Languages of Africa

Africa is a huge continent with many different languages. Some people think there are between 1,250 and 2,100 languages spoken there! One country, Nigeria, has more than 500 languages alone.

The languages of Africa come from many different groups. The biggest groups include the Niger–Congo languages. There are also Afroasiatic languages in North Africa. Other groups include Nilo-Saharan languages and Austronesian languages in Madagascar.

Many languages are used to help people talk to each other. Languages like Arabic, Swahili, and English are used widely across the continent. Some of these languages are official languages of countries. In 2006, the African Union celebrated African languages.

Language Groups

Most languages spoken at home in Africa belong to one of two big language families: Afroasiatic or Niger–Congo. Africa also has some unclassified languages and sign languages.

Afroasiatic languages are spoken in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia, and parts of the Sahel. Widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include Arabic, Somali, Berber, Hausa, Amharic, and Oromo.

Nilo-Saharan languages are a group of about one hundred languages that may be related. They stretch from the Nile Valley to northern Tanzania and into Nigeria and DR Congo.

Niger–Congo languages are the largest family, mainly spoken in West Africa. They include an elaborate noun class system. A major branch is the Bantu phylum, which covers a wide area.

Other language families in Africa include Austronesian (like Malagasy in Madagascar), Indo-European (like Afrikaans in South Africa and Namibia), and several smaller families such as Mande, Ubangian, and Khoisan. Africa also has many creole languages, such as Krio in Sierra Leone and Sango in the Central African Republic. There are also several unclassified languages and many sign languages used across the continent.

Fun Facts

Africa has some languages with special sounds, like clicks, that are rare elsewhere.
Many African languages use tones — changes in how high or low a sound is — to give words different meanings.

Languages of Africa