Africa is a continent with a very high linguistic diversity with an estimated 1500 (although some estimate 2000) spoken languages. According to my research, these languages can be broken down into four distinct groups:
Afro-Asiatic-The 200 languages spoken in Northern Africa
Nilo-Saharian-The 140 languages spoken in Central and Eastern Africa.
Niger-Saharian-The 1000 languages spoken in two-thirds of Africa
Khoisan-The 30 languages spoken in Western part of Southern Africa
Recently, a study was published that all languages may originate from Africa. An analysis of languages from around the world suggests that, like our genes, human speech originated in sub-Saharan Africa. The phonemes, or the perceptually distinct units of sound that differentiate words, were studied and are used in 504 human languages today. The number of phonemes was found to be highest in Africa and decreases with increasing distance from Africa. This got me to thinking about the many languages that are spoken in the continent of Africa and peaked my interest.
English (the official language of Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, French, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, to name just a few), French (the official language of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, the Seychelles and Madagascar and Chad, among others) and Arabic (the official language of Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Tunisia, etc.) are the three languages spoken predominantly in Africa.
Portuguese is the official language in Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe, Somali is the official language in Somalia and Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. Swahili is one of the official languages of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and also one of the most widely used African languages on the Internet, according to my research.
South Africa has eleven official languages; more than any other African country. These are Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, Pedi, Sesotho (Sotho), siSwati (Swazi), Xitsonga (Tsonga), Tswana, Tshivenda (Venda), isiXhosa and isiZulu.
There are many, many others that are too numerous to name. Good luck to those who receive a request from a client for an "African" translation!
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