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 Afrikaans Similar to Flemish, which is 40% Dutch, 40% German and 20% everything possible. Spoken in South Africa.
Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sesotho (the Sesotho name for Southern Sotho), Setswana (the Setswana name for Tswana), Swazi (also known as Siswati), Tsonga (also known as Xitsonga), Venda (also isiVenda), Xhosa (also isiXhosa) and Zulu (also isiZulu) are 10 of the official languages of South Africa (the last and eleventh being English). All these languages are therefore predominantly spoken in South Africa.
 Akkadian Akkadian is one of the great cultural languages of world history. Akkadian (or Babylonian-Assyrian) is the collective name for the spoken languages of the culture in the three millennia BCE in Mesopotamia, the area between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, approx. covering modern Irak. The name Akkadian --so called in ancient time-- is derived from the city-state of Akkad, founded in the middle of the third millennium BCE and capital of one of the first great empires after the dawn of human history.
 Amharic The National Language of Ethiopia.
 Arabic Arabic is spoken by almost 200 million people in more than twenty two countries, from Morrocco to Iraq, and as far south as Somalia and the Sudan. As the language of Quran, the Holy book of Islam, it is thought as a first language in Muslim states throughout the world. Arabic language originated in Saudi Arabia in pre-Islamic times, and spread rapidly across the Middle East.
 Bambara The language of Bambara or Bamana is spoken in Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso. This language are also used as "lingua franca" in West Africa.
 Berber Group of languages, from Morocco to Egypt. Differences between the languages can be considerable, due to geographical distances. There are about 300 local dialects. The largest of the Berber languages is found in Kabylia in Algeria. Berber languages form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family.
 Coptic The Coptic Language is the name used to refer to the last stage of the written Egyptian language. Coptic should more correctly be used to refer to the script rather than the language itself. Even though this script was introduced as far back as the 2nd century BC., it is usually applied to the writing of the Egyptian language from the first century AD. to the present day.
Coptic was used from its Christian beginnings in the late second century AD. till the time of the Great persecution of Diocletian in the early 4th century AD. predominantly as a translational tool from Greek to Egyptian. After the persecution, the monastic movement picked up tremendous steam. It was for the Copts the only way they can express their great love for God, that they earlier expressed with the willing sacrifice of their most precious possession, their earthly lives. These monastic communities were large and mostly Egyptian. This generated the need for the abbots of these communities to write their rules in their own language, i.e. Coptic. Also the Fathers of the Coptic Church, who usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Coptic.
 Damara/Nama Damara/Nama, a clicking language, is spoken in Namibia.
 Egyptian The language spoken in Egypt. The New Egyptian language is also known as the "Demotic" language since it is the colloquial Egyptian spoken by the people. The gradual replacement of Hieroglyphic by Demotic is similar to the replacement of Latin by English French, Italian, etc. Coptic is the common colloquial Egyptian. Its roots stem from from the New Egyptian Language and has a large similitude with the version of the the Egyptian Language of the 25th Kingdom (Saees Kingdom named after its Capital: Sa-ElHahgar).
 Fula FULA (FULBF, FELLATAIT or PEuL5), a numerous and powerful African people, spread over an immense region from Senegal nearly to Darfur. Strictly they have no country of their own, and nowhere form the whole of the population, though nearly always the dominant native race. They are most numerous in Upper Senegal and in the countries under French sway immediately south of Senegambia, notably Futa Jallon. Farther east they rule, subject to the control of the French, Segu and Massena, countries on both banks of the upper Niger, to the south-west of Timhuktu. The districts within the great bend of the Niger have a large Fula population.
 Gujarati Gujarati is one of the widely spoken languages of India. It is mainly spoken in the western state of Gujarat in India. Gujarati speaking people have immigrated to many countries worldwide. Some of them are: US, UK, Kenya, South Africa, Fiji New Zealand etc.
 Hausa Hausa is spoken in Nigeria and Niger. This language are also used as "lingua franca" in West Africa.
 Iraqi The language spoken in Iraq.
 Lebanese The language spoken in Lebanon. Levantine Arabic is a general designation used for a continuum of dialects spoken in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. Another name for the cluster is Northwest Arabian Colloquial Arabic. There are 7 million speakers in Syria, almost 4 million in Lebanon, 3 million in Jordan, and 1 million in Israel and Palestine.
 Lingala Lingala = Center and north. Primarily in Zadre. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Northwest, C, Bangi-Ntomba. Lingala belongs to the Ngala Group of Bantu (Guthrie C36) and is spoken along the Lomami, the Ubangi, and the Zaire rivers as far as Kinshasa in Zaire, as well as up the Sangha River through Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic. UBS (1982) notes an exaggerated figure of 8.4 million speakers, the same figure that Grimes (1996) cites as including second language speakers. World Almanac (1998) estimates 8 million total speakers. Heine (1970), citing Roberts (1962), gives 1.2 million.
 Luganda The language of Uganda. Luganda, the native language of the people of Buganda, developed over the centuries as a spoken language. Its written form is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European influence among the Baganda. It is not easy, and of course it is not within the scope of this discussion, to trace its origins, but it is proper to assume that in a dynamic society with such well structured cultural, social, and political institutions like those of the Baganda, the language must have experienced a reciprocal influence during most of the changes the society went through over the course of its history. It was not however, until after the second half of the nineteenth century, that Luganda was first written down and appeared in print in its own right.
 Malagasy The language of Madagascar. More than anything else, the people of Madagascar love oratory. The colorful language, Malagasy, like the people who use it, is a living synthesis of Indonesian, African, and Arabic elements. No conversation is complete without a liberal sprinkling of clever euphemisms and timeworn proverbs. The British missionaries attempted to codify this lyrical language, using the letters of the English alphabet. The Malagasy alphabet is therefore quite similar to the English alphabet, with the following exceptions: The Malagasy alphabet is missing the letters C, Q, U, W, and X. The letter A is always short (as in watch). The letter E sounds like a long A (as in pace). The letter i is pronounced like a long E (as in bean). The letter J sounds like dz. Finally, the letter O sounds like oo.
 Mandinka A language of Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal and spoken widely throughout Western Africa.
 Moroccan The language of Morocco. One of the first things one notices about Morocco is its linguistic diversity. French, Berber, Modern Standard Arabic, as well as Moroccan Arabic, can all be heard in all the major cities. This is due primarily to the rich historical past of the country. The Berbers, the original inhabitants, make up roughly half of the population, and the three major dialects of their language are widely spoken. When the Arabs came to Morocco in the 8th century they brought their language, which has evolved into the Moroccan Arabic of today. France officially entered the picture in 1912 when it began the Moroccan protectorate and French is still widely used in commerce and the educational system.
When one speaks of Arabic in Morocco there are two languages to be considered. On the one hand there is Modern Standard Arabic. This is the direct descendant of the language of the Koran and is understood throughout the contemporary Arab world. In Morocco it is used in newspapers, correspondence, news broadcasts and speeches but rarely in conversation. Moroccan Arabic, on the other hand, is the first language of the majority of Moroccans and really the most useful language to know when traveling in the country. It differs from Modern Standard Arabic to the extent that non-Moroccan speakers of Arabic, with the possible exception of Algerians and Tunisians, find it difficult to understand.
 Muganda Buganda is located in the south-central region of the country known today as Uganda, as shown in the map below. This is right in the heart of Africa, astride the equator, and at the source of the great river Nile. The people of Buganda are referred to as Baganda (the singular form is Muganda), their language is referred to as Luganda, and they refer to their customs as Kiganda customs. Sometimes the generic term Ganda is used for all the above (especially by foreign scholars).
 Ndebele The term Ndebele refers to a relatively broad range of ethnic groups dispersed across Zimbabwe and the Transvaal province of South Africa. Although they are not kindred in origin, language, or culture, all of these groups are undoubtedly descendants of a proto-Nguni tribe, as are the Xhosa and Zulu, and were resident in what is now KwaZulu and Natal as long as four centuries ago.
 Nepali The language of Nepal. In structure, Nepali is considered to lie in the middle between Hindi and the East Indic Bengali language. As well as in the East Indic tongues, its vowels have lost a distinction in length. Consonants of Nepali include four series of stops (principal, aspirated, retroflex, retroflex aspirated), a number of sibilants and affricates.
Nepali has totally lost the gender category; its numerous analytical forms, especially those of the verb, are now in process of forming the agglutinative declension system. The Indic ergative construction is not so active as in other languages of the group.
 Nigerian Several languages are spoken in Nigeria
  • Degema
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  • Edo
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  • Efik
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  • English
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  • Esan
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  • Hausa
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  • Ibibio
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  • Idoma
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  • Igala
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  • Igbo
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  • Ikwere
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  • Isekiri
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  • Isoko
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  • Kalabari
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  • Nupe
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  • Okobo
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  • Oron
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  • Pidgin
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  • Tiv
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  • Urhobo
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  • Yoruba
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     Nuer The Nuer is one of the best known of all ethnographic studies, and the reason for this is clear: Evans-Pritchard gives a brilliant and insightful picture of an interesting and unusual people. The Nuer were a pastoral people living along the upper Nile, who had no laws or leaders and were strongly individualistic, with social order maintained by community values and a segmentary tribal and lineage system.
    Numbering approximately one million, the Nuer are the second largest people group (second to the Dinka) in south Sudan. Traditionally, they are cattle herders whose complete way of life revolves around their livestock. Cattle are used for payment of fines and debts and as bride prices in marriage. Children mold clay figures of cows out of clay, ash, wood or any other available material. Young boys have a favorite ox who they give a name and treat as if it was a puppy.
     Oromo The Oromo language is the third largest language of Africa in the number of native speakers. Afaan Oromo is spoken by over 30 million people in Ethiopa. Afaan Oromo is a language of very beautiful poetry, proverbs of wisdom, and justice. Even though the Oromos are spread over large areas and were prevented from using their language in education, mass media, and public services, the language is still a relatively uniform language with which Oromos from all parts of Ethiopia, and outside Ethiopia, can communicate with relative ease. Colonial Ethiopian governments from Menelik II down to Haile Sellasie, and to some extent the Derg forbade the study, development, and use of the Oromo language in education, public services, and other events including religious teachings, and scholarly studies.
     Persian As the second language of the Muslim world and the main language of the Iranian cultural and civililzation literary, mystical, countless precious works in different literary, mystical, philosophical, theological, historical, artistic, and religious areas, Persian has always caught the attention of Iranians and other people in different countries of the world.
     Pidgin English Pidgin English = dialect spoken in Occidental Cameroon.
    A Pidgin (and also a Creole) is a language variety used for interethnic contact. In many cases where peoples of different linguistic groups come need to communicate, they use a third language (or material of a third language), in which they have some competence. As a result thereof, the language in question may undergo drastic changes and result in an entirely new language.
     Saudi The language which people speak in the Arab world is far more different than Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) which is the language of the media. It is used on TV and newspapers, but it is not used anywhere else. Saudi Arabic, is the colloquial form of MSA. There aren't much change in the meaning, but the pronunciation differ from that of any other colloquial Arabic, though the saudi Arabic could be classified under (Gulf Arabic). e.g. in MSA, "How are you?" is translated as "Kayfa Haluka", while in Saudi, it would be "keef Halak", while in Bahrini and Kuwaiti, it would be "Eish Loonak", the worst, however, is the egyptian "Izzayyak".
     Sesotho Sesotho, or Southern Sotho, is spoken in Lesotho, the Free State, the northern part of the Eastern Cape Province and the south of the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also spoken in the vicinity of Pretoria and Brits.
    Sesotho is used by 3 104 197 speakers as a home language in South Africa (1996 census).
    Sesotho was one of the first African languages to be reduced to writing, and it has an extensive literature. According to scholars the written form was originally based on the Tlokwa dialect. Today the written language is mostly based on the Kwena and Fokeng dialects. Although there are variations.
     Shona The language of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Shona, or chiShona, is a language spoken by nearly 80 percent of people in Zimbabwe. There are several regional Shona dialects. Written Shona is constantly evolving. Unfortunately the language is deteriorating because of the tendency to assimilate foreign languages.
     Somali The Somali language, one of the major languages in Africa, is spoken in Somalia/Somaliland, Kenya, Ethiopia and the Republic of Djibouti. In fact, it is one of the few that have 10 million or more native speakers in Africa. There are also communities of Somali speakers in most countries in East Africa, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.
     Sotho (Northern) Amongst the immense diversity of the languages of Africa one finds the Bantu languages which number close to a thousand including dialects. Within the South­eastern zone of the Bantu language family, sub­groups such as the Sotho and Nguni groups, Tsonga and Venda are distinguished, Northern Sotho belongs to the Sotho group together with Tswana and Southern Sotho. Geographically speakers of Northern Sotho are mostly concentrated in the Northern and North­eastern parts of the Transvaal. There are about 3,5 million mother­tongue speakers.
    Typologically Northern Sotho is an agglutinative language. It is characterised by a system of noun classes and concordial agreement. Concordance is established by means of prefixal elements. Tone plays an important role in distinguishing the lexical meaning of words, but is also used to determine the grammatical character of words.
     Sotho (Southern) Sesotho, or Southern Sotho, is spoken in Lesotho, the Free State, the northern part of the Eastern Cape Province and the south of the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also spoken in the vicinity of Pretoria and Brits.
    Sesotho is used by 3 104 197 speakers as a home language in South Africa (1996 census).
    Sesotho was one of the first African languages to be reduced to writing, and it has an extensive literature. According to scholars the written form was originally based on the Tlokwa dialect. Today the written language is mostly based on the Kwena and Fokeng dialects. Although there are variations.
     Swahili The language of Kenya and East Africa.
    The Swahili language, is basically of Bantu (African) origin. It has borrowed words from other languages such as Arabic probably as a result of the Swahili people using the Quran written in Arabic for spiritual guidance as Muslims.
    As regards the formation of the Swahili culture and language, some scholars attribute these phenomena to the intercourse of African and Asiatic people on the coast of East Africa. The word "Swahili" was used by early Arab visitors to the coast and it means "the coast". Ultimately it came to be applied to the people and the language.
    Regarding the history of the Swahili language, the older view linked to the colonial time asserts that the Swahili language originates from Arabs and Persians who moved to the East African coast. Given the fact that only the vocabulary can be associated with these groups but the syntax or grammar of the language is Bantu, this argument has been almost forgotten. It is well known that any language that has to grow and expand its territories ought to absorb some vocabulary from other languages in its way.
     Swazi Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele are languages in the Nguni group of Bantu (Guthrie S40). Xhosa is spoken in the Transkei coastal region of South Africa; Zulu, south of Swaziland inland and along the coast; Swazi, in Swaziland; all three are spoken in South Africa.
     Tsonga Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sesotho (the Sesotho name for Southern Sotho), Setswana (the Setswana name for Tswana), Swazi (also known as Siswati), Tsonga (also known as Xitsonga), Venda (also isiVenda), Xhosa (also isiXhosa) and Zulu (also isiZulu) are 10 of the official languages of South Africa (the last and eleventh being English). All these languages are therefore predominantly spoken in South Africa.
    1,646,000 in South Africa (1995), 4.2% of the population (1995 The Economist). Population total all countries 3,165,000. Transvaal. Also spoken in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe. Partially intelligible with Ronga and Tswa. National language. A language of secondary education. Newspapers, radio programs. Christian, traditional religion. Bible 1907-1989.
     Tswana Tswana, more correctly called Setswana, is another of the Bantu languages of southern Africa. Its speakers, the Tswana, number about 4 million—3 million of whom live in South Africa, and one million in the neighboring country of Botswana, which is named after them. Tswana is closely related to the Sotho language and, in fact, is often referred to as Western Sotho.
    A Bantu language. National Language of Botswana, which is named after the language; The majority of Tswana speakers are in South Africa but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Internationally there are about 4 million speakers.
    The language is closely related to Sotho and is in the Niger-Congo family of languages. It has also been known as Beetjuans, Chuana, Coana, Cuana, Setswana and Sechuana.
     Venda Venda is spoken/used in South Africa
     Wolof Wolof is a language spoken in the west African nations of Senegal and Coastal Gambia. Compared to isiXhosa or isiZulu, this language is fairly easy to learn and to enunciate.
     Xhosa Xhosa is a "dominant language" (Grobler et al.1990) in about three dozen districts of Eastern Cape Province and adjacent Orange Free State, and in the Transkei and Ciskei (all in South Africa). It is also spoken as a dominant language in several districts away from the main Xhosa region: in Petrusburg near Bloemfontein, and in the mining districts of Oberholzer and Westonaria, southwest of Johannesburg. Speakers of Xhosa total about 6.5 million. It is the most widely distributed African language in South Africa, although not the most spoken: Zulu has more speakers. Other speakers are found in major population centers throughout the Republic of South Africa. Afrikaans and English are official languages of South Africa, but Xhosa is a declared official language in Ciskei, along with English, and the official language in Transkei, although English, Afrikaans, and other African vernaculars are used for judicial, legislative, and administrative purposes (McFerren 1985).
     Yoruba Yoruba is spoken by about 30 million people in southwestern Nigeria, Benin, and northern Togo. Yoruba joins Hausa and Igbo as the most widely spoken languages in Nigeria. Although this member of the Benue Congo group of languages has about 20 distinct dialects, Standard Yoruba is recognized by speakers of all dialects and is used in education, literature, and the media.
     Zulu This prominent group of the Nguni people takes its name from the chief who founded the royal line in the 16th century. The warrior king, Shaka, raised the tribe to prominence in the early 19th century. The complicated Zulu etiquette was refined during his reign. The current monarch of the Zulu nation is King Goodwill Zweletini.
    The language Zulu, or isiZulu, is understood by people from the Cape to Zimbabwe. Zulu is also the written language of the Northern Nguni. It's also a tonal language.


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