African languages

Hello language learners! I think you need some diversity in your discussions! To my amazedness you don't have anything related to African languages. But so many people travel to the "Black Continent", think it would be challenging to try to get some understanding about them. I am aware that they are an infinite number, but the most spread deserves attention. So what do you say, can we start, are you interested?

[Sergiu]

Hi Safari,

Very interesting nick, uncommon for our forum topic, but perfectly fitting with the object of discussion. I can say that your proposal deserves attention and I as the moderator of the forum agree to start the discussion. I hope that other language "addicts" will join us as soon as possible.

It is rather hard to stop on a certain language, maybe it will be better to classify them by families to whom they pertain and discuss the most significant ones.

Other proposals are also welcome, so please express yourself.
I'l try to give the classification of African languages to make it easier to discuss them.
Language Group

• Afro-Asiatic
• Khosian
• Niger-Kongo
• Nilo-Saharan

Pidgins

• Hausa based
• Swahili based
• Zulu based

Creoles

• Afrikaans based Creole
• Arabic based
• Kongo based
• Krio based
• Swahili based Creole

Unclassified Languages

• Anlo (Togo)
• Bete (Nigeria)
• Gibanawa (Nigeria)
• Hwla (Togo)
• Imeraguen (Mauritania)
• Kara (Central African Republic)
• Korobore (Burkina Faso)
• Kujarge (Chad)
• Laal (Chad)
• Lufu (Nigeria)
• Luo (Cameroon)
• Mawa (Nigeria)
• Nemadi (Mali/Mauritania)
• Rer Bare (Ethiopia)
• Sinikere (Burkina Faso)
• Weyto (Ethiopia)
• Wutana (Nigeria)
• Yauma (Angola/Zambia)
• Yeni (Cameroon)

Sergiu

Hi there! Concerning african languages, I can say that Swahili is a wide spread language in Africa. It is spoken in the in eastern, central and south eastern Africa.

Swahili is an African language and contains many words similar to Arabic ones.

Jambo means 'hello' and you must have heard of the popular phrase 'Hakuna matata' which means 'no worries'.

[Jasmina]

Ho there,
Here is an African speaking :-)

I saw that the question was mainly about the "black continent", and I am north African..Anyway, let me try to help.

There is a language called Bambara which is really of great use!! It's spoken in the Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, BF and others! I have been told that if you speak a bit of this language, you'll be able to communicate through a big part of Africa!

I asked for instance some African friends studying with me, and I discovered that they also have a diverstiy of languages! For example, 2 of them are coming from the same country, and are not speaking the same language.
Let you know that their official language is French. (Talkning about the Ivory coeast).
They have another language in that country called "baoli' (hope that it's the right spelling).

[Jasmina]

For more information about berber; and to have an idea about the alphabet, you can visit :

http://amazighworld.net/tamazgha/culture/language/index.php

Salut people! Want to make a small contribution to your talk about African languages. Hope to have a friutful duscussion.

Swahili (more properly, Kiswahili) is the first language of approximately one million people, mostly in Kenya and Tanzania, but also in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). An additional 10 million people speak it as a second language.

Swahili is part of the Bantu group of languages which stems from the Niger-Congo language family. It was strongly influenced by both Arabic and Persian, as is evident from the many words of Arab and Persian origin found in the Swahili language today. Even the name "Swahili" comes from an Arabic word meaning "by the coast." The language began to develop in the 7th century, but it wasn't brought inland until about the 19th century. Later, the Germans adopted Swahili as the language of administration in Tanganyika. In 1970, it was made the official language of Kenya.

You may recognize a few of the Swahili words that have been incorporated into the English language. The word tote, for example, is from the Swahili verb tuta meaning "to haul." Also, the word Kwanza (an African holiday) comes from Swahili. And you may recognize the words simba (lion) and rafiki (friend) from a certain popular animated motion picture!

The reverse is also true. Many English words have been incorporated into Swahili, like "pencil" (penseli), "computer" (kompyuta) and "machine" (mashine).

All the best!

[Montekristo]

Hello people, you know I never understood what is this language Afrikaans about. The only thing I know is that it is spoken in South African Republic. I'll be thankful for any information.

[Sergiu]

Hi Montekristo,

Look here what I found about Afrikaans language:

Afrikaans is a descendent of Dutch which is spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia by about 6 million people. There are also speakers of Afrikaans in Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Germany, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Afrikaans retains some features of 18th century Dutch, together with vocabulary from various Bantu and Khoisan languages and also from Portugese and Malay. Speakers of Afrikaans can communicate with Dutch speakers without too much difficulty.

From about 1815 Afrikaans started to replace Malay as the language of instruction in Muslim schools in South Africa. At that time it was written with the Arabic alphabet. Afrikaans, written with the Latin alphabet, started to appeared in newspapers and political and religious works in about 1850. Then in 1875 a group of Afrikaans speakers from the Cape formed the Genootskap vir Regte Afrikaanders (Society for Real Afrikaners), and published a number of books in Afrikaans, including grammars, dictionaries, religious material and histories. They also published a journal called the Patriot.

During the early years of the 20th century there was a blossoming of academic interest in Afrikaans. In 1925 Afrikaans was recognised by the government as a real language, instead of a slang version of Dutch. Afrikaans has changed little since then.

Hope I helped,

SergiuP:-)

[Montekristo]

Hi Sergiu, sorry for late reply, but I definitly forgot about this thread. Thanks a lot for the information. Now I have a clear idea about Afrikaans. In fact I was wondering how many official languages are spoken in African states, I mean those who have an international coverage. For example many African countries have Fench as the first official language, Arabic or English. Are there any others?

[Sergiu]

Hi Montekristo,

You practically mentioned all the "international languages" spoken on the African continent. Of course every state has its own tribal languages and besides those you named there is also Portuguese, spoken in some African countries such as Mozambique, Angola, etc. If I'm not wrong one may encounter also speakers of German in former German colonies.

Sergiu