Skip to main content

The top 9 most spoken indigenous African languages.

Africa is said to be home to over a thousand languages, what they don't consider is that many of the languages are mutually intelligible & can be grouped under family groups. My right to compile this list stems from the fact that I am fluent in Zulu & speak Portuguese & French semi-fluently, I can barely maintain a conversation in Swahili (still learning) which means you could put me almost anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa (or Trans-Saharan Africa) & I'd be able to communicate with the locals to a certain degree. In this list, I'll exclude non-African languages & focus on indigenous languages. This is not from one source but from many sources so it's one of the more better researched lists you'll find on the internet. 


LANGUAGE - NUMBER OF SPEAKERS *

1) Arabic - 150 million
2) Swahili - 90 million**
3) Hausa - 50 million
4) Oromo - 37,4 million
5) Igbo -  30 million
6) Yoruba - 28 million
7) Amharic - 21,8 million
8) Zulu - 16 million
9) Shona - 7,2 million


* NB: These are approximate (i. e. rounded off) numbers & population/census numbers can fluctuate over the years. 

**First language speakers only.

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The modern Zulu language.

I always wondered which of the many Zulu dialects modern Zulu is & always thought it was Hlubi (isiMbo) & according to this thesis by a Mr. Isaac Sibusiso Kubeka written in what was apparently 1979, we see modern Zulu is more the original Ntungwa dialect. The Mthethwa dialect (isiLala) that was likely spoken by King Shaka looks more a Tsonga dialect from a Zulu-speaker's perspective. Despite the "Zulu area" speaking many dialects, I'm of the belief that these dialects were mutually intelligible & similar for the most part. This is the only way these Nguni tribes from southern Mozambique up to Umzimvubu River & inland into the Drakensberg Mountains up to Gauteng could understand each other because I, genuinely, think that it was seldom that an African travelled to a land where he couldn't speak the local language in precolonial times.  Mild differences between Zulu dialects. Writing Zulu   I remember reading a book written in 1930 by ...
Read more

History of the Mpofana by Mthoko M. Mpofana

I'm not very traditional, I'm more straightforward & basic & often disregard cultural nuances so this history of the Mpofana tribe is going to be as direct & concise as possible.  Growing up, I grew up knowing that the clan praises or izithakazelo of the Mpofana are "Zulu" & "Ntombela", I never questioned that.  What I know now for sure is that there's a lot more that's hidden in history. What I keep seeing being repeated from various sources is that the Mpofana were part of the Amazizi (or AmaTiti) tribe. I now know that in the midlands & perhaps further north, up to the northwestern parts of KZN, they use the greeting "MaZizi okuhlala", perhaps alluding to the fact that the Mpofana as well as other Amazizi tribes were among the original tribes to settle in present-day KZN from 200 AD onwards & the "Dlamini" praise or greeting was used among all Dlamini tribes i. e. the Amahlubi, Amazizi (Mtiti), Hlangwini...
Read more

Can AmaZulu win the CAF Champions League?

For fans of KZN football, international tournaments on the African continent are rare. In fact, I don't remember any KZN club qualifying for the CAF Champions League  or CAF Confederations Cup . Except for the Durban Under-19 International tournament , the 2021-2022 version of the Champions League will be the first time KZN has ever entered into international club football. It would be wonderful winning the tournament on our first attempt but what are AmaZulu's chances realistically speaking?  A DREAM: One of the oldest clubs in South Africa with a chance of, finally, getting it's first African champions star. The draw for the groups hasn't been done yet but some of the teams that have already qualified & AmaZulu F. C. could face are: Wydad Casablanca, Al-Ahly (current champions), Espérance de Tunis, Étoile du Sahel, T. P. Mazembe, AS Maniema Union, Mamelodi Sundowns, Zesco United, Zanaco F. C., Horoya AC, CI Kamsar etc. Now, some of these teams are regu...
Read more