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The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, [1] and by some counts at over 3,000. [2] Nigeria alone has over 500 languages (according to SIL Ethnologue), [3] one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world.
For greater detail, see Distribution of languages in the world. This is a list of languages by total number of speakers. It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Arabic is sometimes considered a single language centred on Modern Standard Arabic, other authors consider its mutually ...
This is a list of countries by number of languages according to the 22nd edition of Ethnologue (2019). [ 1 ] Papua New Guinea has the largest number of languages in the world.
[54] [53] Arabic, spoken in both Asia and Africa, is by far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language today, [4] with around 300 million native speakers, while the Ethiopian Amharic language has around 25 million; collectively, Semitic is the largest branch of Afroasiatic by number of current speakers. [7]
A language designated as having a unique legal status in the state: typically, the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, and often, official government business. Regional language A language designated as having official status limited to a specific area, administrative division, or territory of the state.
official language(s) Current spoken language(s) Historically belonged to Historical official language(s) Historical spoken language(s) Time period Continent 1 Afghanistan: Pashto, Dari: Pashto, Dari, various others: Umayyad Caliphate: Arabic: Pashto, Dari, Uzbek, Turkmen, Central Asian Arabic: 661–750: Asia 2 Armenia: Armenian: Armenian ...
Worldwide, Afrikaans and Dutch as native or second language are spoken by approximately 46 million people. There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between the two languages, [1] [2] [3] particularly in written form.
The Rejaf Language Conference classified the two as one language, and Gabjanda agrees that it makes more sense to see them as dialects of the same language. [9] [4] Santandrea, meanwhile, says that Yulu is the standard form, as opposed to a dialect. [10] The vocabulary between the two languages does differ significantly. [11]