A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and Shona Vowels

Abstract

This paper is a comparative analysis between Chinese and Shona vowel system. The research is biased towards helping Chinese language learners whose mother tongue is Shona however it is expected to benefit other researchers interested in comparative researches. The main focus of this research is on the major differences that exist between these two languages, with an aim to predict and combat the possible pronunciation errors that may result from native language transfer. The research findings show that Chinese language’s vowel system is more complex than the Shona vowel system. It is therefore assumed that though Chinese language learners whose mother tongue is Shona language may find it challenging to acquire the Chinese vowel system, however if students are advised in advanced the differences between the Chinese and Shona vowels represented by same letters in the writing systems of these two languages, students are likely to have less pronunciation errors in Chinese since they will not borrow the Shona pronunciation strategies.