With a population of 1.1 billion, Africa is the second most populous continent in the world. In terms of area, Africa is also the second largest continent. So it's not surprising that so many different languages exist in this vast place.
African languages fall into the following four major language families:
Afro-Asian languages
Nile-Saharan language family
Nigerian-Congolese language family
Khoisan language family
Across the continent, more than 2,000 languages are spoken, for example, in Nigeria alone, there are 250.
Nigeria is one of the most linguistically diverse places on the planet, so it's special. In addition to this, Nigerians also use many sign languages.
With the exception of Nigeria, some languages are widely spoken throughout Africa. Today, we'll take a look at what are the 10 most commonly spoken languages in Africa.
10. Zulu: 10 million users
Zulu is mainly spoken in South Africa. It is very special because it has an atypical lip-tongue plug. Zulu is written in the Latin alphabet and is widely used in the media of southern Africa.
In addition, according to ethnographers, this language is one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages in the world, after Shona.
9. Amharic: 18.7 million speakers
Globally, Amharic is the most spoken of Semitic languages, with the exception of Arabic. In Ethiopia, the language is a working language and is spoken every day.
Elsewhere in Africa, 2.7 million migrants speak the language. Across Africa, as many as 18.7 million people speak Amharic.
8. Igbo: 24 million speakers
Igbo is the mother tongue of the Igbo people. The language has more than 20 dialects and is written in the Latin alphabet. Igbo is a tonal language.
7. Yoruba: 30 million users
The Yoruba language is widely spoken in Nigeria. It is also often used in Togo and Benin. It is written in the Latin alphabet and belongs to the tonal language.
6. Oromo language: more than 30 million users
This Cocht language is widely spoken in the region of northern Africa known as the Horn of Africa.
However, Oromo is not the official language of a particular country, and its uses include Ethiopia, Somalia, as well as Egypt and Kenya, and is written in the Latin alphabet.
5. Hausa language: more than 50 million users
Hausa is widely spoken in western and central Africa. People in northern Africa also use this language because it is a language of Chadian origin.
Hausa is a branch of the language spoken in western Chad and belongs to the Afro-Asian language family. The language has 23 to 25 phonemes.
4. Swahili: more than 100 million speakers
Swahili is a language often spoken in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It is a Bantu language spoken mainly by Swahili.
Swahili are found in the Dr. Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda, as well as Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Mozambique, so they are used in large numbers.
3. French: more than 120 million users
French is spoken in almost every part of the world, including Africa. This is because many African countries were once colonies of France.
In Morocco, Rwanda, Algeria, Senegal and many other countries, French is the lingua franca and is even spoken as a working language.
2. Arabic: more than 150 million users
Arabic is the most widely distributed language in Africa and is the official language of many Muslim countries, such as Algeria, Mauritania, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.
In Morocco, as well as in Eritrea, Western Sahara, Somalia, sudan, Chad and Djibouti, Arabic is one of the official languages.
1. English: About 200 million users
As the world's number one business language, English is also spoken as an official language in Botswana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Libya, Tanzania, ghana and Uganda.
In South Africa, English, like the other 10 languages, has a special official status as a language at the national level.
Description: This article is translated from afriquetimes.com, the original URL : https://afriquetimes.com/classement-des-10-langues-les-plus-parlees-en-afrique/