Symbols
61Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Ndau alphabet
Plain Latin letters, no accents. Sounds such as ny, sh and ch are written with two of them; Mozambican spelling writes ch as c.
Punctuation and quotation marks
The same marks are used in English and Portuguese, the main written languages of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Currency
Zimbabwe prices are mostly in US dollars; the ZiG and Mozambique's metical (written MT) have no Unicode signs.
Where it's spoken
Central Mozambique, about 3.3 million speakers by CLDR's estimate, and south-eastern Zimbabwe, about 1 million.
Ndau country in emoji
⛰️ the Chimanimani mountains and Chipinge highlands; ☕ the tea and coffee estates of Chipinge.
On the map
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The Ndau alphabet
Ndau is written in Latin script, but the grid does not show every grapheme in a Mozambican Cindawu orthography: it includes q and apostrophe-marked n’ as well as combinations such as bh, dh and hl. Tone is not marked in ordinary writing, and these spellings can be typed with standard keyboard characters.
The five vowels a e i o u are read much as in Portuguese, Spanish or Italian. Ndau is a tonal Bantu language, like its relative Shona, but everyday spelling does not mark tone, so even careful Ndau writing needs no accents.
Sounds that English writes with two letters are spelled the same way in Ndau: ny for the sound of Spanish ñ, sh, ch and others, built from the plain letters in the grid. One difference between the two countries shows in the name of the language itself: Zimbabwean writing follows Shona and spells the class prefix chi-, giving chiNdau, while Mozambique's standard spelling for its national languages writes the same sound with a single c, giving Cindau, just as its neighbour is written Cisena.
chiNdau, Cindau and vaNdau
Like other Bantu languages, Ndau builds names from a prefix and a stem. The language is chiNdau or Cindau, and the Ndau people are vaNdau. In English and Portuguese both are simply Ndau; older books also spell it Chindau as one word, which is the form many people still type.
Linguists group Ndau with Shona, Manyika, Karanga and Kalanga in the Shona cluster of southern Bantu; Ndau is S15 in Guthrie's classification. Ndau shares much of its vocabulary with Shona, and it has its own sounds, words and identity; in Zimbabwe it is recognised as a language in its own right.
Ndau is usually written with the same punctuation as English and Portuguese, the main written languages of Zimbabwe and Mozambique: the comma, full stop, ? and ! and the curly quotes “ ” and ‘ ’ in the grid. On Windows the quotes are Alt0147, Alt0148, Alt0145 and Alt0146 on the number pad; on a Mac Option[, OptionShift[, Option] and OptionShift]. iPhones curl straight quotes on their own by default.
Where the Ndau language is spoken
Ndau lives on both sides of the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe , along the Save and Buzi rivers. CLDR, Unicode's locale data, estimates about 4.3 million speakers in all. Most of them, about 3.3 million by that estimate, are in central Mozambique, where Ndau is spoken mainly in the southern parts of Sofala and Manica provinces and is one of the country's largest national languages.
In Zimbabwe, where CLDR estimates about 1 million speakers, Ndau is the home language of the south-east of Manicaland, above all Chipinge district and parts of Chimanimani, below the mountains that form the border . Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution names Ndau among the country's sixteen officially recognised languages.
Money is written the way each country writes it. Mozambique's metical has no Unicode sign and is written MT, as in 100 MT. Zimbabwean prices are mostly in US dollars, , beside the ZiG (Zimbabwe Gold) introduced in 2024, which has no Unicode sign either. Mozambique and Zimbabwe each have a collection here with their flags and emoji, and so do the neighbouring languages: Shona, Manyika, Sena, Tsonga, Kalanga and Portuguese.
Ndau country in emoji
Mountains stand for the Ndau highlands: the Chimanimani range and the hills around Chipinge and Mount Selinda on the Zimbabwean side, which rise from the lowlands of the Save valley.
A hot drink is the other emblem of the Zimbabwean side, where the wet hills around Chipinge are one of the country's main tea and coffee growing areas. For everything else, the flags after a name or a place are what most Ndau speakers add to show where they write from.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyNdau Language combos
6Worth knowing
- Most Ndau speakers live in Mozambique, about three in every four by CLDR's estimate, yet the language is better known abroad through Zimbabwe, where it is one of sixteen officially recognised languages.
- The same language is spelled chiNdau in Zimbabwe and Cindau in Mozambique: the two countries write the sound ch differently.
- In the 19th century the Ndau lands were part of the Gaza kingdom founded by Soshangane; Soshangane's grandson Gungunhana ruled from Mossurize, in the heart of Ndau country, before moving south in 1889.
- Ndau spelling usually leaves tone unmarked, but Mozambican Cindawu uses q and the apostrophe-marked grapheme n’; everything it needs is on a standard keyboard.
Questions people ask
7What is Ndau?
Ndau, called chiNdau or Cindau by its speakers, is a Bantu language of the Shona group spoken in central Mozambique and south-eastern Zimbabwe. CLDR estimates about 4.3 million speakers.
Where is the Ndau language spoken?
In Mozambique, in the southern parts of Sofala and Manica provinces along the Save and Buzi rivers, and in Zimbabwe, mainly in Chipinge district and parts of Chimanimani in Manicaland.
Chindau is mostly spoken in which province?
In Mozambique, Sofala and Manica, which together hold most Ndau speakers. In Zimbabwe it is Manicaland, around Chipinge.
What is the Ndau alphabet?
Ndau is written in Latin script, but the grid omits graphemes in a Mozambican Cindawu orthography, including q and n’ and combinations such as bh, dh and hl. Mozambican spelling writes ch as a single c, as in Cindau.
Ndau people speak which language?
Ndau, their own language, which is related to Shona. Many also speak Portuguese in Mozambique or Shona and English in Zimbabwe.
Is Ndau the same as Shona?
No. Ndau belongs to the same Shona group and shares much vocabulary, but it is counted as a separate language, and Zimbabwe's constitution lists it separately from Shona.
Is Ndau an official language in Zimbabwe?
Yes. Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution names Ndau among the country's sixteen officially recognised languages. In Mozambique, Portuguese is the official language and Ndau is one of the national languages.
