Set of varieties of the English language native to Zimbabwe
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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Zimbabwean English
Region
Zimbabwe
Ethnicity
Zimbabweans
Native speakers
485,000 (2019)[1] Second language: 5,100,000 (2019)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Ingvaeonic
Anglo-Frisian
Anglic
English
Zimbabwean English
Early forms
Old English
Middle English
Early Modern English
19th century British English
Writing system
Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille
Language codes
ISO 639-3
–
IETF
en-ZW
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Zimbabwean English (ZimE; en-ZIM; en-ZW) is a regional variety of English found in Zimbabwe. While the majority of Zimbabweans speak Shona (75%) and Ndebele (18%) as a first language, standard English is the primary language used in education, government, commerce and media in Zimbabwe, giving it an important role in society.[2] Just under 5 percent of Zimbabweans are native English speakers and 89 percent of the population can speak English fluently or at a high level, second only to the Seychelles (93 percent) amongst African nations.[3]
Casual observers tend to have difficulty in placing the Zimbabwean accent, as it differs from those that are clearly from British, South African or other African Englishes; like other English dialects, the accent tends to vary between individuals based on education, class and ethnic background.[4] To Americans, it sounds slightly British, while British speakers find the accent rather old-fashioned and either nasal or somewhat twangy or African-influenced depending on the background of the speaker.[2]
The Zimbabwean education system uses English beginning in grade 3. Of the languages used in Zimbabwe, it is used nationally and, as the sole official language, has the highest status in the country.[5]
^ abEnglish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ abGrainger, Karen; Mills, Sara (1 December 2016). Grainger, Karen; Mills, Sara (eds.). Directness and Indirectness Across Cultures. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 74–101. doi:10.1057/9781137340399_4 – via Springer Link.
^"Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) – Zimbabwe | Data". data.worldbank.org.
^Weller, Anthony (15 June 2003). "Celebration Bermuda". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
^Kadenge, Maxwell (September 2009). "African Englishes: the indigenization of English vowels by Zimbabwean native Shona speakers". Journal of Pan African Studies. 3 (1) – via Gale Academic Onefile.
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