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How many languages in african countries?

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How many languages in african countries?

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  1. 132 to be exact! Swahili is commonly spoken in Africa


  2. Africa has   2000  different spoken languages and perhaps more since multiple local tribe languages have variations.

  3. just one-sign language and if it fails  God help you! anyway, what has this to do with agriculture?harvesting languages?

  4. The Languages of Africa are a diverse set of languages, many of which bear little relation to one another. European language has a great deal of influence due to the recent history of colonization.Throughout the long multilingual history of the African continent, African languages have been subject to phenomena like language contact, language expansion, language shift, and language death. A case in point is the Bantu expansion, the process of Bantu-speaking peoples expanding over most of the Sub-Saharan part of Africa, thereby displacing Khoi-San speaking peoples in much of East-Africa. Another example is the Islamic expansion in the 7th century AD, marking the start of a period of profound Arabic influence in North Africa.

    With so many totally unrelated families represented over wide areas, the image of the African linguistic situation is that of a veritable "Babel", although it is true that a certain number of languages categorized as distinct are in fact mutually intelligible dialects to some degree - eg. the Nguni languages of Southern Africa or the Manding languages of West Africa.

    Trade languages are another age-old phenomenon in the African linguistic landscape. Cultural and linguistic innovations spread along trade routes and languages of peoples dominant in trade developed into languages of wider communication (linguae francae). Of particular importance in this respect are Jula (western West Africa), Fulfulde (West Africa, mainly across the Sahel), Hausa (eastern West Africa), Lingala (Congo), Swahili (East Africa) and Arabic (North Africa and into the Sahel).

    After gaining independence, many African countries, in the search for national unity, selected one language (generally the former colonial language) to be used in government and education. In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the importance of linguistic diversity. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism.

    There are an estimated 2000 languages spoken in Africa.[1] African languages such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo, are spoken by a few hundred or fewer. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of whose genetic classification has yet to be worked out. Several African languages are also whistled for special purposes.

    The abundant linguistic diversity of many African countries has made language policy an extremely important issue in the neo-colonial era. In recent years, African countries have become increasingly aware of the value of their linguistic inheritance. Language policies that are being developed nowadays are mostly aimed at multilingualism. For example, all African languages are considered official languages of the African Union (AU). 2006 was declared by AU as the "Year of African Languages".

    Most African languages belong to one of four language families: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khoisan. A handful of languages associated with the continent are Indo-European or Austronesian, however, their presence dates to less than 500 and 1000 years ago, respectively, and their closest linguistic relatives are primarily non-African. In addition, African languages include several unclassified languages, and also sign languages.

    Formerly known as Hamito-Semitic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken in large parts of North Africa, East Africa, and Southwest Asia. The Afro-Asiatic language family comprises approximately 375 languages spoken by 285 million people. The main subfamilies of Afro-Asiatic are the Semitic languages, the Cushitic languages, Berber, and the Chadic languages. The Semitic languages are the only branch of Afro-Asiatic located outside of Africa.

    Some of the most widely spoken Afro-Asiatic languages include Arabic (Semitic), Amharic (Semitic), Oromo (Cushitic), and Hausa (Chadic). Of all the world's surviving language families, Afro-Asiatic has the longest written history, since both Ancient Egyptian and Akkadian are members.

    The Nilo-Saharan languages includes an array of diverse languages, a categorisation that is not entirely agreed upon. They mainly include languages spoken in Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania. Some languages in Central and West African are also classified as Nilo-Saharan. The family consists of more than a hundred languages. Nilo-Saharan languages are often sub-divided into Komuz languages, Saharan languages (including Kanuri language, Songhay languages, Fur languages (including Fur language), Maban languages, Central Sudanic languages, Kunama language, Berta language, Eastern Sudanic languages.

    Eastern Sudanic languages are subdivided into Nubian languages and Nilotic languages. Nilotic languages include Eastern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotic languages and Western Nilotic languages

    Nilo-Saharan languages include an array of languages, including Luo languages in Sudan, Uganda,Kenya and Tanzania (eg. Acholi, Lango, Dholuo), Ateker in Uganda and Kenya (eg. Teso, Karamojong and Turkana), Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania), Kalenjin (Kenya), Kanuri (Nigeria, Niger, Chad) and Songhay (Mali, Niger). Most Nilo-Saharan languages are tonal.

    CONTINUED IN SOURCES

  5. By most estimates, Africa contains well over a thousand languages (some have estimated over two thousand), most of African origin and a few of European origin. Africa is the most polyglot continent in the world; it is not rare to find individuals there who fluently speak not only several African languages, but one or two European ones as well.

  6. hundreds

  7. To tell you the truth, I don't think anyone could give you an exact answer to your question.  Jessica c's answer is a cut and paste from Wikipedia and about as close as you will get.  Somewhere between 1000 and 2000 different languages, and that's a guess.  I'm American and managed a large farm in the northern part of Nigeria for 10 years.  We had around 110 people working on the farm, hired from the surrounding area. These 110 people represented 19 different tribes, each with it's own tribal language.  The official language is English, the language taught in schools,  buy you will hear very little spoken in the country side.  Most if not all of my people spoke at least two and most several different tribal languages, and could find a language they had in common and could communicate with each other.  I separated them into six groups and got 6 group leaders that spoke English and could communicate to each person in his group.  I would met with my group leaders each morning and give the assigned work to them.  They in turn would get their groups into action.  It worked, but I often wondered how.  This was in one small area of one country.  Throw in all the countries in Africa, up to a hundred tribes in each country, mix in official languages of English, French, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Arabic, you will see what you are up against in languages of Africa as a whole. You also have creole or Pidgin languages which are a mix of the native languages and the European languages.  Often the Pidgin languages cross country boundaries Good Luck, It is an interesting question.

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