Africa is home to several language families. In Morocco, Algeria and the surrounding countries,
Berber languages, such as
Tashelhit, are spoken alongside Arabic.
Hausa is a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and
Amharic is a Semitic language of Ethiopia, related to Arabic and Hebrew. Berber, Chadic and Semitic are all branches of the larger Afroasiatic family.
Mvuba is spoken in northern DRC and part of the hypothesized Nilo-Saharan family.
Most of the languages of western and southern Africa belong to the
Niger-Congo family, for example
Wolof (Senegal),
Ibibio,
Igbo (both Nigeria),
Temné (Sierra Leone) and
Fon (Benin). Some linguists also include
Mandinka (Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia, Senegal), a Mandé language. One large branch of the Niger-Congo family is
Bantu, which spread over the whole southern half of Africa. It includes
Zulu (South Africa),
Kimbundu (Angola),
Swahili (Tanzania, Kenya),
Luganda (take a guess!) and
Tswana (Botswana, South Africa).
Lastly,
Khoekhoe is one of the southern African languages that survived the Bantu expansion. It has clicks and the ethnic group is one of the most genetically divergent of all mankind.
Many of these words entered the English language because of the atrocious Transatlantic slave trade. Note that many words refer to music and dance.
This quiz does not contain words from Egyptian, another branch of the Afroasiatic family: see
this quiz. It also contains no Arabic loanwords: see
this quiz.