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Shona
Shona

Yoruba
Yoruba



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Shona
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Yoruba

Shona vs Yoruba

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Countries

Countries

Zimbabwe
Benin, Nigeria

Total No. Of Countries

12
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
Nigeria

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Africa, Brazil, Togo, United Kingdom, United States of America

Regulated By

-
Yoruba Academy

Interesting Facts

  • Shona language is tonal language.
  • The African people in Zimbabwe is made of 10 ethnic groups, each speaking a different languages, shona is spoken by 60 percent of population.
  • One of the largest African ethnic groups is Yoruba in south of Sahara Desert.
  • In Yoruba language, same combination of vowels and consonants have different meanings depending on the pitch of the vowels, so it is tonal language.

Similar To

Kalanga and Nambya Language
Owo and Itsekiri languages

Derived From

-
-

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

3729
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

512
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

4617
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

43
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

30 weeks30 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Mhoro
Ẹ n lẹ

Thank You

Waita zvako
e dupe

How Are You?

Wakadini zvako?
Bawo ni o se wa

Good Night

Urare zvakanaka
Kasun layọ o

Good Evening

Manheru
ka a ale

Good Afternoon

Masikati
e kaasan

Good Morning

Mangwanani
e kaaro

Please

Ndinokumbirawo
Jowo

Sorry

Ndineurombo
binu

Bye

bye
bye

I Love You

Ndinokuda
mo nifẹ rẹ

Excuse Me

Pamusoro
mo tọrọ gafara

Dialects

Dialect 1

Hwesa
Itsekiri

Where They Speak

Zimbabwe
Nigeria

How Many People Speak

11,000,000.00500,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Karanga
Ede

Where They Speak

southern Zimbabwe
Benin, Togo

How Many People Speak

1,100,000.00800,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Zezuru
Ulukwumi

Where They Speak

central Zimbabwe, Mashonaland
Nigeria

How Many People Speak

16.0010,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

420
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

25.00 million30.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.13 %0.42 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

8.30 million28.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

16.00 million30.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

chiShona
Yorùbá

Alternative Names

Chishona, “Swina” (pej.), Zezuru
Yariba, Yooba

French Name

shona
yoruba

German Name

Schona-Sprache
Yoruba-Sprache

Pronunciation

[ʃoːna]
[jòɾùbá]

Ethnicity

Shona people
Yoruba people

History

Origin

20th century
4 BC

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Western Sudanic

Branch

Bantu
Kwa

Language Forms

Early Forms

Old Shona and Middle Shona
No early forms

Standard Forms

Standard Shona
Yorùbá

Language Position

10749
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Shona
Yoruba Sign Language

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sn
yo

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

sna
yor

ISO 639 2/B

sna
yor

ISO 639 3

sna
yor

ISO 639 6

sna
yor

Glottocode

core1255
yoru1245

Linguasphere

99-AUT-a
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

-
Analytic, Isolating

Shona vs Yoruba Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Shona vs Yoruba speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Shona or Yoruba language.

  • Shona is spoken as a national language in: Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe.
  • Yoruba is spoken as a national language in: Nigeria.

You will also get to know the continents where Shona and Yoruba speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Shona language is 107 and position of Yoruba language is 49. Find all the information about these languages on Shona and Yoruba.

Shona and Yoruba Language History

Comparison of Shona vs Yoruba language history gives us differences between origin of Shona and Yoruba language. History of Shona language states that this language originated in 20th century whereas history of Yoruba language states that this language originated in 4 BC. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Shona and Yoruba Language History.

Shona and Yoruba Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Shona and Yoruba greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Shona and Yoruba language. Shona word for "Hello" is Mhoro or Yoruba word for "Thank You" is e dupe. Find more of such common Shona Greetings and Yoruba Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Shona vs Yoruba Difficulty

The Shona vs Yoruba difficulty level basically depends on the number of Shona Alphabets and Yoruba Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Shona and Yoruba are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Shona and Yoruba, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Shona is 30 weeks while to learn Yoruba time required is 30 weeks.