Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Venda

SOURCE

UNIC Harare

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Venda

Language Profile

TOTAL SPEAKERS

1,2 million in South Africa and 131,000 people in Zimbabwe speak Venda. There are also 1,7 million second language speakers of Venda in South Africa.

USAGE BY COUNTRY (OFFICIAL LANGUAGE)

South Africa and Zimbabwe.

BACKGROUND

Venda, also known as Tshivenḓa or Luvenḓa, is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo Province, as well as by some Lemba people in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, Venda speakers are commonly found in Matabeleland South province; Masvingo province; Mwenezi district; Midlands province and Mberengwa district. The Venda language uses the Latin alphabet with five additional accented letters—there are four dental consonants with circumflex below the letter (ḓ, ḽ, ṋ, ṱ) and an overdot for velar ṅ. Five vowel letters are used to write seven vowels. The letters C, J and Q are used only in quoting foreign words and names.