Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

is a

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

country. There are many languages spoken in the country, none of which is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter being inherited from colonial rule (''see

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various forms from 1916 until 1961. It was initially administered under military occupation. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a League o ...

''), are widely spoken as

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

s. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than English in Tanzania.

Overview

According to ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'', there are a total of 126

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s spoken in Tanzania. Two are institutional, 18 are developing, 58 are vigorous, 40 are endangered, and 8 are dying. There are also three languages that recently became extinct. Most languages spoken locally belong to two broad language families: Niger-Congo ( Bantu branch) and

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...

( Nilotic branch), spoken by the country's Bantu and

Nilotic The Nilotic peoples are peoples Indigenous people of Africa, indigenous to South Sudan and the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan and the Gambela Region of Ethiopia, while also being a large minority in Kenya, Uga ...

populations, respectively. Additionally, the Hadza and Sandawe hunter-gatherers speak languages with

click consonant Click consonants, or clicks, are speech sounds that occur as consonants in many languages of Southern Africa and in three languages of East Africa. Examples familiar to English-speakers are the '' tut-tut'' (British spelling) or '' tsk! tsk!' ...

s, which have tentatively been classified within the

Khoisan Khoisan ( ) or () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for the various Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages, combining the Khoekhoen and the San people, Sān peo ...

phylum (although Hadza may be a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

). The

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

and Semitic ethnic minorities speak languages belonging to the separate

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

family, with the Hindustani and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

residents speaking languages from the

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

family. Tanzania's various ethnic groups typically speak their

mother tongue A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongue'' refers ...

s within their own communities. The two

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

s, Swahili and English, are used in varying degrees of fluency for communication with other populations. According to the official national linguistic policy announced in 1984, Swahili is the language of the social and political sphere as well as primary and adult education, whereas English is the language of secondary education, universities, technology, and higher courts.J. A. Masebo & N. Nyangwine: ''Nadharia ya lugha Kiswahili 1.'' S. 126, The government announced in 2015 that it would discontinue the use of English as a language of education as part of an overhaul of the Tanzanian schools' system. Additionally, several Tanzanian sign languages are used.

Language families

Major languages

Major languages spoken in Tanzania include: * Niger-Congo ** Bantu *** Bemba *** Bena (592 thousand, 2009) ***

Chaga The Chaga or Chagga () are a Bantu ethnic group from Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania and Arusha Region of Tanzania. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They founded the now former sovereign Chagga states on the slopes of M ...

*** Digo (166 thousand, 2009) *** Gogo (1.08 million, 2009) *** Haya (1.94 million, 2016) *** Hehe (1.21 million, 2016) ***

Iramba Iramba is one of the six districts of the Singida Region of central Tanzania. It is bordered to the Northwest by the Shinyanga Region, to the North by Simiyu Region, to the east by the Mkalama District, to the South by Ikungi District and to ...

*** Luguru (404 thousand, 2009) *** Makonde (1.47 million, 2016) *** Ngoni *** Nyakyusa *** Nyamwezi (1.47 million, 2016) *** Nyika *** Nyiramba *** Pare *** Rangi (410 thousand, 2007) *** Safwa (322 thousand, 2009) *** Sonjo *** Sukuma (8.13 million, 2016) *** Swahili ***

Tongwe language Tongwe (''Sitongwe'') and Bende (''Sibende'') constitute a clade of Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa ...

*** Tumbuka (400 thousand, 2007) *** Turu *** Vidunda language *** Yao (630 thousand, 2016) *** Zanaki *** Kerewe *** Nyambo *** Gweno *** West Kilimanjaro (Meru) *

*** Datooga *** Kisankasa *** Maasai (682 thousand, 2016) *** Ngasa *** Ogiek *** Luo (185 thousand, 2009) *** Zinza language *** Sambaa language (660 thousand (2001))

Minor languages

Languages spoken by the country's ethnic minorities include: Perusing Papers at a Newsstand - Near Mwenge - Tanzania

** Khoe *** Hadza (possibly a

) *** Sandawe (possibly a

) *

*** Alagwa *** Burunge *** Gorowa *** Iraqw ** Semitic ***

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

** Indo-Iranian ***

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

*** Hindustani *** Kutchi ** Germanic *** English ***

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Extinct languages

Asa language The Asa (Aasá) language, commonly rendered Aasax (also rendered as Aasá, Aasáx, Aramanik, Asak, Asax, Assa, Asá), is an Afroasiatic language formerly spoken by the Asa people of Tanzania. The language is extinct; ethnic Assa in northern Tan ...

References

External links

Languages of Tanzania
at

site.
Map of languages of Tanzania
at Ethnologue {{Tanzania topics de:Tansania#Sprachen