An incredible map shows the most widely spoken languages in each country in Africa. There are believed to be between 1,000 and 2,000 distinct languages across the continent, which have roots in the major language families in the world.
The map, from Exploring Africa, has colour-coded each language into the seven families, which include Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khosian, Niger-Congo / Congo-Kordofanian, Creole, Austronesian, and Indo-European. The most popular language in Africa is Arabic, while English is second and Swahili comes third.
As of 2022, Nigeria accounted for around a quarter of the total languages spoken in Africa with 520. According to the map, the most popular languages spoken there are Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.
Hausa is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family and is particularly common in northern Nigeria, as well as parts of Cameroon, Chad and Ghana. Meanwhile, Yoruba is more popular in southwestern Nigeria and parts of Benin and Togo.
Igbo belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. It is spoken by around 24 million people in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.
Meanwhile, both Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are home to over 200 languages. In Cameroon, Bulu, Beti and Pidgin are most popular, while Lingala, Swahili and Luba are spoken the most in DRC.
Africa has so many languages due to its long history, with humans having populated the continent for over five million years. By comparison, there are just over 200 languages spoken in Europe.
Over time, these languages evolved and diversified within individual communites across Africa. They became isolated due to the diverse geography and climates of the continent.
Also, unlike in Europe, languages across Africa have been allowed to flourish due to a lack of assimilation. Less-widely spoken languages were often suppressed in European empires but not in Africa.
Exploring Africa said: “Languages in a language family are usually thought to have come from a common origin. However, as people speaking that language moved away from each other, the language changed in different ways with each group.
“Eventually each group developed its own distinct new language. Also, languages are influenced by contact that they have had with other languages.
“Just think of how the English language has incorporated words from other languages into it; for example, English speakers use the words ‘siesta’ from Spanish and ‘rendezvous’ from French.”
