A Grammatical Sketch of Shona

Including Historical Notes

Author: Siegmund Brauner †. Series edited by: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †, Bernd Heine.

Series: GA Grammatical Analyses of African Languages Volume 4

Shona (ChiShónà) (Guthrie S.10) is the most important national language of Zimbabwe, spoken and understood also in neighbouring countries. This sketch represents a concise description of the grammatical structure of the standard form of the language including historical notes and some sociolinguistic data. The description follows mainly Doke’s linguistic terminology of the Bantu languages.

It contains chapters on phonology, tonology, morphophonological rules, nominal and verbal morphology and function of other parts of speech (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, ideophones). Two charts on the consonant system of Shona, the various pronominal constructions and a survey of important linguistic literature on the language are added.

Under these links you will find a studybook of Shona, an historical account of the discipline of African Linguistics (“Afrikanistik”) at the University of Leipzig/Germany and descriptions of further languages, literatures and cultures of southern Africa:

Accompanying material:

• Afrikanische Sprachen im Brennpunkt der Forschung (ISBN 978-3-89645-121-7)
• Afrikanistik in Leipzig, 1895–1945 (ISBN 978-3-89645-309-9)
• Einführung ins Schona (ISBN 978-3-927620-04-9)
• IX. Afrikanistentag (ISBN 978-3-927620-79-7)
• Perspektiven afrikanistischer Forschung / Perspectives de recherches africanistes (ISBN 978-3-927620-82-7)
• Sprachkulturelle und historische Forschungen in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-927620-97-1)

Cross-reference:

• A Grammatical Sketch of Kuasi (Botswana) (ISBN 978-3-89645-882-7)
• African Languages in Global Society / Les langues africaines à l’heure de la mondialisation / Lugha za Kiafrika kwenye enzi ya utandawazi (ISBN 978-3-89645-259-7)
• Afrophone Philosophies (ISBN 978-3-89645-251-1)
• Animal Husbands, Magic Horns and Water Spirits (ISBN 978-3-89645-221-4)
• Beyond the Language Issue (ISBN 978-3-89645-819-3)
• Die Landfrage in Simbabwe (ISBN 978-3-89645-621-2)
• Great Zimbabwe (ISBN 978-3-89645-210-8)
• Kunst aus Zimbabwe – Kunst in Zimbabwe (ISBN 978-3-89645-129-3)
• Life is a Thriller (ISBN 978-3-89645-830-8)

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