English, French and Portuguese are important languages in Africa. About 130 million, 115 million and 35 million Africans, respectively, speak them as either native or secondary languages.
What European language is most widely spoken in Africa?
French has over 100 million speakers in various countries on the African continent. French was introduced to the continent during the colonial rule. French in Africa is different than the French spoken in France or other parts of Europe.
What is the most common language spoken in Africa?
The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers. Known as a ‘Bantu’ language, Swahili apparently originated from other languages like Arabic.
What are the top 10 languages spoken in Africa?
10 Most Spoken Languages in Africa
- Swahili: Swahili, known as Kiswahili in the native tongue, is a Bantu language spoken by some 150 million Africans in the African Great Lakes region in Central and Southern Africa. …
- Arabic: …
- French: …
- Hausa: …
- Yoruba: …
- Oromo: …
- Igbo: …
- Amharic:
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Why are European languages the official languages in Africa?
Some regions had more than one European country that claimed them at various points in history. As a result, European languages, or colonial languages, became the official language(s) in most Africa countries.
Who speaks the best English in Africa?
A report by the World Linguistic Society has named Uganda as the best English speaking country in Africa. The study names Uganda at the top, followed by Zambia, South Africa and Kenya respectively.
What is the oldest African language?
Afrikaans is one of the official languages of South Africa. It belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. It evolved from the variety of Dutch which was spoken by Dutch settlers in South Africa.
What are the 11 languages?
South Africa’s Constitution recognises 11 official languages: Sepedi (also known as Sesotho sa Leboa), Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. For centuries South Africa’s official languages were European – Dutch, English, Afrikaans.
Which country in Africa has the most languages?
Nigeria: And the African country with the most languages is… Nigeria. The official language is English, while 24 million people speak Igbo. 4.
What is the native language of Africa?
Demographics. Of the 890 million Africans (as of 2005), about 17% speak an Arabic dialect. About 10% speak Swahili, the lingua franca of Southeastern Africa, about 5% speak a Berber dialect, and about 5% speak Hausa, a West African lingua franca. Other important West African languages are Yoruba, Igbo and Fula.
What language did the Jesus speak?
Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.
Which is the most spoken language in the world 2020?
When tallied according to number of native speakers only, these are the most spoken languages in the world.
- Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. …
- Spanish — 471 Million Native Speakers. …
- English — 370 Million Native Speakers. …
- Hindi — 342 Million Native Speakers. …
- Arabic — 315 Million Native Speakers.
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Which is the best language in the world?
The World’s Top 10 Languages to learn
- Mandarin. Mandarin is one of the fastest growing languages in the world. …
- Spanish. The importance of speaking Spanish continues to grow. …
- German. German ranks fourth in most used world languages. …
- Portuguese. Portuguese ranks just behind Spanish as the most spoken language in Latin America. …
- Arabic. …
- French. …
- Japanese. …
- Russian.
Is Arabic an African language?
Arabic is the second biggest language spoken Africa. Many countries like Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt Sudan and Western Sahara speak Arabic and many more know it as a second language. 260 million people in Africa speak Arabic with many different dialects.
Where is English spoken in Africa?
Sierra Leone and Liberia are the only countries in Africa where English is spoken as the primary language. English is the primary language of Nigeria and Ghana, but the language is spoken as a lingua franca in both states.
What did Africans speak before colonization?
In the English colonies Africans spoke an English-based Atlantic Creole, generally called plantation creole. Low Country Africans spoke an English-based creole that came to be called Gullah. Gullah is a language closely related to Krio a creole spoken in Sierra Leone.