chiShona
Shona voice-over
Native Shona voice actors, cast for your audience and directed by our team. You hear a shortlist and approve a written quote before recording.
Real human voices
- Human
Real human voices
Every voice is a professional actor in a booth. No synthetic voices.
- Native
Their first language
Cast from speakers who grew up with the language your audience speaks.
- Directed
A director on every line
We listen for meaning, pace and pronunciation in the session, not after it.
Shona voices
No public Shona demos yet. We record samples on your own lines instead.
Samples on your own lines
Send a few lines of your script and we come back with Shona voices reading them.
Tell us about your projectWhat Shona voice-over is hired for
Zimbabwe
Harare speech is the broadcast reference.
Rural communities
Radio reaches audiences outside the cities.
The diaspora
Communities in South Africa and the UK.
Typical projects
- Banks and telecoms
- NGOs and health agencies
- Public bodies
- Consumer brands
Shona in a voice-over brief
Shona is a group of closely related varieties, with a written standard used in schools and broadcast in Zimbabwe. Words are built with prefixes that agree with each other, and tone helps separate words that are spelled the same. A voice from the capital will sound different from one raised in a rural province, and the audience notices. Before we cast we ask which community the message is for, whether the register is formal or conversational and how English terms for money, health or technology should be treated, so the shortlist matches the way your listeners speak.
Accent and direction notes
What our director listens for in a Shona session.
Tonal language
Tones shape meaning.
Dialect groups
Several dialects sit behind the standard.
English in business
Business mixes English.
What casting decides in Shona
Shona or English
Different audiences.
Register
Radio is conversational.
How we work
Casting
We shortlist voices for your language, audience and tone, and explain the difference between them. You choose, and approve a written quote.
Direction
A director runs the session against your brief: meaning, pace and every agreed pronunciation. You can listen in remotely.
Delivery
Every file is checked against the script word by word and technically, then delivered in your format and naming.
What decides the price
No price list: every quote is written for your project and states usage and the delivery date.
- Length
- Word count or running time of the finished audio.
- Use and territory
- Internal, online or broadcast; where it runs and for how long.
- Voice
- Some languages and voice profiles are scarcer than others.
- Picture and files
- Recording to timecode, splitting and naming add work.
Shona voice-over questions
Can you add English?
Yes.
Which dialect?
The standard by default.
Who reviews?
A native reviewer.
Tell us about your Shona project
Four questions. A draft script or a word count is enough; you get a written quote before anything is recorded.
Request received
Thank you. We’ll reply by email with the next steps.
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