2. It is a Bantu language believed to have originated from other languages, mainly Arabic, due to historical interactions between Arabs from the Middle East and East Africans. 1 SWAHILI. According to Ethnologue, the language family contains over 3 billion speakers in total. IsiZulu is by far the most spoken language in SA. This is … Japanese. It is the most spoken language in Africa. The languages in South Africa are just as important as any other factor in understanding the essence of the country itself. IsiZulu is South Africa's most spoken language. ... 2019 Two ways to … 10. Botswana: Setswana (national language with minor differences in dialects), English is the official business language and it is widely spoken in urban areas. In South Africa, it is given official status with 10 other languages. Language in South Africa According to census data from 2011, Zulu is the most widely spoken language in the country with 11.6 million speakers. POPULATION BY LANGUAGE MOST SPOKEN AT HOME INTEREST IN NEWS STATISTICS Population 57m Internet penetration 54% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% isiZulu isiXhosa Afrikaans Sepedi Setswana English 24 17 12 9 9 8 Note. Swahili is one of the most spoken languages in East Africa. Mining, manufacturing and transport were the biggest drags on growth in gross domestic product (GDP). Most of them live in Portugal and Brazil, the largest country in the Portuguese-speaking world, but also in some countries in Southern Africa. Arabic (More Than 170 million Speakers) Arabic is the most widespread official language in the African continent and the second most spoken language in Africa. Fon and Yoruba (most common vernaculars in south), tribal languages (at least six major ones in north). As in Brazil lives more than half the population of South America, Portuguese is the most common language on the continent. When data is available, the languages spoken in each country are broken down according to the percent of the total population speaking each language as a first language. There are more than 100 million people who speak using this dialect, but only 15 million people consider it to be the first language. Japanese is the official language of Japan. Swahili is the most spoken language in Africa, with over 100 million speakers. English is the sixth most common home language, with 8.1% of people speaking it at home. Mandarin Chinese is the world’s most widely spoken language, and South Africa’s government wants more students to speak it. For those countries without available data, languages are listed in rank order based on prevalence, starting with the most-spoken language. Stats Biz – November 2019. South Africa - South Africa - Languages: The Black African population is heterogeneous, falling mainly into four linguistic categories. 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