Top 10 Most Spoken Languages in Africa 2020

Hello Displorers, Welcome back to another exciting video and thanks for watching. In this video, ze qre excited to present to you the top 10 most spoken languages in Africa. It is common knowledge that Africa is a huge continent—the second largest and most populous continent in the world. Spanning over a land area of 30.3 million square kilometers, Africa is home to around 2000 languages and has a population of about 1.216 billion people belonging to different native tribes and groups. The 54 countries in Africa all have a wide range of languages as diverse as their ancestral tribes. But some of these languages are common to every city in this vast land. African languages form part of four language groups, namely Afro-Asiatic covering Northern Africa, Central Sahara and the Horn of Africa, Nilo-Saharian covering Central and Eastern Africa, Niger-Congo covering Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa and Khoisan, covering the western part of Southern Africa.

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Without any further ado, here are the 10 most spoken languages in Africa.

10. Hausa

The Hausa people are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, making the Hausa language the most popular language in the country. Most speakers live in northern Nigeria or the Southern Republic of Niger, though it’s also popular in other parts of West Africa. Because of its usefulness as a lingua franca in trade, many learn Hausa as a second language.
The language is present mostly in West African countries like Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Benin, and Togo. However, it’s also in East African countries like Eritrea and Sudan, and Central African countries like Congo and Cameroon. Hausa makes to the list of most spoken languages in Africa due to its significance in trade, commerce and business across Nigeria and West African region. Hausa is one of the few African languages that is taught in International Universities due to the huge amount of literature that it possesses.

9. IGBO
One of Nigeria’s main languages, Igbo is spoken by over 20 million people, with a significant amount of speakers in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The language has more than 20 dialects, with Central Igbo being the most prevalent. The language was made prominent by author Chinua Achebe, who wrote the popular book “Things Fall Apart” and wrote most of his books in Igbo, mirroring and popularizing Igbo culture. Igbo has more than 20 dialects and descends from the Volta-Niger branch of Niger-Congo family of languages, with the Igbo people being the largest ethnic group in Africa. Other Igbo speaking communities can be found in Brazil, Jamaica, USA, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.

8. Amharic

Amharic is the second-largest Semitic dialect on the continent after Arabic, with over 25 million people and mainly spoken in Ethiopia. Being a native language, Amharic is one of the very few languages having its own alphabet, while most others use Arabic or Latin letters. The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family originating from the Middle East. Amharic, along with Arabic, Hebrew, and Tigrinya, are the most spoken Semitic language in the world by way of native speakers. It is written in the Ge’ez or Ethiopic script, with over 30 different characters

7. Yoruba

Yoruba is one of the cardinal languages of Nigeria, accounting for over 30 million speakers in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. Other populations speaking Yoruba as an everyday language are found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Code-switching between Yorùbá and English is a way of life for educated Yorùbá-English bilinguals. They use Yorùbá mainly in the family setting and informal situations such as village or tribal meetings. Translation of the Bible in 1884 by Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba speaker, in resulted in the development of a standard written form of Yoruba that has been widely adopted across the dialects. Standard Yoruba is the literary form of the language learned at school and heard on radio and television

6. OROMO
Oromo is spoken by over 30 million people in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Egypt. The Oromo people account for more than 40% of the Ethiopian population and are the largest ethnic group in the country. The writing of the language was forbidden between 1974 and 1991 under the Mengistu regime, even though limited usage of the Ge’ez script was allowed. After 1991, the language adopted the Latin alphabet. It falls

[theblackpearl]

Huyu jamaa ni fala kweli, bure kabisa huyu pumbavu. Anazungumziaje Kiseahili bila kutaja Tanzania na Kenya, hajui anachokiongea amejaza upuuzi kabisa kwenye hii video. Stupid guy, mention KISEAHILI with its Parents. Tanzania and Kenya has more than 90million Speakers in Tanzania and our Cousins Kenya.

[BidayoTV]

You can't speak of Swahili without speaking of Tanzania. It is the only country where is spoken in formal manner rather than other countries you have mentioned.

[geoffreysoloshija]

We don't speak Arabic in Tanzania, we have Swahili as national language and English as official language

[mastajabudekula]

We all know swahili is most spoken language in Africa. My question is why must you put English and French in African languages.

[mrNaoissa]

You can’t speak about Hausa Yoruba and igbo without mentioning Nigeria

[bonfilsbabone]

Swahili is in Congo 🇨🇩 Congolese language many of Congolese we moved in as a place or country and we mix Swahili between us language where we moving Swahili don't forget that we speak Swahili and Congo and when we go to another country we mix the language and Swahili and make another Swahili language I am Congolese and I live in Tanzania so we go somewhere we go from Tanzania we we move from Kenya from Burundi and we mix Swahili with their language and that make another Swahili language okay you need to believe that Congo is the biggest country ever that's why I'm telling you many of Congolese we move we go to another country and mix the language with our language Swahili and make if you go from Tanzania you will you will meet many Congolese if you go from Burundi you will meet many Congolese from there that's why we go and take our language somewhere and mix and make it as language believe it that's why swahili's come from Congo because Congress biggest country in Africa that's why many of Congolese day we move and go to another country from Africa and we go to mix Swahili and another language from there and make another Swahili spoken language do you want me to speak Swahili from you let me know go Burundi you ask many people where you come from Congo go from Tanzania you ask many people where you come from Congo go Kenya many of them they come from Congo that's why Congo is gone take Swahili from another country in the mix from their language and is making as a language like I don't know y'all need to believe that sawa sawa kabisa

[patrickkimoyo]

You don’t know what you’re talking about about Swahili, it’s mainly spoken in TANZANIA and Kenya which you never mentioned!

[amoskuria]

Research on Swahili and get facts stop lying to the people

[salmacadey]

Stop lying oromo speaks only ethopia and kenya not somalia somalia whole people speak somali language

[mascot]

when i asked my parents who are both from the democratic republic of Congo they said that French was their primary language and that they spoke Swahili as a second

[Maziwamakuu]

U under rated Amharic, it is the official language of Ethiopia 🇪🇹.

[reinsonkibisu]

Swahili Started in Eastern in the main areas of kenya and Tanzania then it spread to the other countries

[shawnmichaels]

Swahili is an official language of Tanzania, Kenya mainly... Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Malawi and Zambia not that much..Ukiwasikiliza inakubidi uwe makini sana kuwaelewa

[abergloriaelisabeth]

What about swahili in Uganda 🇺🇬, Kenya 🇰🇪, Tanzania 🇹🇿, Congo 🇨🇩, Rwanda and Burundi

[neduchinedu]

I speak Igbo and Igbo has over 50 million speaks.. In south East Nigeria alone it has over 30 million speaks, South South Nigeria, over 9 million speaks. North, South West and others makes up the rest of the speakers.

[erickmadondo]

You don't know what you're talking about how come Zulu stop lie

[bettygm]

we have to sue you, how can you speak about Swahili language without mentioning Tanzania and Kenya. What a west of 10.08 minutes of my life

[EmperorDraconianIV]

My friend at Displore good job but Hausa is the second most common language in Africa. In Nigeria alone there are over 90 million speakers and there is no way Igbo spoken predominantly in 6 Nigerian states with no international presence is spoken more than Hausa. Let's do research before doing videos

[rebeccalames]

Uganda does not speak swahili. It is kenya that speak swahili

[michaelnmarkwe]

There are more than 50million Igbo speakers.