Venda language

TshiVenda
Tshivenḓa
Native to	South Africa and Zimbabwe Mozambique
Region	Limpopo
Ethnicity	Venda
Native speakers	1.3 million (2011 census)[1] 1.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu TshiVenda
Dialects	Guvhu Ilafuri Lembetu Manda Mbedzi Phani Tavha-Tsindi
Writing system	Latin (Venda alphabet) Venda Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed forms	Signed Venda
Official status
Official language in	Zimbabwe  South Africa
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ve
ISO 639-2	ven
ISO 639-3	ven
Glottolog	vend1245
Guthrie code	S.20 (S.21)[3]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-b incl. varieties 99-AUT-baa to 99-AUT-bad
Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Tshivenda at home.   0–20%   20–40%   40–60%   60–80%   80–100%
Geographical distribution of Tshivenda in South Africa: density of Tshivenda home-language speakers.   <1 /km²   1–3 /km²   3–10 /km²   10–30 /km²   30–100 /km²   100–300 /km²   300–1000 /km²   1000–3000 /km²   >3000 /km²
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Venḓa or Tshivenḓa is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people or Vhavenḓa in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Tshivenda language is related to the Kalanga language which is spoken in Southern Africa. During the apartheid era of South Africa, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.

According to the 2011 census, Venda speakers are concentrated in the following areas: Makhado Local Municipality, with 350,000 people; Thulamela Local Municipality, with 370,000 people; Musina Local Municipality, with 35,000 people; and Mutale Local Municipality, with 89,000 people. The total number of speakers in Vhembe district currently stands at 844,000. In Gauteng province, there are 275,000 Venda speakers. Fewer than 10,000 are spread across the rest of the country—for a total number of Venda speakers in South Africa at 1.2 million people or just 2.2% of South Africa's population, making Venda speakers the second smallest minority language in South Africa, after the Ndebele language, which number 1.1 million speakers. The population statistics of the Venda people in Zimbabwe are not clear but may currently stand at less than half a million. The people are concentrated in the South of the country but also spread to other towns and cities. There is also a significant number of them in neighbouring South Africa where they are migrant workers.