The 11,, South Africans who speak isiZulu as their home language make up A full IsiZulu is spoken by It is the home language of 1. Over two-thirds Some 8. The rest are thinly spread across the other provinces. Within the provinces, isiZulu is spoken by over three-quarters Almost a fifth It is a small minority language in the rest of the provinces. Also known as: Southern Sotho First-language users : 3,, 7.
Sesotho is the language of the Free State, and the first language of 3,, South Africans, or 7. It is one of the three Sotho languages, with Sesotho sa Leboa and Setswana. Sesotho is spoken by just under a tenth 9. Most The inner curve of this bean-shaped province fits around the northwest border of Lesotho, a country where Sesotho and English are the official languages. Over a third Some 5.
Within the provinces, Sesotho is spoken by close to two-thirds Also known as: Northern Sotho First-language users : 4,, 9. Sesotho sa Leboa or Sepedi? The interim Constitution named the language Sesotho sa Leboa. It was then changed to Sepedi in the final Constitution of Debate on the right name continues.
Most language experts, as well as speakers of the language , consider Sesotho sa Leboa to be the correct name, and Sepedi to be a dialect. In a study of the language policy of six South African universities, five used Sesotho sa Leboa and one Sepedi. Like Sesotho and Setswana, it is a Sotho language. Sesotho sa Leboa is the first language of 4,, people, or 9.
Sesotho sa Leboa is spoken by It is the home language of just 0. Nearly two-thirds of Within the provinces, Sesotho sa Leboa is spoken by more than half Setswana is spoken by 9. It is the first language of 0. Over a half Within the provinces, Setswana is spoken by nearly two-thirds Also known as: Swati, Swazi First-language users : 1,, 2. SiSwati is mostly spoken in Mpumalanga, which along its curved eastern border almost encircles the country of Swaziland.
The 1,, people who speak siSwati are just 2. Among first-language siSwati speakers, In the population as a whole, siSwati is spoken by 3. Most siSwati speakers live in Mpumalanga — Another tenth Within the provinces, sisSwati is spoken by Also known as: Venda, Chivenda First-language users : 1,, 2. It is mostly spoken in the far northeast of Limpopo.
The 1,, South Africans who speak Tshivenda are just 2. Three quarters A further Within the provinces, Tshivenda is spoken by Within the broader Nguni-Tsonga language subfamily which it shares with isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu and siSwati, it alone falls into the Tswa-Ronga group, while the other languages are Nguni.
The 2,, South Africans who speak Xitsonga as their home language make up 4. Xitsonga is spoken by 5. See also: List of sign languages Africa. Further information: Demographics of Africa. Sino-African Relations. Entering Africa. Exchanges and Dialogues. Academic Exchanges. The 1st Ministerial Conference.
The 2nd Ministerial Conference. Beijing Summit and the 3rd Ministerial Conference. The 4th Ministerial Conference. The 5th Ministerial Conference. The 6th Ministerial Conference. Photo Exhibitions on Past Conferences. Reading China. China in a Sketch. China's Development. A Panorama of China. Relevant Links. Chinese Follow-up Committee members. Chinese Diplomatic Missions in Africa. China's Major Academic Institutions. China' s Major News Media.
Related African Websites. Languages of Africa. Nilo-Saharan languages Main article: Nilo-Saharan languages Nilo-Saharan is extremely diverse and thus a somewhat controversial grouping uniting over a hundred languages from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania and into Nigeria and DR Congo , with the Songhay languages along the middle reaches of the Niger River as a geographic outlier.
Niger-Congo languages Main article: Niger-Congo languages The Niger-Congo language family is the largest group of Africa and probably of the world in terms of the number of languages.
Khoisan languages Main article: Khoisan languages Khoisan is a term of convenience covering some 30 languages spoken by about , - , people. Other language families Austronesian and Indo-European Several languages spoken in Africa belong to language families concentrated or originating outside of the African continent: Malagasy , the language of Madagascar , is an Austronesian language.
Creole languages Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion of the world's creole languages are to be found in Africa. Unclassified languages A fair number of unclassified languages are reported in Africa; many remain unclassified simply for lack of data, but among the better-investigated ones may be listed: possibly Afroasiatic: Ongota possibly Nilo-Saharan: Shabo possibly Niger-Congo: Bangi-me , Laal , and Jalaa.
Language in Africa Throughout the long multilingual history of the African continent, African languages have been subject to phenomena like language contact, language expansion, language shift, and language death. Official languages Official languages - in many African countries there are several official languages.
Berber North Africa. Swahili East Africa. Hausa West Africa. Oromo Northeast Africa. Zulu South Africa. Somali Horn of Africa. Yoruba West Africa. Igbo West Africa. Amharic Northeast Africa. Bambara West Africa. Fula West Africa.
Malagasy Madacascar. Afrikaans South Africa. Lingala Democratic Republic of the Congo. Chichewa Southeast Africa. Xhosa South Africa. With speakers numbering to 45 million and increasing, it is predominantly spoken by countries in the Western and Central regions of Africa.
Hausa is a tonal language, which means the pitch of your voice can change the meaning of words! How exciting is that! Looking for a challenging learning experience? Hausa is your fix! The language, also called Yoruba , has 40 million speakers in parts of the continent. Yoruba is one of the more complex African languages. Many dialects of Yoruba exist in countries across Central Africa and is practiced by many speakers even now.
As a tonal language, it was mutually unintelligible even amongst speakers of the same tongue from different parts of the country. A standardized version was adopted to ensure uniformity in This continues to be practiced to date, with a lesser popular version developed in to accommodate the use of the language in typewriters and digital printing. Yoruba has rich roots in literature and prominent Yoruba authors have had their work turned into plays and foreign language books.
Igbo is spoken by over 45 million people and native to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, it is one of the oldest languages in West Africa. Thought to have originated in 9 th century AD, the language is characterized as a Niger-Congo language.
Igbo is a tonal language just as Yoruba, and it was only in the early s where a spelling system was adopted to incorporate the tonal changes into the writing system as well.
Igbo is one of the three official languages in Nigeria. Did you know that Marrakesh is actually more Berber than Arabic? Moroccan Arabic is actually very heavily influenced by the Berber language.
Berbers in Morocco typically speak a unified language of both Berber and Arabic similar to Spanglish. This ancient language is over years old! We have just listed out the 12 most spoken languages in Africa, however, the continent is linguistically plural and there are a lot more that is still alive. Start learning a language online from the comfort of your home. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly.
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