Top 5 Languages that Dominate the Realm of Africa
Being the second biggest continent in the World, Africa is home to many different countries, cultures and languages. It’s no surprise that in such a rich and big part of this planet there are over 2.000 languages in existence. Many Africans speak more than one language. So, while the number of native speakers might be few, some languages might have a huge number of speakers as a second language. Let us go over the list of most spoken languages in Africa!
Number 1: English language in Africa
Yes, English. It might come as a surprise to find English listed as the number one language on this list but it is the most studied language in the whole world and that is true for Africa as well. More than 23 countries in Africa list English as an official language and it is believed to be spoken by about 700 million people. However, Africa has less than 10 million native speakers of English.
There is an incredible number of diverse languages here, which allows English to take the first place as the most spoken language simply because it has become so widespread as a foreign language, but this doesn’t really guarantee any fluency. There are many varieties of African English, but a study done by the World Linguistic Society puts Ugandans as the best English speakers in Africa.
Number 2: French language in Africa
Second on the list is another European language due to colonialism as more than 29 countries in Africa has French as an official language. There are an estimated 430 million people who speak French in Africa, which makes it the continent with the most French speakers. African French also has many varieties, but the Francophone countries of Africa saw the rise of a “Popular African French” which was marginalized at first and became more accepted later.
African French sees the usage of a lot of borrowed words from African languages and some words may not even be used in the same meaning at all. A common language between the diverse groups of Africa became a necessity so French became the language to use in official and governmental matters. One can even say that the future of French lies in Africa simply due to the sheer number of French speakers there are in it.
Number 3: Arabic language in Africa
7th century saw the widespread introduction of Arabic into Africa and now it is home to more than 150 million native speakers of the language. It came with culture and religion too. North Africa is dominated by Arabic and French but many of these countries have their own dialects and the differences between them can even make neighbouring countries be unable to understand each other.
African Arabic is spoken in Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Tunisia.
Number 4: Swahili language in Africa
National languages of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and the official language of the East African Community. Swahili, which is also known by its native name Kiswahili, is a member of the Bantu language family and the first language of the Swahili people.
Decades of rigorous trade along the East African region has turned Swahili into a mix of local Bantu Languages and Arabic. Aside from Bantu and Arabic, Swahili also has come into contact with English, Persian, Portuguese, German and French during all those years of intensive trade. Even though it is one of the most prominent and richest languages today, there are many debates about the current number of Swahili speakers. Estimates range between 100 million to 150 million, but the precise number of Swahili speakers remains a mystery.
Number 5: Housa language in Africa
Hausa people are an ethnic group that live within Nigeria, Niger and as minorities in Ghana, Sudan and Cameroon. It is a Chadic language, but it can be written with an Arabic script called Ajami or a Latin script called Boko. It even has a Braille system. Hausa is believed to have 47 million native speakers. An additional 25 million is estimated to be speaking it as a second language. Hausa is so common in West Africa that it is used in trade and some international broadcasting companies like BBC, China Radio International or Radio France Internationale offer dedicated broadcasts in Hausa.
There is a myriad of other languages in Africa and we have only scratched the surface by looking at the most commonly used ones. There are so many that an average African would be bilingual or even trilingual. This continent has a long history and its languages definitely show how much diversity it carries within it.
