AFRICA
Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world’s languages, between 1,500 and 2,000. At least 75 African languages have more that one million speakers.
African languages are incredibly diverse. Some of the most widely spoken include Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Zulu, Amharic, and Arabic.
These languages are spoken by tens of millions of people across the continent and are often used as lingua francas in regions where multiple languages are spoken.
African languages belong to several language families, including Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan. The Niger-Congo family is the largest and most diverse, comprising over 1,000 languages spoken by over 400 million people.
Many African languages have also been influenced by colonial languages such as English, French, and Portuguese.
In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in promoting African languages and preserving them for future generations. This has led to the development of language revitalization programs and the use of technology to support language learning and preservation efforts.
LANGUAGE
Somali
Zulu
Pidgin
French
GEOGRAPHIC REGION/COUNTRY
South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe
Ethiopia
Algeria, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia
Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Iraq, Diaspora communities in the U.S. and Europe
Morocco
Sudan
Yemen, Southwest Saudi Arabia, Horn of Africa
Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Zambia
Somali, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya
South Africa
Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea
Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo