Top Most spoken languages in Africa.
Africa is a large continent with over one billion people and an estimation of over 3,000 languages. The African continent has around 10 million speakers of the English language. English is among the most popular languages that are spoken in the world with Arabic and French. English is the language used in medical and the scientific field making it more popular to a larger population. Below are the topmost spoken languages in Africa;
Swahili
Swahili has more than 100 million speakers in Africa. It originated from the interaction of East Africa and Arabs of the Middle East. It is spoken in nations such as Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Southern Somalia among other countries in the African Great lake region.
Amharic
It is the second most spoken language in Africa. It has over 21 million speakers and it is related to Hebrew and Arabic. Amharic is a Semitic language that originated from the Middle East. It is the official language in Ethiopia.
Yoruba
This language has over 30 million speakers in Benin, Togo, and Nigeria. Yoruba is one of the most spoken languages in West Africa and it is the mother tongue language in Nigeria.
Oromo
This language is spoken by over 30 million people in Somalia, Egypt, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The Oromo language is spoken by the people of Horn Africa. The language is widely spoken in Ethiopia and it is the fourth most spoken language in Africa.
Hausa
It originated from Hausa people in Northern Nigeria. It is said to have spread in Africa due to trade among African countries. Hausa is a Chadic language that is most spoken in the African continent. It is the official language of Nigeria.
Igbo
It is a language that is spoken by over 20 million people and it is among the official languages of Nigeria. It is also spoken in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Igbo was made popular by the author Chinua Achebe whose books were popular all over Africa.
Zulu
It is one of the official languages in South Africa. It is the second most spoken Bantu language after Shona and it has over 10 million speakers. Zulu is written in the Latin alphabets.
Shona
This language is spoken by Shona people in Zimbabwe. It is among the widely spoken Bantu language spoken in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana. With a population of over 14 million people in Zimbabwe, Shona is spoken by over 10 million people in that nation.
Arabic
It is a Semitic language that emerged between the 1st and 4th century and it is spoken by 280 million people worldwide. The name Arabic is originated from the Arabs. It is the liturgical language of Islam religion because the Quran is written in Arabic. Arabic is the official language of some countries in Africa like Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Egypt Eritrea, Libya and other countries that have not recognized Arabic as the official language.
Portuguese
It is the third-most spoken language worldwide with around 240 million speakers. In Africa, it is the official language of Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Sao Tome e Principle. It has approximately 44 million speakers who use it as mother-tongue language and secondary language.
Apart from this 10, did you know there are about 800 African languages?