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Language groups. Clickable map showing the traditional language families, subfamilies and major languages spoken in Africa. Most languages natively spoken in Africa belong to one of the two large language families that dominate the continent: Afroasiatic, or Niger–Congo.
- Contents
- The Top Ten Languages in Africa
- The Next 40 Most Spoken Languages in Africa
1. Arabic
Number of speakers: Over 300 million Example phrase: السلام عليك [as-salām ‘alaykum] (May peace be with you) If you decide to learn Arabic, you’ll probably get more bang for your buck than you even thought possible. Arabic is a Semitic language and is an official language in Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya and Eritrea. It’s also widely spoken in many other countries. Arabic comes in a number of varieties, but if you learn Modern Standard Arabic, you’ll be able to communicate with m...
2. French
Number of speakers: 120 million in Africa Example phrase: Bonjour (Good day) French can get you pretty far in many African countries, especially in North, West and Central Africa, where a number of countries were French colonies in the past. African French has unique features that take some getting used to. Its accents and vocabulary are heavily influenced by surrounding native African languages, and the resulting dialects are rather distinct. Each African region is home to a variety of Frenc...
3. Swahili
Number of speakers: Over 100 million Example phrase: Hujambo (Greeting) Swahili, known as Kiswahili in the language itself, is a Bantu language widely spoken in the African Great Lakes region, which comprises a huge swath of Central, Southern and East Africa. With Swahili under your belt, you’ll be able to communicate in gorgeous countries like Tanzania and Kenya, where it’s an official language. Swahili will also help you get around parts of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the Democr...
If you want to start learning some of the most spoken languages in Africa right away, you can try a language program such as FluentU. You’ll hear native speakers in context, which really helps with pronunciation. Now that you know a little more about some major African languages, there’s no excuse to pass them up. You’ve seen how much territory the...
People also ask
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The 800 to 1,000 languages spoken in Africa today can be grouped into four families, or groups of languages thought to have common origins—Hamito-Semitic, or Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan.
Jul 30, 2018 · Arabic. Arabic is a Semitic language spoken by 150 million people in Africa, making it the most widely spoken language on the continent. Arabic speakers in Africa account for 62% of the total Arabic speakers in the world.
Nilo-Saharan languages, a group of languages that form one of the four language stocks or families on the African continent, the others being Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, and Niger-Congo. The Nilo-Saharan languages are presumed to be descended from a common ancestral language and, therefore, to be genetically related.
The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries.Scholars wishing to study the origins of language must draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons between human language and systems of animal ...
The languages of Africa include more than 3,000 languages. These languages include native languages (languages that come from Africa) and colonial languages, which were brought to Africa by colonists from Europe. The continent has the highest concentration of languages in the world. [1]
