Swahili is popularly used as a second language by people across the African continent and taught in schools and universities. Swahili has been influenced by Arabic and even had an Arabic script during its early years.
What is the first language in Africa?
It is the native language of the Bantu group known as the Swahili people. It is spoken in over ten African countries and has more than a 100 million native speakers. Almost 20% of the vocabulary of Swahili consists of loanwords that have been taken from various tongues including Arabic, Hindustani, and Persian.
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 is the second most spoken language in Africa?
Branching out from the Bantu/Nguni family of languages, Zulu has more than 10 million speakers and is the second most widely spoken Bantu language (after Shona). Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet and is influenced by the Khoisan language which accounts for the unique “clicking” sounds within the dialect.
What language do they speak in Africa?
While Arabic is the most spoken language in Africa, there’s plenty more – other popular languages include Amharic, Berber, Portuguese, Oromo, Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu and Shona.
What’s the oldest language on earth?
What are the World’s Oldest Languages?
- Korean. …
- Hebrew. …
- Aramaic. …
- Chinese. …
- Greek. …
- Egyptian. …
- Sanskrit. Linguist thought the Sanskrit was very influential to several languages in Europe. …
- Tamil. By order of appearance, Tamil would be considered the world’s oldest language as it is over 5,000 years old, having made its first appearance in 3,000 BC.
26.01.2018
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.
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.
6.09.2019
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.
What is the main religion in Africa?
The majority of Africans are adherents of Christianity or Islam. African people often combine the practice of their traditional belief with the practice of Abrahamic religions. Abrahamic religions are widespread throughout Africa.
What is the hardest language in Africa?
Taa, the last vital language of the Tuu language family and formerly called ʻSouthern Khoisan’, it is believed to be the world’s most difficult language. Part of the Khoisan language group and is spoken in the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, it is also known as ! Xóõ or !
What is the easiest African language to learn?
Swahili is said to be the easiest African language for an English speaker to learn. It is heavily influenced by Arabic and Indo-European languages such as Portuguese, German, English, and French. It’s one of the few sub-Saharan African languages that have no lexical tone, just as in English.
What are the 3 most spoken languages in Africa?
Overview of the Most Spoken Languages in Africa
Horn of Africa: Amharic (~25M speakers), spoken in Ethiopia, plus Oromo (50+M speakers) and Somali. West Africa: Hausa (~115M speakers), mostly in the Sahel, as well as Yoruba, Igbo, and Fula. South Africa: Zulu and Xhosa (two similar languages)
How do you say hello in Africa?
South Africa
- Zulu: Sawubona (Hello)
- Xhosa: Molo (Hello)
- Afrikaans: Hallo (Hello)
- English: Hello.
26.11.2019
What is Africa’s favorite food?
1. Pap en vleis/Shisa nyama, South Africa. Feast your eyes on these succulent steaks. Barbecued meat and maize porridge is a combination dearly beloved across many cultures in Southern Africa, and particularly in South Africa, where the braaivleis is a treasured institution and practically a national sport.
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.