}}
| {{IPA link|d͡ʒ̤}}
|
|
|-
!<small>prenasalized</small>
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|ⁿd͡ʒ̤}}
|
|
|-
! rowspan="3" |[[Fricative]]
!<small>voiceless</small>
|
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA|sᶲ}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
|
|
|-
!<small>breathy</small>
|
| {{IPA link|v̤}}
| {{IPA link|z̤}}
| {{IPA link|z̤ᵝ}}
| {{IPA link|ʒ̤}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɦ}}
|-
!<small>prenasalized</small>
|
|
| {{IPA link|ⁿz̤}}
| {{IPA link|ⁿz̤ᵝ}}
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
!<small>plain</small>
| {{IPA link|m}}
|
| {{IPA link|n}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɲ}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|
|-
!<small>breathy</small>
| {{IPA link|m̤}}
| {{IPA|mʋ̤}}
| {{IPA link|n̤}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]] 
|
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
|
| {{IPA link|ʋ}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|j}}
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|}

===Whistled sibilants===
{{expert needed|Languages|section|ex2=Africa|date=August 2008| reason = we need a better explanation & preferably some sound files }}
Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include [[whistled sibilant|whistling sounds]], (this should not be confused with [[whistled speech]]).

Shona's whistled sibilants are the [[fricative]]s "sv" and "zv" and the [[affricate]]s "tsv" and "dzv".

{| class=wikitable
!Sound !! example !! translation || notes
|-
!rowspan=2|sv
| {{lang|sn|masvosvobwa}}||"shooting stars"
|rowspan=2|"sv" can be represented by [[S͎|S]]͎, from the [[Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet]]
|-
|{{lang|sn|masvosve}} ||"ants"
|-
!tsv
|{{lang|sn|tsvaira}} ||"sweep" ||(Standard Shona)
|-
!svw
|{{lang|sn|masvavembasvwi}} ||"schemer" ||(Shangwe, Korekore dialect)
|-
!zv
|{{lang|sn|zvizvuvhutswa'}} ||"gold nuggets" ||(Tsunga, Zezuru dialect)
|-
!dzv
|{{lang|sn|akadzva}} ||"he/she was unsuccessful" ||
|-
!zvw
|{{lang|sn|huzvweverere}}||"emotions" ||(Gova, Korekore dialect)
|-
!nzv
|{{lang|sn|nzvenga}}||"to dodge" ||(Standard Shona)
|-
!zvc
| {{lang|sn|muzvcazi}} ||"the [[Milky Way]]"||rowspan=2|[[Dental click]]s. Only found in Ngova, Karanga dialect.
|-
!svc
|{{lang|sn|chisvcamba}} ||"tortoise"
|}
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" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|æ|ŋ|g|ɪ|r|eɪ|i}}.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ryan K. Shorsed|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2006/whistleISSP.pdf |title=Just put your lips together and blow? The whistled fricatives of Southern Bantu |publisher=University of California|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629163343/http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2006/whistleISSP.pdf |archive-date=29 June 2011 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2020}}<ref>{{cite journal |title=Report on the unification of Shona dialects |author=Clement M. Doke |journal= Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London|volume=6 |issue = 4|pages=1097–1099 |publisher=[[JSTOR]] |jstor = 606944|year=1932 }}</ref>

===Special characters===

*' - the apostrophe can be used after the character "n" to create a sound similar to the "-ng" from the English word "ping". An example word is {{lang|sn|n'anga}}, which is the word for a traditional healer.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ndambakuwa|first=Victor|title=Shona word n'anga in the Shona Dictionary|url=https://vashona.com/en/dictionary/sn/n%60anga|access-date=2021-11-30|website=VaShona Project|language=en}}</ref>