What languages are 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.

What are the 3 most common languages spoken in Africa?

The most widely spoken languages of Africa, Swahili (200 million), Yoruba (45 million), Igbo (30 million), and Fula (35 million) all belong to the Niger-Congo family.

What is the main language they speak in Africa?

1. SWAHILI. The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers.

Is Spanish spoken in Africa?

Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, having become independent from Spain on October 12, 1968, during the eleventh Government of Francisco Franco, as part of the "process of decolonization of Africa", supported by the United Nations.

Is French spoken in Africa?

French is the official language in Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, the Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, the Seychelles, and Togo.

The Languages of Africa

Is Italian spoken in Africa?

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).

Why do Africans speak French?

Africa has the most French speakers of any continent. The French language was introduced to the African continent due to colonialism. France and Belgium lost control of their African colonies in the 1950s and 1960s. However, French is still spoken in at least 29 African countries.

Is Arabic African language?

Arabic. Arabic didn't originate in Africa, but today it's the mother tongue of over 140 million Africans. As a result, it's the most common native language on the continent overall. Most African Arabic speakers live in North Africa, where Arabic is the majority language.

Is Afrikaans a language?

Afrikaans language, also called Cape Dutch, West Germanic language of South Africa, developed from 17th-century Dutch, sometimes called Netherlandic, by the descendants of European (Dutch, German, and French) colonists, indigenous Khoisan peoples, and African and Asian slaves in the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good ...

What is the easiest African language to learn?

Swahili is said to be the easiest African language for an English speaker to learn. It's one of the few sub-Saharan African languages that have no lexical tone, just like in English. It's also much easier to read as you read out Swahili words just the way they are written.

Who speaks Swahili?

With its origin in East Africa, Swahili speakers spread over more than 14 countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Comoros, and as far as Oman and Yemen in the Middle East.

What is the most powerful language?

English is by far the most powerful language. It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada), and British legacy has given it a global footprint. It is the world's lingua franca. Mandarin, which ranks second, is only half as potent.

What is African French called?

African French (French: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 141 million people in Africa in 2018, spread across 34 countries and territories.

What percent of France is black?

In fact, it is illegal for the French government to collect information about the racial and ethnic origin of its multicultural population on the national census, though approximately 5 percent of the country is black.

What country speak German?

In addition to Germany, German is the official language of Austria, Belgium, parts of Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, and Switzerland. German is the most widely spoken language of the European Union after English.

What African countries speak German?

Namibia is a multilingual country wherein German is recognised as a national language (a form of minority language). While English has been the sole official language of the country since 1990, in many areas of the country, German enjoys official status at a community level.

Does France still control Africa?

As of 2021, France retains the largest military presence in Africa of any former colonial power. The French presence has been complicated by other expanding spheres of influence in Africa such as those of Russia and China.

Why did France invade Africa?

The French colonial encounter in West Africa was driven by commercial interests and, perhaps to a lesser degree, a civilizing mission. The political administration and the economic interests were fairly uniform throughout the colonial period.

How much of Africa speaks English?

In all of Africa — a population of about 1.2 billion — only 6.5 million people speak English as their native language.

What is the hardest language to learn?

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons.

Which language is the easiest to learn?

What language will dominate the world?

Mandarin Chinese

Taking into consideration the massive economic shift in China, we can say that the Chinese language will be one of the most dominant languages on the international stage. According to economic analysts, by 2050, China will become the leading economy in the world.

Who speaks Zulu in the world?

Zulu language, a Bantu language spoken by more than nine million people mainly in South Africa, especially in the Zululand area of KwaZulu/Natal province. The Zulu language is a member of the Southeastern, or Nguni, subgroup of the Bantu group of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

Where do they speak Zulu?

The Language, Culture and People

IsiZulu is one of the 11 official languages spoken in South Africa. Approximately 10 million people in South Africa speak isiZulu as a first language and many more as a second language. There are an additional 38 000 in Malawi and 15000 in southern Swaziland who speak isiZulu.