Video Lesson

Lesson Objectives

After learning this lesson, you will be able to:

• recognize the linguistic diversity of the people of Africa;
• locate the geography of the language super families in Africa;
• appreciate the linguistic diversity of the people of Africa.

Brainstorming Questions

• How many languages do you think Nigerians speak?
• Which language super family do you think has the largest number of speakers in
  Africa?

Key Terms

African Languages: Classification and Distribution

Africa is a continent renowned for its vast linguistic diversity, with between 1,000 and 2,000 languages spoken as first languages, representing about one-third of the world’s total. Over 75 of these languages are spoken by at least a million people each, highlighting the breadth of linguistic communities across the continent. Nigeria stands out with around 500 languages, underscoring its status as one of the most linguistically diverse countries globally. Despite the numerous languages spoken, most of Africa’s languages can be categorized into four main families: Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan. These language families encompass the majority of native African languages, showcasing both the richness and structured diversity of Africa’s linguistic landscape.

The Niger-Congo Languages of Africa:– The Niger-Congo languages make up the largest language family in Africa. They are found across a wide area of the continent, mostly in the western, central, and southeastern regions. They are further sub-divided into the Bantu and the non-Bantu languages depending mostly on their geography, with the Bantu tongues found more toward the southern part of the Niger-Congo linguistic territory.

One of the Niger-Congo languages of Africa you might recognize most is Swahili, whose different dialects are spoken by about 16 million people natively and 82 million as a second language. It was influenced heavily by Arabic due in no small part to the history of trade between Africa and people from Arab lands. It is sometimes considered the lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region because it is so widely used and taught, among others, in schools in places like Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.

Other Niger-Congo languages with populations of speakers in the millions include Yoruba (mostly in Nigeria), Kirundi (in Burundi), Lingala (in the Congo), Sesotho (in Lesotho and parts of southern Africa) and Shona (in Zimbabwe). South Africa recognizes 9 Bantu languages – Xhosa, Ndebele, Zulu, Tswana, Swati, Sotho, Southern Sotho, Venda and Tsonga.

The Afro-Asiatic Languages of Africa:- The next biggest language family is the Afro-Asiatic language group, which includes between 200 and 300 languages. The most widely spoken of these by far is Arabic, which is estimated to have more than 150 million speakers, most of which are concentrated in northern African countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Chad and Sudan. The Afro-Asiatic family includes languages like Somali, Amharic and Afan Oromoin Ethiopia and the Horn, Berber in North Africa, and Hausa in West Africa.

The Nilo-Saharan Languages of Africa:– There are around 80 languages in the Nilo-Saharan family. These languages are spread throughout parts of central, eastern and northeastern Africa, including places like Chad, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. Examples of Nilo-Saharan languages include Lugbara in Uganda, Zarma in Niger and Dholuo in Kenya.

The Khoisan Languages of Africa:- The 40 to 70 languages in the Khoisan super language family include tongues that are mostly located in southern Africa – namely parts of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Angola. The Hadza language of Tanzania and the Naro language of Botswana are also belong to the Khoisan languages. Now let us look into the major centers of culture and civilizations that thrived in Africa.