How Many Different Languages Are Spoken In Africa?

With more than 2,000 distinct languages , Africa has a third of the world's languages with less than a seventh of the world's population.

How many languages are spoken in Afrika?

With anywhere between 1000 and 2000 languages , Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world's languages. The diversity of Africa's languages is evidenced by their populations. In total, there are at least 75 languages in Africa which have more than one million speakers.

How many countries and languages are there in Africa?

Even for a continent with 54 very different countries , Africa has a lot of languages. It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 languages are spoken here, many with their own set of varying dialects.

What are the four main language families in Africa?

The languages of Africa can be grouped into 6 major linguistic families. Each has a different history and geographic distribution on the continent. The four major families of AFRO-ASIATIC, NILO-SAHARAN, KHOISAN, and NIGER-CONGO are indicated on the map.

Is Italian spoken in Africa?

How Many People In Africa Speak Italian? There are at least some Italian speakers, or at least people who understand the language, in Africa. They are found primarily in the former colonies of Italian Libya (now just Libya) and Italian East Africa (now part of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia).

Is Zulu a written language?

Zulu, like most indigenous Southern African languages, was not a written language until the arrival of missionaries from Europe , who documented the language using the Latin script. The first grammar book of the Zulu language was published in Norway in 1850 by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder.

What is the main language spoken in Africa?

While Arabic is the most spoken language in Africa, there's plenty more – other popular languages include Amharic, Berber, Portuguese, Oromo, Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu and Shona.

Why is French spoken in Africa?

The French language was brought to the African continent through colonialism . During the 1950s and 60s, France and Belgium lost control of their African colonies, however, French is still spoken in at least 29 African countries. ... There is so much to learn about this magnificent continent!

What is the oldest language in Africa?

Africa is known for being home to some of the ancient languages in the world. Although it is hard to be certain that a particular language spoken in Africa was the oldest, many people agree on the name of Ancient Egyptian . The name of the Khoisan languages also shows up often during such discussions.

What are 3 languages spoken in Africa?

• SWAHILI. The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers. ...
• AMHARIC. Amharic is one of the main languages spoken in Ethiopia by over 20 million speakers. ...
• YORUBA. ...
• OROMO. ...
• Hausa. ...
• IGBO. ...
• ZULU. ...
• SHONA.

Do they speak French in Africa?

French remains the sole official language in 11 African countries , and the second official language in 10.

What's the most spoken language in the world?

1. English (1.132 million speakers) Native speakers: 379 million. ...
2. Mandarin (1.117 million speakers) ...
3. Hindi (615 million speakers) ...
4. Spanish (534 million speakers) ...
5. French (280 million speakers) ...
6. Arabic (274 million speakers) ...
7. Bengali (265 million speakers) ...
8. Russian (258 million speakers)

Is English an African language?

Regardless of whether English is labeled the colonial language, the global hegemonic language, or an African language, English is already becoming the language of the African continent as we speak .

Where is Russian spoken?

Where is Russian spoken? Russian is the official language in the Russian Federation , which has a population of more than 140 million people. Russian is also spoken in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other republics of the former USSR.

What African country speaks English?

Sierra Leone and Liberia are the only countries in Africa where English is spoken as the primary language. English is the primary language of Nigeria and Ghana, but the language is spoken as a lingua franca in both states.

What is the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin

As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

Who speaks Xhosa?

Xhosa language, Xhosa formerly spelled Xosa, a Bantu language spoken by seven million people in South Africa , especially in Eastern province. Xhosa is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

What are the top 10 most spoken languages in Africa?

• Swahili: Swahili, known as Kiswahili in the native tongue, is a Bantu language spoken by some 150 million Africans in the African Great Lakes region in Central and Southern Africa. ...
• Arabic: ...
• French: ...
• Hausa: ...
• Yoruba: ...
• Oromo: ...
• Igbo: ...
• Amharic:

What African countries speak Afrikaans?

What language did the Jesus speak?

Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic . Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.

How much of Africa speaks French?

Does Egypt speak French?

Most educated Egyptians are fluent in English or French or both , in addition to Arabic. There are also other minor linguistic groups. The Beja of the southern section of the Eastern Desert use an Afro-Asiatic language of the Cushitic branch known as To Bedawi (though some speak Tigre and many use Arabic).

Why do some Africans speak Arabic?

This ethnic identity is a product of the Arab conquest of North Africa during the Arab–Byzantine wars and the spread of Islam to Africa. ... The descendants of the original Arab settlers who continue to speak Arabic as a first language currently form the single largest population group in North Africa.

What is the second most studied language in the world?

French – Second most popular language of study in 77 out of 194 countries.

Which language is mother of all languages?

SANSKRIT is one of the official languages of India, and is popularly known as a classical language of the country. Considered to be the Mother of all Languages, it belongs to the Indic group of language family of Indo-European and its descendents, which are Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan.

Were any African languages written?

Perhaps the most famous African writing system is ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs . These developed later into forms known as Hieratic, Demotic and, through Phoenician and Greek, Coptic. ... As mentioned above, the Bohairic dialect of Coptic is used currently in the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Does everyone in South Africa speak Afrikaans?

Afrikaans is home language of 2.7-million white South Africans , or about six in every 10 (60.8%) white people. Next up is English, the first language of 1.6-million white South Africans. Three or four (35.9%) of every 10 white South Africans speak English at home.

Does South Africa speak English?

South Africa has 11 official languages and a multilingual population fluent in at least two. IsiZulu and isiXhosa are the largest languages, while English is spoken at home by only one in 10 people – most of them not white. ... For centuries South Africa's official languages were European – Dutch, English, Afrikaans.

How many countries are in Africa?

There are 54 countries in Africa today, according to the United Nations.

What is the mother tongue of all languages?

COIMBATORE: The Tamil language is older than Sanskrit and is “the mother of all languages in the world,” said Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi on Wednesday.

Is English widely spoken in Egypt?

The most widely spoken language in everyday life in Egypt is actually Egyptian Arabic, with around two thirds of the population fluent. ... Nowadays, English is the foreign language most likely to be spoken in Egypt .

How many country in Africa speak English?

How many countries in Africa have English as official language? There are 25 countries in the continent in which English is spoken as an official language.

What language is spoken in Morocco?

In Morocco there are two official languages, Arabic and Amazigh , which are spoken in the streets and villages of Morocco. Classical Arabic, more commonly known as Literary Arabic, is the administrative language of the country. Generally speaking, you will hear Moroccan Arabic spoken in the streets.

What African countries speak Spanish?

Equatorial Guinea gained its independence from Spain on 12 October 1968, but maintains the Spanish as its official language alongside French and recently (as of 2010) Portuguese, being currently the only African country where Spanish is an official language.

What is the easiest language to learn?

1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. ...
2. Swedish. ...
3. Spanish. ...
4. Dutch. ...
5. Portuguese. ...
6. Indonesian. ...
7. Italian. ...
8. French.

What's the first language in the world?

As far as the world knew, Sanskrit stood as the first spoken language because it dated as back as 5000 BC. New information indicates that although Sanskrit is among the oldest spoken languages, Tamil dates back further. Tamil dates as far back as 350 BC—works like the ‘Tholkappiyam,' an ancient poem, stand as evidence.

What's the sweetest language in the world?

According to a UNESCO survey, Bengali has been voted the sweetest language in the world; positioning Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues.

Who speaks Arabic in the world?

List of countries where Arabic is the primary language or where Arabic is more widely spoken. Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros , Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Where is Japanese spoken?

The Japanese language is spoken by the approximately 120 million inhabitants of Japan , and by the Japanese living in Hawaii and on the North and South American mainlands. It is also spoken as a second language by the Chinese and the Korean people who lived under Japanese occupation earlier this century.

What language is spoken in China?

Mandarin Chinese is known as 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), the “common speech,” and it has only been the official language of China since the 1930s, when the country established it as the standard dialect and began pushing to make this a reality nationwide.