Zimbabwean English
Set of varieties of the English language native to Zimbabwe / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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]
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| English language |
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| Advanced topics |
| Phonology |
| Dialects |
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| Teaching |
| Zimbabwean English | |
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| Region | Zimbabwe |
| Ethnicity | Zimbabweans |
Native speakers | 485,000 (2019)[1] Second language: 5,100,000 (2019)[1] |
Early forms | Old English
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| 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. | |
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]