Profiles: Languages

INTRODUCTION

Languages There are close to 3000 different languages in Africa. The language that is spoken by the most people is Arabic, which is concentrated in North Africa. The second biggest language is Swahili which has more than 20 million speakers along the East African coast.

The languages of Africa are quite diverse and numerous. Some of these languages date back to ancient times, languages such as Ge'ez in Ethiopia and the language of the Ancient Egyptians.

The languages of Africa have a considerable amount of influence from neighbouring countries and peoples. Examples of this is Malagasy spoken in Madagascar and Swahili spoken on the east african coast. Categorizing the languages of Africa has proved difficult but the divisions today are widely accepted. The four main indigenous language groups of Africa are Niger-Kordofinian, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan and Afro-Asiatic.