Ndau dialect

Not to be confused with Ndao language or Pendau language.

Ndau
Region	Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa
Native speakers	2.4 million (2000–2006)
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Shona (S.10) Ndau
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ndc
Glottolog	ndau1241
Guthrie code	S.15

Ndau (also called chiNdau, Chindau, Ndzawu, Njao, Chidanda) is a Bantu language spoken by 1,400,000 people.

Ndau and has often been included as Nguni dialect. The 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe accorded Ndau status as an official language.

Sample text

AIDS awareness street art in Machaze district, promoting condom use. The text reads in Portuguese: "think of the consequences, change behaviour, prevent HIV/ADS".to the left, the same text in the Ndau language.

The mutual intelligibility of Ndau with other Shona varieties is fairly high, but some speakers of other Shona varieties may find it difficult to understand. Differences and similarities can be measured by examining a Ndau version of Lord's Prayer:

Baba edu ari mudenga, ngariremeredzwe zina renyu. UMambo hwenyu ngahuuye. Kuda kwenyu ngakuitwa munyika kudai ngomudenga. Tipei nege kurya kwedu kwatinotama nyamashi. Tirekererei ndaa dzedu kudai tisu takarekerera avo vane ndaa kwetiri. Usatipinza mukuedzwa, asi tinunure kuno uwo wakashata.

The equivalent paragraph in Standard Shona (mainly based on Zezuru) is:

Baba vedu vari kudenga, zita renyu ngarikudzwe. UMambo hwenyu ngahwuuye. Kuda kwenyu ngakuitwe pasi sokudenga. Tipei nhasi kudya kwedu kwakwezuva. Tiregererei zvatinokutadzirai sekuregerera kwatinoita vakatitadzira. Musatipinze mukuedzwa, asi mutinunure mune zvakaipa.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial		Labio- dental		Alveolar				Lateral		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
		plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	wstd.	lab.	pal.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʷ			t		tʷ	tʲ							k	kʷ
	voiced	b	bʷ			d		dʷ	dʲ							ɡ	ɡʷ
	aspirated	pʰ	pʰʷ			tʰ		tʰʷ								kʰ	kʰʷ
	breathy	bʱ	bʱʷ			dʱ		dʱʷ	dʱʲ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐpʰ				ⁿtʰ										ᵑkʰ
	prenasal vd.	ᵐb	ᵐbʷ			ⁿd		ⁿdʷ								ᵑɡ	ᵑɡʷ
	prenasal br.	ᵐbʱ	ᵐbʱʷ			ⁿdʱ		ⁿdʱʷ
Affricate	voiceless			p͡f		t͡s	t͡sᶲ	t͡sʷ				t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʷ
	voiced			b͡v		d͡z	d͡zᵝ	d͡zʷ				d͡ʒ	d͡ʒʷ
	prenasal			ᵐb͡v		ⁿd͡z		ⁿd͡zʷ					ⁿd͡ʒʷ
Fricative	voiceless			f		s	sᶲ	sʷ		ɬ	ɬʷ	ʃ	ʃʷ					h	hʷ
	voiced	β	βʷ	v	vʷ	z	zᵝ	zʷ		ɮ	ɮʷ	ʒ	ʒʷ
	prenasal			ᶬv		ⁿz	ⁿzᵝ	ⁿzʷ		ⁿɮ
Nasal	voiced	m	mʷ			n		nʷ						ɲ	ɲʷ	ŋ	ŋʷ
	breathy	mʱ	mʱʷ			nʱ		nʱʷ
Trill						r		rʷ	rʲ
Approximant										l				j			w

• Other labialized sounds are labialized-whistled sounds as /sᶲʷ, zᵝʷ/.
• Other palatalized sounds are labialized-palatalized ones as /tʲʷ, rʲʷ/.

Click consonants

		Dental	Post- alveolar	Lateral
Voiceless	plain	ᵏǀ	ᵏǃ	ᵏǁ
	aspirated		ᵏǃʰ	ᵏǁʰ
	nasalized	ᵑǀ	ᵑǃ	ᵑǁ
Voiced			ᶢǃ	ᶢǁ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Alphabet

While the mainstream Shona language excludes L, Q and X from its alphabet, Ndau orthography uses them as shown by the examples below:

1. Mainstream Shona "Akatizira and the Ndau version Akafohla: 'L' is used in the digraph hl for the sound [ɬ].
2. Mainstream Shona "kuridza tsamwa and the Ndau version kuxapa: 'X' is used for the click consonant [ᵏǁ].
3. Mainstream Shona "Kurara and the Ndau version Kuqambaya: 'Q' is used for the click consonant [ᵏǃ].

These sounds have been acquired from neighboring Nguni languages.