Diglossic Principles in Shona Lexicography

Abstract

This article looks at diglossia in Shona dictionaries. Diglossia is seen here as the differential and preferential use of a language or a dialect in dictionaries. The main language spoken in Zimbabwe is Shona. Over a period of about one and a half century, at least twenty Shona lexicographic publications including glossed word lists and medium-sized dictionaries have appeared, examples of which are used in this article to demonstrate the diglossic principles in Shona lexicography. As is the case with many languages, Shona is also in contact with other languages, among them English, which during the colonial era was declared the official language of the country. As a result the dictionaries that were compiled were bilingual. In these dictionaries, involving English and Shona, the bias was towards satisfying the needs of English-speaking users, as much of the detail, including the headword entries, was in English. However, with the need to empower the indigenous languages of the country, there was a deliberate move to promote Shona. This saw a change from the compilation of bilingual dictionaries to monolingual dictionaries which resulted in a different mode of diglossia as the dialects within Shona itself do not enjoy equal status in the dictionaries, because some dialects are given preference above others. This article traces the diglossic tendencies among languages and within the same language in dictionaries involving Shona.