Most languages natively spoken in Africa belong to one of the two large
language families that dominate the continent:
Afroasiatic, or
Niger–Congo. Another hundred belong to smaller families such as
Ubangian,
Nilotic,
Saharan, and the various families previously grouped under the umbrella term
Khoisan. In addition, the languages of Africa include several
unclassified languages and
sign languages. The earliest Afroasiatic languages are associated with the
Capsian culture, the Saharan languages are linked with the Khartoum Mesolithic/Neolithic cultures. Niger-Congo languages are correlated with the west and central African
hoe-based farming traditions and the Khoisan languages are matched with the south and southeastern
Wilton culture.
Afroasiatic languages Afroasiatic languages are spoken throughout
North Africa, the
Horn of Africa,
Western Asia and parts of the
Sahel. There are approximately 375 Afroasiatic languages spoken by over 400 million people. The main subfamilies of Afroasiatic are
Berber,
Chadic,
Cushitic,
Omotic,
Egyptian and
Semitic. The
Afroasiatic Urheimat is uncertain. The family's most extensive branch, the Semitic languages (including
Arabic,
Amharic and
Hebrew among others), is the only branch of Afroasiatic that is spoken outside Africa. Some of the most widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include
Arabic (a Semitic language, and a recent arrival from West Asia),
Somali (Cushitic),
Berber (Berber),
Hausa (Chadic),
Amharic (Semitic) and
Oromo (Cushitic). Of the world's surviving language families, Afroasiatic has the longest written history, as both the
Akkadian language of Mesopotamia and
Ancient Egyptian are members.
Nilo-Saharan languages Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed grouping of some one hundred diverse languages. Genealogical linkage between these languages has failed to be conclusively demonstrated, and support for the proposal is sparse among linguists. The languages share some unusual
morphology, but if they are related, most of the branches must have undergone major restructuring since diverging from their common ancestor. This hypothetical family would reach an expanse that stretches from the
Nile Valley to northern
Tanzania and into
Nigeria and
DR Congo, with the
Songhay languages along the middle reaches of the
Niger River as a geographic outlier. The inclusion of the
Songhay languages is questionable, and doubts have been raised over the
Koman,
Gumuz and
Kadu branches. Some of the better known Nilo-Saharan languages are
Kanuri,
Fur,
Songhay,
Nobiin and the widespread
Nilotic family, which includes the
Luo,
Dinka and
Maasai. Most Nilo-Saharan languages are
tonal, as are Niger-Congo languages.
Niger–Congo languages :
Nilo-Saharan: The
Niger–Congo languages constitute the largest language family spoken in
West Africa and perhaps the world in terms of the number of languages. One of its salient features is an elaborate
noun class system with grammatical
concord. A large majority of languages of this family are
tonal such as
Yoruba and
Igbo,
Akan and
Ewe language. A major branch of Niger–Congo languages is the
Bantu phylum, which has a wider speech area than the rest of the family (see Niger–Congo B (Bantu) in the map above). The
Niger–Kordofanian language family, joining Niger–Congo with the
Kordofanian languages of south-central
Sudan, was proposed in the 1950s by
Joseph Greenberg. Today, linguists often use "Niger–Congo" to refer to this entire family, including Kordofanian as a subfamily. One reason for this is that it is not clear whether Kordofanian was the first branch to diverge from rest of Niger–Congo.
Mande has been claimed to be equally or more divergent. Niger–Congo is generally accepted by linguists, though a few question the inclusion of Mande and
Dogon, and there is no conclusive evidence for the inclusion of
Ubangian.
Other language families Several languages spoken in Africa belong to language families concentrated or originating outside the African continent.
Austronesian Malagasy belongs to the
Austronesian languages and is the westernmost branch of the family. It is the national and co-official language of
Madagascar, and a Malagasy dialect called
Bushi is also spoken in
Mayotte. The ancestors of the Malagasy people migrated to Madagascar around 1,500 years ago from Southeast Asia, more specifically the island of Borneo. The origins of how they arrived to Madagascar remains a mystery, however the Austronesians are known for their seafaring culture. Despite the geographical isolation, Malagasy still has strong resemblance to
Barito languages especially the
Ma'anyan language of southern Borneo. With more than 20 million speakers, Malagasy is one of the most widely spoken of the Austronesian languages.
Indo-European Afrikaans is
Indo-European, as is most of the vocabulary of most African
creole languages. Afrikaans evolved from the
Dutch vernacular of
South Holland (
Hollandic dialect) spoken by the mainly
Dutch settlers of what is now
South Africa, where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century, including the loss of verbal conjugation (save for 5 modal verbs), as well as grammatical case and gender. Most Afrikaans speakers live in
South Africa. In
Namibia it is the
lingua franca. Overall 14 to 21 million people are estimated to speak Afrikaans. Since the
colonial era, Indo-European languages such as
Afrikaans,
English,
French,
Italian,
Portuguese and
Spanish have held official status in many countries, and are widely spoken, generally as
lingua francas. (
See African French and African Portuguese.) Additionally, languages like French, and Portuguese have become native languages in various countries. French has become native in the urban areas of the DRC, and Gabon. Spanish is spoken as a native language by a small minority in Equatorial Guinea, primarily in larger cities.
German was once used in
Germany's colonies there from the late 1800s until World War I, when Britain and France took over and revoked German's official status. Despite this, German is still spoken in
Namibia, mostly among the
white population. Although it lost its official status in the 1990s, it has been redesignated as a national language.
Indo-Aryan languages such as
Gujarati and
Sindhi are spoken by
South Asian expatriates exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-European languages could be found in various parts of the continent, such as
Old Persian and
Greek in Egypt,
Latin and
Vandalic in North Africa and
Modern Persian in the
Horn of Africa.
Small families The three small
Khoisan families of southern Africa have not been shown to be closely related to any other major language family. In addition, there are various other families that have not been demonstrated to belong to one of these families. The classifications below follow
Glottolog. •
Mande, some 70 languages, including the major languages of
Mali and
Guinea; these are generally thought to be divergent Niger–Congo, but debate persists •
Ubangian, some 70 languages, centered on the languages of the
Central African Republic; may be Niger–Congo •
Te-Ne-Omotic, some 20 languages, previously classified under Afro-Asiatic, spoken in Ethiopia •
Khoe-Kwadi, around 10 languages, the primary family of Khoisan languages of
Namibia and
Botswana •
Surmic, some 11 languages, previously classified within either Sudanic or Nilo-Saharan •
Kxʼa, around five languages, with various dialects, spoken in Southern Africa •
South Omotic, around five languages; previously classified within Afro-Asiatic, spoken in Ethiopia •
Tuu, or Taa-ǃKwi, two surviving languages •
Hadza, an isolate of Tanzania •
Bangime, a likely isolate of Mali •
Jalaa, a likely isolate of Nigeria •
Sandawe, an isolate of Tanzania •
Laal, a possible isolate of Chad
Khoisan is a term of convenience covering some 30 languages spoken by around 300,000–400,000 people. There are five Khoisan families that have not been shown to be related to each other:
Khoe,
Tuu and
Kxʼa, which are found mainly in
Namibia and
Botswana, as well as
Sandawe and
Hadza of
Tanzania, which are
language isolates. A striking feature of Khoisan languages, and the reason they are often grouped together, is their use of
click consonants. Some neighbouring Bantu languages (notably
Xhosa and
Zulu) have clicks as well, but these were adopted from Khoisan languages. The Khoisan languages are also
tonal.
Creole languages Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion of the world's
creole languages are to be found in Africa. Some are based on Indo-European languages (e.g.
Krio from English in
Sierra Leone and the very similar
Pidgin in
Nigeria,
Ghana and parts of
Cameroon;
Cape Verdean Creole in
Cape Verde and
Guinea-Bissau Creole in
Guinea-Bissau and
Senegal, all from Portuguese;
Seychellois Creole in the
Seychelles and
Mauritian Creole in
Mauritius, both from French); some are based on Arabic (e.g.
Juba Arabic in the southern
Sudan, or
Nubi in parts of
Uganda and
Kenya); some are based on local languages (e.g.
Sango, the main language of the
Central African Republic); while in
Cameroon a creole based on French, English and local African languages known as
Camfranglais has started to become popular.
Unclassified languages A fair number of
unclassified languages are reported in Africa. Many remain unclassified simply for lack of data; among the better-investigated ones that continue to resist easy classification are: • possibly Afroasiatic:
Ongota • possibly Nilo-Saharan:
Shabo • possibly Niger–Congo:
Jalaa,
Mbre,
Bayot • unknown:
Laal,
Mpre Of these,
Jalaa is perhaps the most likely to be an isolate. Less-well investigated languages include
Irimba,
Luo,
Mawa,
Rer Bare (possibly Bantu languages),
Bete (evidently Jukunoid),
Bung (unclear),
Kujarge (evidently Chadic),
Lufu (Jukunoid),
Meroitic (possibly Afroasiatic),
Oropom (possibly spurious) and
Weyto (evidently Cushitic). Several of these are extinct, and adequate comparative data is thus unlikely to be forthcoming. Hombert & Philippson (2009) list a number of African languages that have been classified as
language isolates at one point or another. Many of these are simply unclassified, but Hombert & Philippson believe Africa has about twenty language families, including isolates. Beside the possibilities listed above, there are: •
Aasax or Aramanik (
Tanzania) (
South Cushitic? contains non-Cushitic lexicon) •
Imeraguen (
Mauritania) –
Hassaniyya Arabic restructured on an Azêr (
Soninke) base • Kara (
Fer?) (
Central African Republic) •
Oblo (
Cameroon) (
Adamawa? Extinct?)
Roger Blench notes a couple additional possibilities: •
Defaka (
Nigeria) •
Dompo (
Ghana) Below is a list of language isolates and otherwise unclassified languages in Africa, from Vossen & Dimmendaal (2020:434):
Sign languages Many African countries have national sign languages, such as
Algerian Sign Language,
Tunisian Sign Language,
Ethiopian Sign Language. Other sign languages are restricted to small areas or single villages, such as
Adamorobe Sign Language in
Ghana. Tanzania has seven, one for each of its schools for the Deaf, all of which are discouraged. Not much is known, since little has been published on these languages Sign language systems extant in Africa include the
Paget Gorman Sign System used in Namibia and
Angola, the
Sudanese Sign languages used in
Sudan and
South Sudan, the
Arab Sign languages used across the Arab Mideast, the
Francosign languages used in
Francophone Africa and other areas such as
Ghana and
Tunisia, and the
Tanzanian Sign languages used in
Tanzania. ==Language in Africa==