Languages of Africa

The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families:

• Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Southern Africa.
• Afroasiatic languages are spread throughout Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel.
• Indo-European languages are spoken in South Africa and Namibia (Afrikaans, English, German) and are used as lingua francas in the former colonies of Britain and Liberia that was part of American Colonization Society (English), former colonies of France and of Belgium (French), former colonies of Portugal (Portuguese), former colonies of Italy (Italian), former colonies of Spain (Spanish) and the current Spanish territories of Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands (Spanish) and the current French territories of Mayotte and La Réunion.
• Various families of Nilo-Saharan languages (unity debated) are spoken from Tanzania to Eritrea and Sudan and from Chad to Mali.
• Austronesian languages are spoken in Madagascar.
• Khoe–Kwadi languages are spoken principally in Namibia and Botswana.

There are several other small families and language isolates, as well as creoles and languages that have yet to be classified. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of which are language isolates (see below).

The total number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100,^[1] and by some counts at "over 3,000".^[2] Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SIL Ethnologue),^[3] one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world. However, "One of the notable differences between Africa and most other linguistic areas is its relative uniformity. With few exceptions, all of Africa’s languages have been gathered into four major phyla."^[4]

Around a hundred languages are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Manding, Fulani and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. Twelve dialect clusters (which may group up to a hundred linguistic varieties) are spoken by 75 percent, and fifteen by 85 percent, of Africans as a first or additional language.^[5] Although many mid-sized languages are used on the radio, in newspapers and in primary-school education, and some of the larger ones are considered national languages, only a few are official at the national level. The African Union declared 2006 the "Year of African Languages".^[6]

Language groups[]

Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of three large language families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger–Congo. Another hundred belong to smaller families such as Ubangian (sometimes grouped within Niger-Congo) and the various families called Khoisan, or the Indo-European and Austronesian language families mainly spoken outside Africa; the presence of the latter two dates to 2,600 and 1,500 years ago, respectively. In addition, the languages of Africa include several unclassified languages and sign languages.

The earliest Afroasiatic languages are associated with the Capsian culture, the Nilo-Saharan languages are linked with the Khartoum Mesolithic/Neolithic, the Niger-Congo languages are correlated with the west and central African hoe-based farming traditions and the Khoisan languages are matched with the south and southeastern Wilton industries.^[7] More broadly, the Afroasiatic family is tentatively grouped within the Nostratic superfamily, and the Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo phyla form the Niger-Saharan macrophylum.^[8]

Afroasiatic languages[]

Afroasiatic languages are spoken throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia and parts of the Sahel. There are approximately 375 Afroasiatic languages spoken by over 400 million people. The main subfamilies of Afroasiatic are Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Omotic, Egyptian and Semitic. The Afroasiatic Urheimat is uncertain. The family's most extensive branch, the Semitic languages (including Arabic, Amharic and Hebrew among others), is the only branch of Afroasiatic that is spoken outside Africa.^[9]

Some of the most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include Arabic (a Semitic language, and a recent arrival from West Asia), Somali (Cushitic), Berber (Berber), Hausa (Chadic), Amharic (Semitic) and Oromo (Cushitic). Of the world's surviving language families, Afroasiatic has the longest written history, as both the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egyptian are members.

Nilo-Saharan languages[]

Nilo-Saharan languages consist of a hundred diverse languages. The proposed family has a speech area that stretches from the Nile Valley 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. Genetic linkage between these languages has not been conclusively demonstrated, and among linguists, support for the proposal is sparse.^[10][11] The languages share some unusual morphology, but if they are related, most of the branches must have undergone major restructuring since diverging from their common ancestor. The inclusion of the Songhay languages is questionable, and doubts have been raised over the Koman, Gumuz and Kadu branches.

Some of the better known Nilo-Saharan languages are Kanuri, Fur, Songhay, Nobiin and the widespread Nilotic family, which includes the Luo, Dinka and Maasai. The Nilo-Saharan languages are tonal.

Niger–Congo languages[]

The Niger–Congo languages constitute the largest language family spoken in West Africa and perhaps the world in terms of the number of languages. One of its salient features is an elaborate noun class system with grammatical concord. A large majority of languages of this family are tonal such as Yoruba and Igbo, Akan and Ewe language. A major branch of Niger–Congo languages is the Bantu phylum, which has a wider speech area than the rest of the family (see Niger–Congo B (Bantu) in the map above).

The Niger–Kordofanian language family, joining Niger–Congo with the Kordofanian languages of south-central Sudan, was proposed in the 1950s by Joseph Greenberg. Today, linguists often use "Niger–Congo" to refer to this entire family, including Kordofanian as a subfamily. One reason for this is that it is not clear whether Kordofanian was the first branch to diverge from rest of Niger–Congo. Mande has been claimed to be equally or more divergent. Niger–Congo is generally accepted by linguists, though a few question the inclusion of Mande and Dogon, and there is no conclusive evidence for the inclusion of Ubangian.

Other language families[]

Several languages spoken in Africa belong to language families concentrated or originating outside the African continent.

Austronesian[]

Malagasy belongs to the Austronesian languages and is the westernmost branch of the family. It is the national and co-official language of Madagascar and one of Malagasy dialects called Bushi is also spoken in Mayotte.

The ancestors of the Malagasy people migrated to Madagascar around 1,500 years ago from Southeast Asia, more specifically the island of Borneo. The origins of how they arrived to Madagascar remains a mystery, however the Austronesians are known for their seafaring culture. Despite the geographical isolation, Malagasy still has strong resemblance to Barito languages especially the Ma'anyan language of southern Borneo.

With more than 20 million speakers, Malagasy is one of the most widely spoken of the Austronesian languages.

Indo-European[]

Afrikaans is Indo-European, as is most of the vocabulary of most African creole languages. Afrikaans evolved from the Dutch vernacular^[12][13] of South Holland (Hollandic dialect)^[14][15] spoken by the mainly Dutch settlers of what is now South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century, including the loss of verbal conjugation (save for 5 modal verbs), as well as grammatical case and gender.^[16] Most Afrikaans speakers live in South Africa. In Namibia it is the lingua franca. Overall 15 to 20 million people are estimated to speak Afrikaans.

Since the colonial era, Indo-European languages such as Afrikaans, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish have held official status in many countries, and are widely spoken, generally as lingua francas. (See African French and African Portuguese.) German was once used in Germany's colonies there from the late 1800s until World War I, when Britain and France took over and revoked German's official status. Despite this, German is still spoken in Namibia, mostly among the white population. Although it lost its official status in the 1990s, it has been redesignated as a national language. Indian languages such as Gujarati are spoken by South Asian expatriates exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-European languages could be found in various parts of the continent, such as Old Persian and Greek in Egypt, Latin and Vandalic in North Africa and Modern Persian in the Horn of Africa.

Small families[]

The three small Khoisan families of southern Africa have not been shown to be closely related to any other major language family. In addition, there are various other families that have not been demonstrated to belong to one of these families. (The questionable branches of Nilo-Saharan were covered above, and are not repeated here.)

• Mande, some 70 languages, including the major languages of Mali and Guinea. These are generally thought to be divergent Niger–Congo, but debate persists.
• Ubangian, some 70 languages, centered on the languages of the Central African Republic; may be Niger–Congo
• Khoe, around 10 languages, the primary family of Khoisan languages of Namibia and Botswana
• Sandawe, an isolate of Tanzania, possibly related to Khoe
• Kx’a, a language of Southern Africa
• Tuu, or Taa-ǃKwi, two surviving languages
• Hadza, an isolate of Tanzania
• Bangime, a likely isolate of Mali
• Jalaa, a likely isolate of Nigeria
• Laal, a possible isolate of Chad

Khoisan is a term of convenience covering some 30 languages spoken by around 300,000–400,000 people. There are five Khoisan families that have not been shown to be related to each other: Khoe, Tuu and Kx’a, which are found mainly in Namibia and Botswana, as well as Sandawe and Hadza of Tanzania, which are language isolates. A striking feature of Khoisan languages, and the reason they are often grouped together, is their use of click consonants. Some neighbouring Bantu languages (notably Xhosa and Zulu) have clicks as well, but these were adopted from Khoisan languages. The Khoisan languages are also tonal.

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. Some are based on Indo-European languages (e.g. Krio from English in Sierra Leone and the very similar Pidgin in Nigeria, Ghana and parts of Cameroon; Cape Verdean Creole in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau Creole in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, all from Portuguese; Seychellois Creole in the Seychelles and Mauritian Creole in Mauritius, both from French); some are based on Arabic (e.g. Juba Arabic in the southern Sudan, or Nubi in parts of Uganda and Kenya); some are based on local languages (e.g. Sango, the main language of the Central African Republic); while in Cameroon a creole based on French, English and local African languages known as Camfranglais has started to become popular.

Unclassified languages[]

A fair number of unclassified languages are reported in Africa. Many remain unclassified simply for lack of data; among the better-investigated ones that continue to resist easy classification are:

• possibly Afroasiatic: Ongota, Gomba
• possibly Nilo-Saharan: Shabo
• possibly Niger–Congo: Jalaa, Mbre, Bayot
• possibly Khoe: Kwadi
• unknown: Laal, Mpre

Of these, Jalaa is perhaps the most likely to be an isolate.

Less-well investigated languages include Irimba, Luo, Mawa, Rer Bare (possibly Bantu), Bete (evidently Jukunoid), Bung (unclear), Kujarge (evidently Chadic), Lufu (Jukunoid), Meroitic (possibly Afroasiatic), Oropom (possibly spurious) and Weyto (evidently Cushitic). Several of these are extinct, and adequate comparative data is thus unlikely to be forthcoming. Hombert & Philippson (2009)^[17] list a number of African languages that have been classified as language isolates at one point or another. Many of these are simply unclassified, but Hombert & Philippson believe Africa has about twenty language families, including isolates. Beside the possibilities listed above, there are:

• Aasax or Aramanik (Tanzania) (South Cushitic? contains non-Cushitic lexicon)
• Imeraguen (Mauritania) - Hassaniyya Arabic restructured on an Azêr (Soninke) base
• Kara (Fer?) (Central African Republic)
• Oblo (Cameroon) (Adamawa? Extinct?)

Roger Blench notes a couple additional possibilities:

• Defaka (Nigeria)
• Dompo (Ghana)

Below is a list of language isolates and otherwise unclassified languages in Africa, from Vossen & Dimmendaal (2020:434):^[18]

Language	Country
Bangi Me	Mali
Bayot	Senegal
Dompo	Ghana
Ega	Ivory Coast
Gomba	Ethiopia
Gumuz	Ethiopia, Sudan
Hadza	Tanzania
Irimba	Gabon
Jalaa	Nigeria
Kujarge	Chad
Laal	Chad
Lufu	Nigeria
Luo	Cameroon
Mawa	Nigeria
Meyobe	Benin, Togo
Mimi of Decorse; Mimi of Nachtigal	Chad
Mpra	Ghana
Oblo	Cameroon
Ongota	Ethiopia
Oropom	Kenya, Uganda
Rer Bare	Ethiopia
Shabo	Ethiopia
Weyto	Ethiopia
Wutana	Nigeria
Yeni	Cameroon

Sign languages[]

Many African countries have national sign languages, such as Algerian Sign Language, Tunisian Sign Language, Ethiopian Sign Language. Other sign languages are restricted to small areas or single villages, such as Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana. Tanzania has seven, one for each of its schools for the Deaf, all of which are discouraged. Not much is known, since little has been published on these languages

Sign language systems extant in Africa include the Paget Gorman Sign System used in Namibia and Angola, the Sudanese Sign languages used in Sudan and South Sudan, the Arab Sign languages used across the Arab Mideast, the Francosign languages used in Francophone Africa and other areas such as Ghana and Tunisia, and the Tanzanian Sign languages used in Tanzania.

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. A case in point is the Bantu expansion, in which Bantu-speaking peoples expanded over most of Sub-Equatorial Africa, intermingling with Khoi-San speaking peoples from much of Southeast Africa and Southern Africa and other peoples from Central Africa. Another example is the Arab expansion in the 7th century, which led to the extension of Arabic from its homeland in Asia, into much of North Africa and the Horn of Africa.

Trade languages are another age-old phenomenon in the African linguistic landscape. Cultural and linguistic innovations spread along trade routes and languages of peoples dominant in trade developed into languages of wider communication (lingua franca). Of particular importance in this respect are Berber (North and West Africa), Jula (western West Africa), Fulfulde (West Africa), Hausa (West Africa), Lingala (Congo), Swahili (Southeast Africa), Somali (Horn of Africa) and Arabic (North Africa and Horn of Africa).

After gaining independence, many African countries, in the search for national unity, selected one language, generally the former colonial language, to be used in government and education. However, in recent years, African countries have become increasingly supportive of maintaining linguistic diversity. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.

Official languages[]

Besides the former colonial languages of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, the following languages are official at the national level in Africa (non-exhaustive list):

Afroasiatic

• Arabic in Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania,^[19] Morocco, Somalia,^[20] Sudan, Tunisia and Zanzibar (Tanzania)
• Berber in Morocco and Algeria^[21]
• Amharic, Oromo, Afar, Tigrigna, and Somali in Ethiopia
• Somali in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti
• Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea

Austronesian

• Malagasy in Madagascar

French Creole

• Seychelles Creole in Seychelles

Indo-European

• Afrikaans in South Africa

Niger-Congo

• Chewa in Malawi and Zimbabwe
• Comorian in the Comoros
• Kongo in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Republic of the Congo
• Kinyarwanda in Rwanda
• Kirundi in Burundi
• Sesotho in Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe
• Setswana/Tswana in Botswana and South Africa
• Shona, Sindebele in Zimbabwe
• Sepedi in South Africa
• Ndebele in South Africa^[22]
• Swahili in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda
• Swati in Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Africa
• Tsonga in South Africa
• Venda in South Africa
• Xhosa in South Africa
• Zulu in South Africa

Language	Family	Official status per country
Afrikaans	Indo-European	South Africa
Amharic	Afroasiatic	Ethiopia
Arabic	Afroasiatic	Algeria, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan,
Berber	Afroasiatic	Algeria, Morocco
Chewa	Niger-Congo	Malawi, Zimbabwe
Comorian	Niger-Congo	Comoros
Kikongo	Niger-Congo	Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo
Kinyarwanda	Niger-Congo	Rwanda
Kirundi	Niger-Congo	Burundi
Malagasy	Austronesian	Madagascar
Ndebele	Niger-Congo	South Africa
Oromo	Afroasiatic	Ethiopia[23][24][25]
Sepedi	Niger-Congo	South Africa
Sesotho	Niger-Congo	Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Setswana/Tswana	Niger-Congo	Botswana, South Africa
Seychelles Creole	French Creole	Seychelles
Shona	Niger-Congo	Zimbabwe
Sindebele	Niger-Congo	Zimbabwe
Somali	Afroasiatic	Somalia, Djibouti
Swahili	Niger-Congo	Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda
Swati	Niger-Congo	Eswatini, South Africa
Tigrinya	Afroasiatic	Ethiopia, Eritrea
Tsonga	Niger-Congo	South Africa
Venda	Niger-Congo	South Africa
Xhosa	Niger-Congo	South Africa
Zulu	Niger-Congo	South Africa

Cross-border languages[]

The colonial borders established by European powers following the Berlin Conference in 1884–1885 divided a great many ethnic groups and African language speaking communities. This can cause divergence of a language on either side of a border (especially when the official languages are different), for example, in orthographic standards. Some notable cross-border languages include Berber (which stretches across much of North Africa and some parts of West Africa), Kikongo (that stretches across northern Angola, western and coastal Democratic Republic of the Congo, and western and coastal Republic of the Congo), Somali (stretches across most of the Horn of Africa), Swahili (spoken in the African Great Lakes region), Fula (in the Sahel and West Africa) and Luo (in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan).

Some prominent Africans such as former Malian president and former Chairman of the African Commission, Alpha Oumar Konaré, have referred to cross-border languages as a factor that can promote African unity.^[26]

Language change and planning[]

Language is not static in Africa any more than on other continents. In addition to the (likely modest) impact of borders, there are also cases of dialect levelling (such as in Igbo and probably many others), koinés (such as N'Ko and possibly Runyakitara) and emergence of new dialects (such as Sheng). In some countries, there are official efforts to develop standardized language versions.

There are also many less widely spoken languages that may be considered endangered languages.

Demographics[]

Of the 1 billion Africans (in 2009), about 17 percent speak an Arabic dialect.^{[citation needed]} About 10 percent speak Swahili,^{[citation needed]} the lingua franca of Southeast Africa; about 5 percent speak a Berber dialect;^{[citation needed]} and about 5 percent speak Hausa, which serves as a lingua franca in much of the Sahel. Other important West African languages are Yoruba, Igbo, Akan and Fula. Major Horn of Africa languages are Somali, Amharic and Oromo. Important South African languages are Sotho, Tswana, Pedi, Venda, Tsonga, Swazi, Southern Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans.^[27]

English, French and Portuguese are important languages in Africa. About 130 million, 115 million and 35 million Africans, respectively, speak them as either native or secondary languages. Portuguese has become the national language of Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, and Portuguese is the official language of Mozambique. The economies of Angola and Mozambique are quickly becoming economic powerhouses in Africa.^[28] Through (among other factors) sheer demographic weight, Africans are increasingly taking ownership^{[citation needed]} of these three world languages as they are having an ever-greater influence on the research, economic growth and development in the African countries where English, French and Portuguese are spoken.

Linguistic features[]

Some linguistic features are particularly common among languages spoken in Africa, whereas others are less common. Such shared traits probably are not due to a common origin of all African languages. Instead, some may be due to language contact (resulting in borrowing) and specific idioms and phrases may be due to a similar cultural background.

Phonological[]

Some widespread phonetic features include:

• certain types of consonants, such as implosives (/ɓa/), ejectives (/kʼa/), the labiodental flap and in southern Africa, clicks (/ǂa/, /ᵑǃa/). True implosives are rare outside Africa, and clicks and the flap almost unheard of.
• doubly articulated labial-velar stops like /k͡pa/ and /ɡ͡ba/ are found in places south of the Sahara.
• prenasalized consonants, like /mpa/ and /ŋɡa/, are widespread in Africa but not common outside it.
• sequences of stops and fricatives at the beginnings of words, such as /fsa/, /pta/ and /dt͡sk͡xʼa/.
• nasal stops which only occur with nasal vowels, such as [ba] vs. [mã] (but both [pa] and [pã]), especially in West Africa.
• vowels contrasting an advanced or retracted tongue, commonly called "tense" and "lax".
• simple tone systems which are used for grammatical purposes.

Sounds that are relatively uncommon in African languages include uvular consonants, diphthongs and front rounded vowels

Tonal languages are found throughout the world but are predominantly used in Africa. Both the Nilo-Saharan and the Khoi-San phyla are fully tonal. The large majority of the Niger–Congo languages are also tonal. Tonal languages are also found in the Omotic, Chadic and South & East Cushitic branches of Afroasiatic. The most common type of tonal system opposes two tone levels, High (H) and Low (L). Contour tones do occur, and can often be analysed as two or more tones in succession on a single syllable. Tone melodies play an important role, meaning that it is often possible to state significant generalizations by separating tone sequences ("melodies") from the segments that bear them. Tonal sandhi processes like tone spread, tone shift, downstep and downdrift are common in African languages.

Syntactic[]

Widespread syntactical structures include the common use of adjectival verbs and the expression of comparison by means of a verb 'to surpass'. The Niger–Congo languages have large numbers of genders (noun classes) which cause agreement in verbs and other words. Case, tense and other categories may be distinguished only by tone. Auxiliary verbs are also widespread among African languages; the fusing of subject markers and TAM/polarity auxiliaries into what are known as tense pronouns are more common in auxiliary verb constructions in African languages than in most other parts of the world.^[29]

Semantic[]

Quite often, only one term is used for both animal and meat; the word nama or nyama for animal/meat is particularly widespread in otherwise widely divergent African languages.

Demographics[]

The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of given languages within Africa:

Language	Family	Native speakers (L1)	Official status per country
Abron	Niger–Congo	1,393,000[30]	Ghana
Afar	Afroasiatic		Spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia
Afrikaans	Indo-European	7,200,000[31]	National language in Namibia, co-official in South Africa
Akan	Niger–Congo	11,000,000[32]	None. Government sponsored language of Ghana
Amharic	Afroasiatic	21,800,000[33]	Ethiopia
Arabic	Afroasiatic	150,000,000[34] but with separate mutually unintelligible varieties	Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia
Berber	Afroasiatic	16,000,000[35] (estimated) (including separate mutually unintelligible varieties)	Morocco, Algeria
Bhojpuri	Indo-European	65,300[36]	Spoken in Mauritius
Cape Verdean Creole	Portuguese Creole		National language in Cape Verde
Chewa	Niger–Congo	9,700,000[37]	Malawi, Zimbabwe
Comorian	Niger–Congo		Comoros
Dangme	Niger–Congo	1,020,000[38]	Ghana
English	Indo-European	6,500,000[39] (estimated)	See List of territorial entities where English is an official language
Fon	Niger–Congo		Benin
French	Indo-European	1,200,000[40] (estimated)	See List of territorial entities where French is an official language and African French
Fulani	Niger–Congo	25,000,000[32]	National language of Senegal
Ga	Niger–Congo		Ghana
German	Indo-European		National language of Namibia, special status in South Africa
Gikuyu	Niger–Congo	8,100,000[41]	Spoken in Kenya
Hausa	Afroasiatic	48,637,300[42]	Recognized in Nigeria, Ghana, Niger
Hindi	Indo-European		Spoken in Mauritius
Igbo	Niger–Congo	27,000,000[43]	Native in Nigeria
Italian	Indo-European		Recognized in Eritrea and Somalia
Khoekhoe	Khoe	300,000[44]	National language of Namibia
Kimbundu	Niger–Congo		Angola
Kinyarwanda	Niger–Congo	9,800,000[32]	Rwanda
Kirundi	Niger–Congo	8,800,000[32]	Burundi
Kituba	Kongo-based		Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo
Kongo	Niger–Congo	5,600,000[45]	Angola, recognised national language of Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo
Lingala	Niger–Congo	5,500,000[32]	National language of Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo
Luganda	Niger–Congo	4,100,000[46]	Native language of Uganda
Luo	Nilo-Saharan (probable)	5,000,000[47]	Kenya, Tanzania
Malagasy	Austronesian	18,000,000[48]	Madagascar
Mauritian Creole	French Creole	1,100,000[49]	Native language of Mauritius
Mossi	Niger–Congo	7,600,000[32]	Recognised regional language in Burkina Faso
Nambya	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Ndau	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Ndebele	Niger–Congo	1,100,000[50]	Statutory national language in South Africa
Noon	Niger–Congo		Senegal
Northern Ndebele	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Northern Sotho	Niger–Congo	4,600,000[51]	South Africa
Oromo	Afroasiatic	37,071,900 (2020) [52]	Ethiopia
Portuguese	Indo-European	> 17,000,000[53]	Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe
Sena	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Sepedi	Niger–Congo		South Africa
Sesotho	Niger–Congo	5,600,000[54]	Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Seychellois Creole	French Creole		Seychelles
Shona	Niger–Congo	7,200,000[55]	Zimbabwe
Somali	Afroasiatic	16,600,000[56]	Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya
Spanish	Indo-European	1,100,000[57]	Equatorial Guinea, Spain (Ceuta, Melilla, Canary Islands), still marginally spoken in Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, recognized in Morocco
Southern Ndebele	Niger–Congo		South Africa
Swahili	Niger–Congo	50,000,000[58]	Official in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Swazi	Niger–Congo		Official in South Africa, Swaziland
Tamil	Dravidian		Spoken in Mauritius
Telugu	Dravidian		Spoken in Mauritius
Tigrinya	Afroasiatic	7,000,000[59]	Eritrea, regional language in Ethiopia
Tonga	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Kalenjin	Nilo-Saharan	6, 600, 000	Spoken in Kenya and Uganda
Tsonga	Niger–Congo		Zimbabwe
Twi	Niger–Congo		Regional language in Ghana
Tshiluba	Niger–Congo	6,300,000[60] (1991)	National language of Democratic Republic of the Congo
Tsonga	Niger–Congo	5,000,000[61]	South Africa, Zimbabwe (as 'as Shangani'), Mozambique
Tshivenda	Niger–Congo		South Africa, Zimbabwe
Tswana	Niger–Congo	5,800,000[62]	Botswana, South Africa, spoken in Zimbabwe
Umbundu	Niger–Congo	6,000,000[63]	Angola
Venda	Niger–Congo	1,300,000[64]	South Africa, Zimbabwe
Wolof	Niger–Congo	5,454,000[65]	Lingua franca in Senegal
Xhosa	Niger–Congo	7,600,000[32]	South Africa, Zimbabwe
Yoruba	Niger–Congo	28,000,000[32]	Nigeria, Benin, Togo
Zulu	Niger–Congo	10,400,000[32]	South Africa

By region[]

Below is a list of the major languages of Africa by region, family and total number of primary language speakers in millions.

North Africa Afroasiatic Semitic Arabic: 200 Berber: 30–40 Kabyle Atlas Tuareg Zenaga Nilo-Saharan Nubian: 5+[66] Fur: 5+[67][68][69] Zaghawa[70] Masalit Niger–Congo Kordofanian languages Nuba[71]

Central Africa Niger–Congo, Bantu Lingala[72] Kinyarwanda:12[73] Kongo:5+[72][74][75] Tshiluba[72] Kirundi[76]

Eastern Africa Niger–Congo, Bantu: Swahili: 5–10 Gikuyu: 8+[77] Ganda:6[78] Luhya: 6+[77] Austronesian Malagasy: 20+[79] Niger–Congo, Ubangian Gbaya:2[80] Banda:1-2[80] Zande[81] Nilo-Saharan Kanuri:10[82][32][83] Luo:5+[77][78] Sara:3-4[83][80] Kalenjin:6+[77] Dinka[81] Nuer[81] Shilluk[81] Maasai:1-2[84][85] Afroasiatic Semitic Amharic: 20+ Tigrinya: 5 Cushitic Somali: 10–15 Oromo: 30–35 Nilo-Saharan: 1[86][87] Gumuz Anuak Kunama Nara Niger–Congo: 1[88][89] Zigula

Southern Africa Niger–Congo, Bantu Zulu: 10[90] Xhosa: 8[90] Chokwe[91] Shona: 7 Sotho: 5 Tsonga: 12 Tswana: 4[90][92] Umbundu: 4[74] Northern Sotho: 4[90] Chichewa: 8[93][94] Makua: 8[95] Indo-European Germanic Afrikaans: 7 English: 5 Romance Portuguese: 14

West Africa Niger–Congo Benue–Congo Ibibio (Nigeria): 7[82] Volta–Niger Igbo (Nigeria): 30–35[82] Yoruba: 40[82] Kwa: Akan (Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire): 11 Gur More: 5 Senegambian Fula (West Africa): 40[82][32][96][97][98] Wolof: 8[96][97] Afroasiatic Chadic Hausa: 50[82][32] Nilo-Saharan Saharan Kanuri: 10[32][83] Songhai:5[32][99] Zarma:5[32][99]

See also[]

General[]

• Languages of the African Union
• Writing systems of Africa
• Journal of West African Languages

Works[]

• Polyglotta Africana
• The Languages of Africa

Classifiers[]

• Karl Lepsius
• Wilhelm Bleek
• Carl Meinhof
• Diedrich Westermann
• Joseph Greenberg

Colonial and migratory influences[]

• Arabization
• Asian Africans
• Dutch Language Union
• French West Africa
• German colonization of Africa
• Islamization of Egypt
• Italian East Africa — including Italian Ethiopia
• Italian North Africa
• North African Arabs
• Maghrebi Arabic — via Muslim conquest of the Maghreb
• Portuguese language in Africa — predominant in Portuguese-speaking African countries
• Spanish Guinea — presently Equatorial Guinea
• Spanish West Africa
• Spanish North Africa
• West African Pidgin English
• White Africans of European ancestry

Notes[]

References[]

• Childs, G. Tucker (2003). An Introduction to African Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamin.
• Chimhundu, Herbert (2002). Language Policies in Africa. (Final report of the Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa.) Revised version. UNESCO.
• Cust, Robert Needham (1883). Modern Languages of Africa.
• Ellis, Stephen (ed.) (1996). Africa Now: People - Policies - Institutions. The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS).
• Elugbe, Ben (1998) "Cross-border and major languages of Africa." In K. Legère (editor), Cross-border Languages: Reports and Studies, Regional Workshop on Cross-Border Languages, National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), Okahandja, 23–27 September 1996. Windhoek: Gamsberg Macmillan.
• Ethnologue.com's Africa: A listing of African languages and language families.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1983). 'Some areal characteristics of African languages.' In Ivan R. Dihoff (editor), Current Approaches to African Linguistics, Vol. 1 (Publications in African Languages and Linguistics, Vol. 1), Dordrecht: Foris, 3-21.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966). The Languages of Africa (2nd edition with additions and corrections). Bloomington: Indiana University.
• Heine, Bernd and Derek Nurse (editors) (2000). African Languages: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Webb, Vic and Kembo-Sure (editors) (1998). African Voices: An Introduction to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
• Westphal, E.O.J. (1963). The Linguistic Prehistory of Southern Africa: Bush, Kwadi, Hottentot, and Bantu Linguistic Relationships. Africa, 33(3), 237–265. doi:10.2307/1157418

External links[]

• Mofeko, one of the largest online resources for African languages
• African language resources for children
• Web resources for African languages
• Linguistic maps of Africa from Muturzikin.com
• Online Dictionaries, e-books and other online fulltexts in or on African languages