Home Speakers: Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana

Background
It is spoken by at least 9 million people as a first language (the other main language spoken in Zimbabwe is Ndebele) and belongs to the Benue-Congo family, Bantu group. In Zimbabwe it is also spoken as lingua franca. The main varieties are Karanga, Korekore, Zezuru and Kalanga, but modern Standard Shona is “Union Shona”, a koiné based on some of these important varieties.

Reprinted from www.unhchr.ch/udhr/