Zimbabwe in other languages: exonyms, Harare, ISO codes, ten provinces

Houses of stone: Zimbabwe, Zimbabve, Zimbabue

The name comes from Great Zimbabwe, the medieval stone city near Masvingo, and is usually traced to Shona dzimba-dza-mabwe, houses of stones (Wikipedia, Zimbabwe). Before independence the country was Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia and, in 1979, Zimbabwe Rhodesia; the plain form Zimbabwe became official with independence in April 1980.

The w is where the spellings part, and the list shows three ways of handling it. Many keep it: English, French, Swahili, Polish and Dutch write Zimbabwe. Others turn it into a v, as Turkish, Croatian and Latvian Zimbabve or Esperanto Zimbabvo. Spanish and Asturian use a vowel instead, Zimbabue. German, Welsh and Romansh begin with S: Simbabwe.

Zimbabwe recognises 16 official languages under its 2013 constitution. The two largest African languages give the country as Nyika yeZimbabwe in Shona and Ilizwe laZimbabwe in Ndebele, and the anthem has a title in each: Blessed be the Land of Zimbabwe, Kalibusiswe Ilizwe leZimbabwe and Simudzai Mureza WeZimbabwe.

From Salisbury to Harare, Mashonaland to Matabeleland

Harare was founded in 1890 as Fort Salisbury and kept the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed on the second anniversary of independence (Wikipedia, Harare). The exonym list follows the new name almost everywhere: Хараре in Russian, ハラレ in Japanese, 哈拉雷 (Hǎlāléi) in Chinese.

The provinces go back to the colonial division into Mashonaland in the east and Matabeleland in the west. Both halves are still visible in the names, Mashonaland Central, East and West and Matabeleland North and South. Bulawayo and Harare, the two cities with provincial status, are the youngest units, created in 1997 (Wikipedia, Provinces of Zimbabwe).