Rating in Speakers

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The following is a table displaying the number of speakers of given languages within Africa:

Language Family Native speakers (L1) Official status per country
Abron Niger-Congo   Ghana
Afrikaans Indo-European 7,200,000[1] National language in   Namibia, co-official in   South Africa
Akan Niger–Congo 11,000,000[2] None. Government sponsored language of   Ghana
Amharic Afroasiatic 21,800,000[3]   Ethiopia
Arabic Afroasiatic 150,000,000[4] but with separate mutually unintelligible varieties   Algeria,   Chad,   Comoros,   Djibouti,   [[|]],   Eritrea,   Libya,   Mauritania,   Morocco,   Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic,   Somalia,   Sudan,   Tanzania (Zanzibar),   Tunisia
Berber Afroasiatic 16,000,000[5] (estimated) (including separate mutually unintelligible varieties)   Morocco,   Algeria
Bhojpuri Indo-European Spoken in   Mauritius
Cape Verdean Creole Portugeuese Creole National language in   Cape Verde
Chewa Niger–Congo 9,700,000[6]   Malawi,   Zimbabwe
Dangme Niger-Congo   Ghana
English Indo-European 6,500,000[7] (estimated) See List of territorial entities where English is an official language
Fon Niger–Congo   Benin
French Indo-European 120,000,000[8][9] (estimated) see List of territorial entities where French is an official language and African French
Fulani Niger–Congo 25,000,000[2] national language of   Senegal
Ga Niger–Congo   Ghana
German Indo-European national language of   Namibia, special status in   South Africa
Gikuyu Niger–Congo 6,600,000[10]
Hausa Afroasiatic 34,000,000[11] recognized in   Nigeria,   Ghana,   Niger
Igbo Niger–Congo 27,000,000[12] native in   Nigeria
Italian Indo-European recognized in   Libya,   Eritrea,   Somalia
Khoekhoe Khoe 300,000[13] national language of   Namibia
Kimbundu Niger–Congo   Angola
Kinyarwanda Niger–Congo 9,800,000[2]   Rwanda
Kirundi Niger–Congo 8,800,000[2]   Burundi
Kituba Kongo-based creole   Democratic Republic of Congo,   Republic of Congo
Kongo Niger–Congo 5,600,000[14]   Angola, recognised national language of   Republic of Congo and   Democratic Republic of Congo
Lingala Niger–Congo 5,500,000[2] National language of   Democratic Republic of the Congo,   Republic of Congo
Luganda Niger-Congo 4,100,000[15] Native language of   Uganda
Luo Nilo-Saharan (probable) 4,200,000[16]
Malagasy Austronesian 18,000,000[17]   Madagascar
Mauritian Creole French Creole 1,100,000[18] Native language of   Mauritius
Mossi Niger–Congo 7,600,000[2] Recognised regional language in   Burkina Faso
Nambya Niger–Congo   Zimbabwe
Ndau Niger–Congo   Zimbabwe
Ndebele Niger–Congo 1,100,000[19] Statutory national language in   South Africa
Noon Niger–Congo   Senegal
Northern Ndebele Niger–Congo   Zimbabwe
Northern Sotho Niger–Congo 4,600,000[20]   South Africa
Oromo Afroasiatic 26,000,000[2]   Ethiopia
Portuguese Indo-European 13,700,000[21] (estimated)   Angola,   Cape Verde,   Guinea-Bissau,   Equatorial Guinea,   Mozambique,   São Tomé and Príncipe
Sena Niger-Congo   Zimbabwe
Sepedi Niger–Congo   South Africa
Sesotho Niger–Congo 5,600,000[22]   Lesotho,   South Africa,   Zimbabwe
Seychellois Creole French Creole   Seychelles
Shona Niger–Congo 7,200,000[23]   Zimbabwe
Somali Afroasiatic 16,600,000[24]   Somalia,   Djibouti
Spanish Indo-European 1,100,000[25]   Equatorial Guinea,   Spain (Ceuta, Melilla, Canary islands), still marginally spoken in   Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, recognized in   Morocco
Southern Ndebele Niger–Congo   South Africa
Swahili Niger–Congo 15,000,000[26] Official in   Tanzania,   Kenya,   Uganda,   Rwanda,   Democratic Republic of the Congo
Swazi Niger-Congo Official in   South Africa,   Swaziland
Tamil Dravidian Spoken in   Mauritius
Tigrinya Afroasiatic 7,000,000[27]   Eritrea, regional language in   Ethiopia
Tonga Niger-Congo   Zimbabwe
Tsoa Khoe   Zimbabwe
Tsonga Niger–Congo   Zimbabwe
Twi Niger-Congo Regional language in   Ghana
Tshiluba Niger–Congo 6,300,000[28] (1991) National language of   Democratic Republic of the Congo
Tsonga Niger–Congo 5,000,000[29]   South Africa,   Zimbabwe (as 'as Shangani'),   Mozambique
Tshivenda Niger–Congo   South Africa,   Zimbabwe
Tswana Niger–Congo 5,800,000[30]   Botswana,   South Africa,   Zimbabwe
Umbundu Niger–Congo 6,000,000[31]   Angola
Venda Niger–Congo   South Africa,   Zimbabwe
Wolof Niger–Congo Lingua franca in   Senegal
Xhosa Niger–Congo 7,600,000[2]   South Africa,   Zimbabwe
Yoruba Niger–Congo 28,000,000[2]   Nigeria,   Benin,   Togo
Zulu Niger–Congo 10,400,000[2]   South Africa

By region

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Below is a list of the major languages of Africa by region, family and total number of primary language speakers in millions.

Central Africa
Horn of Africa
North Africa
Southeast Africa
Southern Africa
West Africa
  1. ^ Census 2011: Census in brief (PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. ISBN 9780621413885. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
  3. ^ "Amharic".
  4. ^ "Arabic".
  5. ^ "Berber".
  6. ^ "Chichewa".
  7. ^ "English".
  8. ^ "French". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2017-07-11.
  9. ^ William Edmiston; Annie Dumenil (2015-01-01). La France contemporaine. Cengage Learning. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-305-80441-8.
  10. ^ "Gikuyu".
  11. ^ Ethnologue (2009) cites 18,5 million L1 and 15 million L2 speakers in Nigeria in 1991; 5.5 million L1 speakers and half that many L2 speakers in Niger in 2006, 0.8 million in Benin in 2006, and just over 1 million in other countries.
  12. ^ "Igbo". Ethnologue.
  13. ^ Brenzinger, Matthias (2011) "The twelve modern Khoisan languages." In Witzlack-Makarevich & Ernszt (eds.), Khoisan languages and linguistics: proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium, Riezlern / Kleinwalsertal (Research in Khoisan Studies 29). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
  14. ^ "Kongo".
  15. ^ "Luganda".
  16. ^ "Dholuo".
  17. ^ "Malagasy".
  18. ^ "Morisyen".
  19. ^ "Ndebele". Ethnologue. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  20. ^ "Sotho, Northern".
  21. ^ "The Future of Portuguese - The Translation Company".
  22. ^ "Sotho, Southern".
  23. ^ "Ethnologue report for Shona (S.10)".
  24. ^ "Somali". SIL International. 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
  25. ^ "Spanish". Ethnologue. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  26. ^ Peek, Philip M.; Kwesi Yankah (2004). African folklore: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 699. ISBN 0-415-93933-X.
  27. ^ "Tigrigna".
  28. ^ "Luba-Kasai".
  29. ^ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/tso
  30. ^ "Tswana".
  31. ^ "Umbundu".
  32. ^ a b c "The World Factbook".
  33. ^ "The World Factbook".
  34. ^ a b "The World Factbook".
  35. ^ "The World Factbook".
  36. ^ "The World Factbook".
  37. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  38. ^ "The World Factbook".
  39. ^ "Maquiagem Seu Espaço Vip – Encontre Tudo Sobre Maquiagem" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2013.
  40. ^ "The World Factbook".
  41. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  42. ^ "CORRECTION: Census shows South Sudan population at 8.2 million: report - Sudan Tribune: Plural news and views on Sudan". www.sudantribune.com. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  43. ^ "unsudanig.org" (PDF).
  44. ^ http://www.darfurcentre.ch/images/00_DRDC_documents/DRDC_Reports_Briefing_Papers/DRDC_Report_on_the_5th_Population_Census_in_Sudan.pdf
  45. ^ John A. Shoup, Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East (2011), p. 333, ISBN 159884363X: "The Zaghawa is one of the major divisions of the Beri peoples who live in western Sudan and eastern Chad, and their language, also called Zaghawa, belongs to the Saharan branch of the Nilo-Saharan language group."
  46. ^ "The World Factbook".
  47. ^ a b c d "The World Factbook".
  48. ^ a b "The World Factbook".
  49. ^ "Malagasy".
  50. ^ a b c "The World Factbook".
  51. ^ a b c d "The World Factbook".
  52. ^ a b c d e f "The World Factbook".
  53. ^ a b c "The World Factbook". Archived from the original on 24 April 2013.
  54. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 November 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  55. ^ "The Language Journal: The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania".
  56. ^ a b c d "The World Factbook".
  57. ^ "The World Factbook".
  58. ^ "The World Factbook".
  59. ^ "The World Factbook".
  60. ^ "The World Factbook".
  61. ^ "The Future of Portuguese". BB Portuguese. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  62. ^ a b "The World Factbook".
  63. ^ a b "The World Factbook".
  64. ^ "The World Factbook".
  65. ^ a b "The World Factbook".