Ben Bezuidenhout

Hello people, I'm Ben, and I'm here to learn Venda and help expand it!

Websites to improve Venda

Helpful sentences

1 - Cities

I helped to crack the code on this sentence when I saw other places in the Limpopo province also including this word dorobo. I also found out that devhala is very similar to Kapa Devhula (Northern Cape), obviously Kapa means Cape and Devhula means northern. Afurika Tshipembe is South Africa, with Tshipembe meaning South.

Musina ndi ḓorobo ino wanala devhala kha vundu la Limpopo kha la Afurika Tshipembe.
Musina (Messina) is a city found in the northern part of the Limpop, in South Africa.

Polokwane ndi musanda wa phurovinsi ya Limpopo.
Polokwane (Pietersburg) is the capital (city) of the province of Limpopo.

Thohoyanḓou ndi musanda wa Venda.
Thohoyandou is the capital (city) of (the) Venda.

Johannesburg ndi yone dorobo khulwanesa kha la Afurika Tshipembe. Dorobo iyi ndi yone musanda wa vundu la Gauteng.
Johannesburg is the biggest city in South Africa. The city is (also?) the capital (city) of Gauteng.

Pretoria ndi musanda wa Afurika Tshipembe. Pretoria iwanala kha vundu la Gauteng.
Pretoria is the capital (city) of South Africa. Pretoria is located in Gauteng.

Dictionary of new words

I will update these words if I get closer to finding out their meaning.

dorobo = either city or town
Kapa = Cape
Dehula or Devhala = Northern or North
Afurika = Africa
Tshipembe = South or Southern
ndi = is a
ino wanala = most probabley in the, maybe simply in or maybe located in
kha vundu = maybe meaning part of
la = maybe the
kha la = maybe in
khulwanesa = could be biggest
iyi = could be also

2 - Provinces

Someone had already created all the provinces of South Africa, so I just needed to translate.

Limpopo i dovha ya vha dzina la phurovinsi ya Afurika Tshipembe.
Limpopo (is a newly changed name for one of??) the provinces of South Africa

Limpopo ndi dzina la mulambo wa Afurika.
Limpopo is _______ (in/of) Afrika.

Phurovinsi ya Afurika Tshipembe
Provinces of South Africa

Afurika Tshipembe i na dzi phurovinsi dza ṱahe (9). Dzenedzo ndi Limpopo, Mpum..
South Africa has nine (9) provinces. (These?) are Limpopo, Mpum..

Gauteng ndi lone vundu lituka kha mavundu a Afurika Tshipembe.
Gauteng is __ (located in?) South Africa.

Fhedzi, ndi hune hawanala musanda wa Afurika Tshipembe une wavha Pretoria.
(but yet?) (only?) is _____ (of located in?) capital (city) of South Africa ___ Pretoria.

Hudovha ha wanala Dorbo khalwanesa ya Afurika Tshipembe ine yavha Johannesburg.
______ (biggest?) in South Africa ____ Johannesburg.

Dictionary of new words

Phurovinsi = provinces or province
ya = most probabley of

From provinces

Kapa = Cape
Dehula or Devhala = Northern or North
Vhubvaḓuvha = Eastern or East
Vhukovhela = Western or West
Devhula-Vhukovhela = North-West or less probably Northern-Western

3 - Directions

While reading through a few more articles, these words helped me to start pulling together some pieces of what the articles say.

Devhula ha Thohoyanḓou hu wanala dorobo ya Sibasa.
North of Thohoyandou is (located?) the city (or town) of Sibasa.

Dictionary of new words

hu wanala = is the, maybe simply is or located in

4 - Universities

It seems there are many articles on universities on this wikipedia. So, naturally, I took alook and found these.

Yunivesithi ya Venḓa ndi yunivesithi ya Afurika Tshipembe ino wanala Thohoyanḓou kha vundu la Limpopo.
(The) University of Venda is a university in South Africa found in Thohoyandou in the Limpopo.

Dictionary of new words

Yunivesithi = University
ya = most probably of or maybe in.
ino wanala = be found in
kha vundu = maybe in (la is already used as 'the'), inside, part of (see above) or located in.

5 - More about Cities

I took a further look at city and town articles.

Ḓorobo iyi ina vhathu vha fhiraho 20,000. Ḓorobo iyi yo alusiwa ng nthani ha mimaini ya koporo.
(The) City (also?) has a population of 20,00. (The) City (also?) )there is also mining?) of Copper.

Dictionary of new words

Dorobo = at the beggining of a sentance it means the city.
Koporo = Copper
Mimaini = mining, mines or mine.

6 - Countries

Probabley the most crutial part of the wikipedia currently, I found these discoveries.

Zimbagwe ndi shango ḽi no wanala devhula ha Afurika Tshipembe.
Zimbabwe is a country found north of South Africa.

Mozambikwi ndi shango lino wanala vhubvaḓuvha ha Afurika Tshipembe.
Mozambique is a country found east of South Africa.

Afurika Tshipembe (Riphabuḽiki ya Afurika Tshipembe) ndi shango ḽi no wanala kha pida thsa tshipembe tsha dzhango la Afurika.
South Africa (Republic of South Africa) is a country found (at the?) ___________ south(ern) (point) _______Afrika.

Mashango are tsini nalo ndi Zimbagwe, Li-So...
(It borders/It's neighbors are) Zimbabwe, Leso..

Dictionary of words

shango = country
ha = another version of of
li no/lino = maybe that lies or that is

7 - Rivers

I was reading through some articles when I came across the Limpopo river :-O

Mulambo wa Limpopo bva nga ngomu ha dzhango la Afurika wa elela utshiya vhubvaduvha. Mulambo uyu nga vhulapfu u nga eḓana na kilomitha dza 1,600.
(The) Limpopo river (coming from in inside) ______(that exits in the east?) Afrika ______________. (The) River _________________ (1,600 kilometer?).

Ndi wone mulambo wa vhuvhili nga u hula kha milambo ino elela itshiya vhubvḓuvha. Mulambo muhulwane wa hone nd Zambezi.
___________ river ______________ . (The) River __________ Zambezi.