Languages of Africa
The number of languages natively spoken in
- .
- .
- Saharan, Nilotic and Central Sudanic languages (previously grouped under the hypothetical Nilo-Saharan macro-family), are present in East Africa and Sahel.
- Austronesian languages are spoken in Madagascar and parts of the Comoros.
- Khoe–Kwadi languages are spoken principally in Namibia and Botswana.
- La Réunion.
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.
Around a hundred languages are widely used for interethnic communication. These include
The African Union declared 2006 the "Year of African Languages".[7]
Language groups
Most languages natively spoken in Africa belong to one of the two large
The earliest Afroasiatic languages are associated with the Capsian culture, the Saharan languages are linked with the Khartoum Mesolithic/Neolithic cultures. 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.[8]
Afroasiatic languages
Some of the most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include
Nilo-Saharan languages
Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed grouping of some one hundred diverse languages. Genealogical linkage between these languages has failed to be conclusively demonstrated, and support for the proposal is sparse among linguists.[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.
This hypothetical family would reach an expanse that stretches from the
Some of the better known Nilo-Saharan languages are
Niger–Congo languages
The
The
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 a Malagasy dialect 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
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
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 classifications below follow Glottolog.
- 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
- Te-Ne-Omotic, some 20 languages, previously classified under Afro-Asiatic, spoken in Ethiopia
- Khoe-Kwadi, around 10 languages, the primary family of Khoisan languages of Namibia and Botswana
- Surmic, some 11 languages, previously classified within either Sudanic or Nilo-Saharan
- Kx'a, around five languages, with various dialects, spoken in Southern Africa
- South Omotic, around five languages; previously classified within Afro-Asiatic, spoken in Ethiopia
- Tuu, or Taa-ǃKwi, two surviving languages
- Hadza, an isolate of Tanzania
- Bangime, a likely isolate of Mali
- Jalaa, a likely isolate of Nigeria
- Sandawe, an isolate of Tanzania
- Laal, a possible isolate of Chad
Creole languages
Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion of the world's
Unclassified languages
A fair number of
- possibly Afroasiatic: Ongota, Gomba
- possibly Nilo-Saharan: Shabo
- possibly Niger–Congo: Jalaa, Mbre, Bayot
- unknown: Mpre
Of these, Jalaa is perhaps the most likely to be an isolate.
Less-well investigated languages include
- Aasax or Aramanik (Tanzania) (South Cushitic? contains non-Cushitic lexicon)
- Hassaniyya Arabic restructured on an Azêr (Soninke) base
- Kara (Fer?) (Central African Republic)
- Oblo (Cameroon) (Adamawa? Extinct?)
Roger Blench notes a couple additional possibilities:
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
Sign language systems extant in Africa include the
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
After gaining independence, many African countries, in the search for national unity, selected one language, generally the former Indo-European 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. This presents a methodological complication when collecting data in Africa and limited literature exists. An analysis of Afrobarometer public opinion survey data of 36 countries suggested that survey interviewers and respondents could engage in various linguistic behaviors, such as code-switching during the survey.[19] Moreover, some African countries have been considering removing their official former Indo-European colonial languages, like Mali and Burkina Faso which removed French as an official language in 2024.[20][21]
Official languages
- Afroasiatic
- Berber:
- Cushitic:
- Semitic:
- Austronesian
- Ngbandi creole
- Sango in the Central African Republic
- French Creole
- Seychelles Creole in Seychelles
- Indo-European
- Afrikaans in South Africa
- English in Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Liberia, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Namibia, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mauritius.
- French in Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, and Togo.[26]
- Portuguese in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea.[27]
- Spanish in Equatorial Guinea[28]
- Niger-Congo
- Bambara in Mali[23]
- Bobo in Mali[23]
- Bozo in Mali[23]
- Chewa in Malawi and Zimbabwe
- Comorian in the Comoros
- Dogon in Mali[23]
- Fula in Mali[23]
- Kassonke in Mali[23]
- Kinyarwanda in Rwanda
- Kirundi in Burundi
- Maninke in Mali[23]
- Minyanka in Mali[23]
- Senufo in Mali[23]
- Setswana in Botswana and South Africa
- Shona, Sindebele in Zimbabwe
- Sepediin South Africa
- Soninke in Mali[23]
- Ndebele in South Africa[29]
- Swahili in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda
- Swati in Eswatini (Swaziland) and South Africa
- Tsongain South Africa
- Vendain South Africa
- Xhosa in South Africa
- Zulu in South Africa
- Nilo-Saharan
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, Libya |
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[30][31][32] |
Sango | French Creole | Central African Republic |
Sepedi | Niger-Congo | South Africa |
Sesotho | Niger-Congo | Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
Setswana | Niger-Congo | Botswana, South Africa |
Seychelles Creole | French Creole | Seychelles |
Shona | Niger-Congo | Zimbabwe |
Sindebele | Niger-Congo | Zimbabwe |
Somali | Afroasiatic | Somalia, Djibouti,
Ethiopia, Kenya |
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
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.[33]
Language change and planning
Language is not static in Africa any more than on other continents.[
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
French, English and Portuguese are important languages in Africa. About 320 million,[35][36] 240 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.[37]
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 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 stopslike /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
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.[38]
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.[citation needed]
Demographics
The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of given languages within Africa:
By region
Below is a list of the major languages of Africa by region, family and total number of
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See also
General
Works
Classifiers
- Karl Lepsius
- Lionel Bender
- Wilhelm Bleek
- Christopher Ehret
- 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
- ^ Heine & Nurse (2000)
- ISBN 0-86543-534-0. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
Africa is incredibly rich in language—over 3,000 indigenous languages by some counts, and many creoles, pidgins, and lingua francas.
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Langues nationales : langues considérées comme propres à une nation ou à un pays. Selon la Loi n°96- 049 du 23 août 1996, les langues nationales du Mali sont : le bamanankan (bambara), le bomu (bobo), le bozo (bozo), le dTgTsT (dogon), le fulfulde (peul), le hasanya (maure), le mamara (miniyanka), le maninkakan (malinké) le soninke (sarakolé), le soKoy (songhoï), le syenara (sénoufo), le tamasayt (tamasheq), le xaasongaxanKo (khassonké).
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- ^ According to article 7 of The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic Archived 18 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine: "The official languages of the Somali Republic shall be Somali (Maay and Maxaatiri) and Arabic. The second languages of the Transitional Federal Government shall be English and Italian".
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- ^ "Tongues under threat". The Economist. 22 January 2011. p. 58.
- ^ 327 millions de francophones dans le monde en 2023 odsef.fss.ulaval.ca (in French)
- ^ Verdeau, Paul (20 March 2023). "En 2023, 327 millions de personnes parlent français dans le monde, dont près de la moitié en Afrique". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ "The Embassy of the Republic of Angola – Culture". Archived from the original on 10 August 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- .
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- ^ "English". Ethnologue.
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- ^ "Igbo". Ethnologue.
- ISBN 978-3-89645-873-5.
- ^ "Kongo". Ethnologue.
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- ^ a b "Malagasy". Ethnologue.
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- ISBN 0-415-93933-X.
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- ^ "Tswana". 19 November 2019.
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There is no exact census for the Nubian population but some researchers estimate their number in Sudan for about 5 millions and about three millions in Egypt.
- ^ "CORRECTION: Census shows South Sudan population at 8.2 million: report – Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan". www.sudantribune.com. Archived from the original on 24 December 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
- ^ "unsudanig.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ DRDC Report on the 5th Population Census in Sudan darfurcentre.ch [permanent dead link]
- ISBN 978-1-59884-363-7.
The Zaghawa is one of the major divisions of the Beri peoples who live in western Sudan and eastern Chad, and their language, also called Zaghawa, belongs to the Saharan branch of the Nilo-Saharan language group.
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References
- Childs, George Tucker (2003). An Introduction to African Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamin. OCLC 52766015.
- Chimhundu, Herbert (2002). Language Policies in Africa (PDF). Intergovernmental Conference on Language Policies in Africa (Revised ed.). Harare: UNESCO. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2017.
- Cust, Robert Needham (1883). Modern Languages of Africa.
- Ellis, Stephen, ed. (1996). Africa Now: People, Policies, and Institutions. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS). ISBN 9780435089870.
- Elugbe, Ben (1998). "Cross-border and major languages of Africa". In Legère, K. (ed.). 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 Dihoff, Ivan R. (ed.). Current Approaches to African Linguistics. Publications in African Languages and Linguistics. Vol. 1. Dordrecht: Foris. pp. 3–21.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966). The Languages of Africa (2nd ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University.
- Heine, Bernd; Nurse, Derek, eds. (2000). African Languages: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Webb, Vic; Kembo-Sure, eds. (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. S2CID 143635864.
External links
- one of the largest online resources for African languages at Mofeko
- African language resources for children Archived 3 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- 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