Africa is a vast continent and one of the most populous. There are over 1000 African languages that belong to several major language families :  Niger–Congo languages, Afroasiatic languages ,  Indo-European languages , Nilo-Saharan languages, Austronesian languages, Khoe–Kwadi languages  and several other small families and language isolates.

Here is a list of some of the languages with large number of speakers.

Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world. Having emerged in the 1st century, it is named after the Arab people. Together with languages such as Hebrew, Amharic and Hausa, they belong to the Afro-asiatic language family because they are widely distributed over southwestern Asia and Africa. Arabic has over 150 million speakers in Africa and 280 million worldwide. It is the liturgical language of Islam, the world’s second-largest religion. Arabic is the official language of Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. It’s also spoken in Tanzania (Zanzibar), Western Sahara and Somalia.
Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, and religious studies courses. By being one of most largely spoken languages in the world, learning Arabic gives you a leg up in any industry in business, engineering, medical, non-profit and international relations.

Swahili

Swahili or Kiswahili as its people call it has its origin in East Africa. It is the official language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.  Swahili speakers are spread over more than 14 countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Comoros, and as far as Oman and Yemen in the Middle East. It has approximately 15 million native speakers.  It is a lingua franca that unites many in East and Central African countries, bringing the total number to between 100 and 150 million speakers in the continent. African countries such as South Africa and Botswana have introduced it in schools. It is the most spoken African language after Arabic. Due to historical interactions between Arabs, Portuguese, Germans, Britons and East Africans, Swahili has a good number of borrowed words from  Arabic, Portuguese, English and German. Swahili is a very useful language to know regardless of where you are in Africa.

Hausa

‍Hausa is one of Nigeria’s official languages, and one of the most spoken Chadic languages on the continent, with over 65 million native and 50 million second language speakers. The Hausa people are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, making the Hausa language the most popular language in the country. Hausa is used as a lingua franca by non-native speakers in some areas of Northern Nigeria, Southern Niger, West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Ivory Coast) and parts of Sudan. It’s also used in East African countries like Eritrea and Sudan, and Central African countries like Congo and Cameroon. Because of its usefulness as a lingua franca in trade, many learn Hausa as a second language.

Amharic Language

Amharic belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is the language of the Amhara people and is used as a lingua franca across Ethiopia by over 31 million first-language speakers and more than 25 million second-language speakers. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world after Arabic. Amharic has been the language of the ruling class of Ethiopia since the end of the 13th century. It is used as the official working language of Ethiopia, along with English, Oromo  and Tigrinya. Amharic is the second most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia after Oromo. It is also spoken by groups in Eritrea, Canada and the US and is often learnt as a second language by Rastafarians, who consider it a sacred language. It is used in government, public media, national commerce, and in education up to the seventh grade.

Yoruba

Yoruba is one of West Africa’s most spoken languages, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speakers is roughly 45 million, plus about 2 million second-language speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and it is one of Nigeria’s official languages. It is also widely spoken by West African expats in the US and UK. It is the mother tongue of the Yoruba people in Nigeria, and has over fifteen dialects including Awori, Ijesha, Ilaje and Ila.

Oromo

Oromo is a macrolanguage language of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti spoken by close to 40 million people. It has the largest number of native speakers in Ethiopia, and has the largest number of speakers of all the Cushitic languages. Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia. Oromo is the most widely spoken Cushitic language and among the five languages of Africa with the largest mother-tongue populations.

 Igbo Language

Igbo language is a Niger-Congo language spoken primarily in Nigeria.It is one of Nigeria’s official languages and is spoken primarily in South Eastern Nigeria with a portion of speakers residing in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. Igbo language is spoken by over 24 million people. Igbo is made up of more than 20 dialects which aren’t mutually intelligible to other Igbo speakers at times. The Igbo language gained prominence from Chinua Achebe, author of “Things Fall Apart” and whose majority of books were written in Igbo.

Shona Language

Shona is a Bantu language belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is spoken by around 10.7 million people as a first language and by another 1.8 million as second language in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia. The three distinct Shona dialects include the Karanga, the Zezuru and the Korekore. Shona is an official language of Zimbabwe, along with Ndebele and English.

Zulu Language

IsiZulu, also known as Zulu, is one of South Africa’s official languages. Zulu is said to be used by over 10 million people. Part of the Bantu language group, Zulu is very much related to other languages including Xhosa and Ndebele. isiZulu is mostly spoken in and around Kwa-Zulu Natal. There are also a fairly large number of speakers in the Gauteng area. It is the second most widely spoken Bantu language after Shona.

Conclusion

Africa has a mixture of many languages and each language is distinct from the other. Although some have few speakers left, other languages like Somali have a large number of speakers who reside in the greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora. All African languages are important. With the growing influx of migrants and immigrants, and the globalization of the world, there is need for one to learn at least one language commonly used in Africa.

Interested in learning any of them? Join us for Swahili Language lessons