Africa Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Languages=== {{Main|Languages of Africa}} {{See also|Writing systems of Africa#Indigenous writing systems}} By most estimates, well over a thousand [[language]]s ([[UNESCO]] has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8048&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |title=Africa |date=2005 |publisher=UNESCO |access-date=1 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080602050234/http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D8048%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |archive-date= 2 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most [[Multilingualism|multilingual]] continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well.{{Further explanation needed|reason=Africa is not one country with one single tradition of polyglots|date=February 2023}} There are four major groups indigenous to Africa: [[File:Map of African language families.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|A simplistic view of language families spoken in Africa]] * The [[Afroasiatic languages|''Afroasiatic'']] languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the [[Sahel]], and Southwest Asia. * The [[Nilo-Saharan languages|''Nilo-Saharan'']] languages consist of a group of several possibly related [[Language family|families]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wolff |first1=Ekkehard |title=Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Nilo-Saharan' |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=326–381 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335691200 |access-date=22 October 2023}}</ref> spoken by 30 million people between 100 languages. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups in [[Chad]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Kenya]], [[Nigeria]], [[Sudan]], [[South Sudan]], [[Uganda]], and northern [[Tanzania]]. * The [[Niger–Congo languages|''Niger-Congo'']] language family covers much of sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of number of languages, it is the largest language family in Africa and perhaps one of the largest in the world. * The [[Khoisan languages|''Khoisan'']] languages form a group of three unrelated<ref>{{cite book |last1=Güldemann |first1=Tom |title=Beyond 'Khoisan': Historical relations in the Kalahari Basin |date=29 August 2014 |pages=1–40 |url=https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027269928#overview |access-date=22 October 2023 |language=en}}</ref> families and two [[Language isolate|isolates]] and number about fifty in total. They are mainly spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.<ref>{{cite web|title=Khoisan Languages|url=http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html|website=The Language Gulper|access-date=2 January 2017|archive-date=25 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125082754/http://languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Many of the Khoisan languages are [[endangered language|endangered]]. The [[Khoikhoi|Khoi]] and [[Bushmen|San]] peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa. Following the end of [[colonialism]], nearly all African countries adopted [[official language]]s that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], [[Igbo language|Igbo]] and [[Hausa language|Hausa]]). In numerous countries, English and French (''see [[African French]]'') are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Afrikaans]] and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. Italian is spoken by some in former [[Italian Colonial Empire|Italian colonies]] in Africa. German is spoken in [[Namibia]], as it was a former German protectorate. In total, at least a fifth of Africans speak the former colonial languages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oluwole |first=Victor |date=2021-09-12 |title=A comprehensive list of all the English-speaking countries in Africa |url=https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/a-comprehensive-list-of-all-the-english-speaking-countries-in-africa/hdp1610 |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Business Insider Africa |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stein-Smith |first=Kathleen |date=2022-03-17 |title=Africa and the French language are growing together in global importance |url=http://theconversation.com/africa-and-the-french-language-are-growing-together-in-global-importance-179224 |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Babbel.com |last2=GmbH |first2=Lesson Nine |title=How Many People Speak Portuguese, And Where Is It Spoken? |url=https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-portuguese-and-where-is-it-spoken |access-date=2023-09-02 |website=Babbel Magazine |language=en}}</ref>{{Efn|The previous three references show that there a total of 130 million English speakers, 120 million French speakers, and over 30 million Portuguese speakers in Africa, making them about 20% of Africa's 2022 population of 1.4 billion people.}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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