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15 MOST HILARIOUS FACTS ABOUT AFRICAN #LANGUAGES YOU NEED TO KNOW
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\ud83d\udc491. #Africa is home to approximately 1/3 of the world’s languages
\ud83d\udc492. There are a about 3,000 languages spoken accros the continent.
\ud83d\udc493. Hausa language (an African language) is more spoken than German. It's more spoken than Japanese. It's also more spoken than Punjabi according to Spectator Index.
\ud83d\udc494. Hausa and Swahili are the most spoken in the continent with more than 150M speakers each. Both are very easy to read as words are pronounced the way they are written.
\ud83d\udc495. \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\uddfc #Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, the most of any country in the world.
\ud83d\udc496. \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddec#Nigeria is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse countries having about 500 different languages spoken in iy, according to Ethnologue
7. The African Union didn’t have a single native African language as an official language until 2004. Even though Swahili is an official working language. Lots need to be done.
\ud83d\udc498. The single most translated short story ever in African languages is "The Upright Revolution" written in Gikuyu language and translated in more than 60 languages
9. \ud83c\uddff\ud83c\udde6South Africa has 11 official languages even though only 2/% percent of South Africans speak one of these languages as a first language.
\ud83d\udc4910. French language is more spoken in Africa than any other part of the world. It's the official language of 11 African countries.
\ud83d\udc4911. Swahili is an hybrid language.
It's many languages in one. As a result of years of intensive trade at the East African costal area, the language has been influenced by many languages such as Arabic ( 35% of its words come from Arabic), English, German etc.
\ud83d\udc4912. About 17% of Africans speak an Arabic dialect as their mother tongue.
\ud83d\udc4913. Many of the worlds Creole languages are found in Africa: Krio, Camfranglais, Pidgin etc ( in Sierra Leone Seychelles, Cameroon, Nigeria, etc.)
\ud83d\udc4914. YORUBA language has influenced Jamaican patois
There's a high linguistic affinity between the Igbo language and the Jamaican parlé. Many words are closer in forms.
-Akara( Jamaica) Akàrà( YORUBA): bean cake
-Soso ( Jamaica), Soso ( YORUBA): only
- Ima osu ( Jamaica), imu iso( Igbo)
\ud83d\udc4915. Africa has the highest ratio of tonal languages.
© Harouna MAHAMAT:
Senior Linguist and translator
[email protected]
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