Penn Language Center

Shona is a language from the Bantu family and is spoken in Zimbabwe. It is the mother tongue of 75% of the people of Zimbabwe. There is a multiplicity of Shona dialects and sub-dialects, and the major groups include  Karanga, spoken by the Karanga people who live mostly in Masvingo province and large parts of the Midlands provinces; Zezuru, spoken by the Zezuru people who live in the capital, Harare, and in most parts of the surrounding Mashonaland provinces; and Manyika, spoken by the Manyika people who reside in the Manicaland province. It is these three major dialects that form the group known as the "central dialects," around which Standard Shona is based. Standard Shona is the language that is taught in most of Zimbabwe schools. Most people in Zimbabwe use their original dialects whenever they are speaking, but express themselves in Standard Shona when writing.
In addition to these major dialects, there is Ndau, spoken by the Ndau people who reside in some parts of Manicaland province, especially around the Chipinge area;
Korekore, spoken by the Korekore people who reside in the northwest region of the Zeruru area, up to the Zambian border; and Kalanga, spoken by the Kalanga people who inhabit the western parts of the country and extends to Botswana. The Kalanga were cut off from the main concentration of the Shona people by the invading Ndebele. Their speech is considerably different from that of the Shona people. For instance, Kalanga is the only dialect with the l sound; the other Shona dialects use only the r sound.

Source: African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania