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Top African Languages on a Map

Can you name the African languages with the most native speakers with the help of a map?
Includes languages not native to Africa
Source
Quiz by Jiaozira
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: July 31, 2023
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First submittedJuly 28, 2018
Times taken51,154
Average score30.0%
Rating4.91
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Pop
Language
197 m
Arabic
120 m
French
51 m
Hausa
50 m
Yoruba
44 m
Igbo
23 m
Tamazight
26 m
Oromo
25 m
Fulani
24 m
English
21 m
Amharic
20 m
Swahili
20 m
Lingala
18 m
Malagasy
18 m
Portuguese
16 m
Somali
14 m
Shona
11 m
Akan
10 m
Zulu
9.8 m
Kinyarwanda
9.7 m
Chewa
9.2 m
Luganda
8.8 m
Kirundi
8.8 m
Kanuri
8.0 m
Gikuyu
7.6 m
Mossi
Pop
Language
7.6 m
Xhosa
7.2 m
Afrikaans
7.0 m
Tigrinya
7.0 m
Wollaita
6.8 m
Luhaya
6.3 m
Luba-Kasai
6.0 m
Umbundu
5.8 m
Tswana
5.7 m
Kituba
5.6 m
Kongo
5.6 m
Sesotho
5.5 m
Sukuma
5.4 m
Wolof
5.0 m
Tiv
5.0 m
Maninka
4.6 m
Northern
Sotho
4.4 m
Nkore
4.3 m
Zarma
4.3 m
Northern
Ndebele
4.2 m
Luo
4.1 m
Bambara
4.1 m
Spanish
4.0 m
Makhuwa
4.0 m
Kamba
4.0 m
Sidamo
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77 Comments
Jiaozira
+10
Level 71
Jul 31, 2023
Updated to include languages with only over 4,000,000 speakers! The number of languages increased from 37 to 50. Some population figures may still be slightly out of date, due to a combination of difficult census data and rapidly growing populations.

Pre-colonial languages are by native speakers, while colonial language figures include all speakers.

WolfCam
+11
Level 67
Jul 29, 2018
This one is definitely harder than the other two. Simply because there are very few languages actually named for countries. Good Quiz!
Tramp
+4
Level 77
Jul 29, 2018
Tough quiz. I don't believe that there are only 6.5M native English speakers in Africa though. I'm aware that many (most?) speak it as a second language, but it still seems incredibly low to me.
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Apr 7, 2024
A large number of these native English speakers actually come from South Africa. There are unique English dialects spoken in other countries like in Nigeria, but most Africans speak Indigenous African languages as a mother tongue.
randomdude
+3
Level 72
Mar 24, 2020
Sick quiz, but could you accept Kikongo for Kongo?
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Mar 24, 2020
Cheers! That will work now.
NV1
+2
Level 52
Jul 8, 2020
Only missed Gikuyu , Tigrinya, Tshiluba, Umbundu, and Akan.
beccapikle
+5
Level 37
Sep 8, 2020
What about Dioula/Bambara and Wolof?
Jiaozira
+6
Level 71
Sep 8, 2020
Wolof is certain to be added when I update this quiz to the standards of the others. I'm not sure about the others.
Relox84
+1
Level 69
Jul 31, 2023
Bambara/Dioula/Jula should definitely be on the list. It has way over 10 million speakers.
UltraEl1te
+3
Level 37
Sep 10, 2020
This one is Much Harder than Asian and European, Especially Eastern and Southern Africa for me.
TheRealGrantma
+2
Level 55
Sep 22, 2020
I sorta made my own version here, please tell me if you would like me to delete it.
Jiaozira
+17
Level 71
Sep 22, 2020
No don't delete it! I don't own the right to this idea, and anyone can make what they like :)
TheRealGrantma
+8
Level 55
Sep 23, 2020
Thank you! :D
Jiaozira
+6
Level 71
Sep 23, 2020
Don't mention it. I liked the quiz!
PeregrineFalcon
+4
Level 77
Mar 11, 2021
Accept Fula for Fulani?
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Mar 11, 2021
Sure, that will work now :)
Nathaniel
+3
Level 75
May 12, 2021
Nominated! Great quiz!
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
May 12, 2021
Thank you!
JWatson24
+6
Level 71
Aug 22, 2021
(Maybe) accept Ashanti and/or Fante for Akan? I know the Ashanti and Fante people are technically subgroups of the Akan, but since they are the largest/most recognizable groups I think it might make sense to accept those as type-ins (though I'm not sure, so if you have a reason for not accepting those I'd be interested in hearing it).
Jiaozira
+4
Level 71
Aug 22, 2021
Yes those will be accepted now! It does make sense, since those are different standardized versions of Akan. I've been wanting to do a larger overhaul of this quiz for almost a year now but fow now I am touching things up when they are requested :)
cathlete
+2
Level 76
Aug 1, 2023
To me, Twi is the first type-in that comes to mind. In my experience, all Ghanaians refer to Akan chiefly as Twi (if not Akan). I looked it up and it seems that technically speaking, Twi refers to a dialect, but in my experience native speakers call the language twi.

Thanks for an amazing quiz!!!! :D

Palosky
+2
Level 63
Apr 28, 2024
Yes, in my time living in Ghana i never heard anyone refer to the language as akan, only as twi
Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Nov 13, 2021
Thanks for the spotlight!
BigFloppa
+4
Level 62
Nov 13, 2021
swazi has 2.3 million native speakers.
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Nov 13, 2021
Yes, will fix soon. In my source there were a few languages which showed up, yet didn't have a number of speakers attached to them (i.e. Swazi, Ga, Afar) so they will need to be added.
Jelsiwifish
+2
Level 22
Nov 27, 2021
nominated! :D
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Nov 27, 2021
Thank you! :)
AvestaFeynman
+3
Level 23
Jan 16, 2022
Tshiluba is better known as Luba-Kasai. Please accept Luba-Kasai!
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Jan 16, 2022
Okay, I have changed the name as well.
AvestaFeynman
+6
Level 23
Jan 16, 2022
Such a shame German isn't on the list - IIRC, the GDR had funded German education in socialist states like Angola, and was one of the leading Western states against Apartheid and racism.
Jiaozira
+6
Level 71
Jan 16, 2022
According to Wikipedia 0.9% of Namibia, including 35% of white Namibians, speaks German. I assume the first figure is for L1 and the second for L1 and L2 speakers but I'm not completely sure. The list is already incomplete, so German would need a lot of traction to appear on the quiz!
evilcheeser
+2
Level 75
Aug 2, 2023
Some preliminary research suggests modern Ostafrika has the most native German speakers, rather than Sudwestafrika, despite its lack of official recognition in Tanzania.

Regardless, I'm struggling to imagine the total for the continent exceeding a million, much less the now-required 4.

Dollyfroggy
+1
Level 63
Aug 3, 2023
It's not remotely close by this table.
Eutychus
+5
Level 92
Jan 17, 2022
Still no Wolof?
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Jan 17, 2022
No, I need to update the quiz but I've been working on some other projects at the moment.
Damangio
+2
Level 64
Jan 17, 2022
Jiaozira strikes again!
Damangio
+3
Level 64
Jan 18, 2022
Please accept "Ganda" for Luganda.
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Jan 18, 2022
That will now work, thanks for playing!
MfundoNkambule
+4
Level 35
Mar 25, 2022
Siswati(Swazi) has 2.1m speakers,why didn't you include it?
MfundoNkambule
+4
Level 35
Mar 25, 2022
Siswati(Swazi) has 2.1m speakers,why didn't you include it?
Dollyfroggy
+1
Level 63
Apr 3, 2022
Accept Sotho for Northern Sotho please.
James2018
+3
Level 49
May 29, 2022
Northern and southern sotho are different languages albeit somewhat similar
evilcheeser
+2
Level 75
Aug 2, 2023
I believe they were aware of that. But it's a bit like typing "Korea" and getting South Korea lit up. Like surely that's just as close to the correct answer for North Korea?

It is not a perfect parallel though, so I'm personally a bit torn on this one.

Jiaozira
+3
Level 71
Aug 3, 2023
I didn't look too far into the issue, so I followed suite with the other featured Jetpunk quizzes (which require you to distinguish them).
Dollyfroggy
+1
Level 63
Aug 23, 2023
I'm not knowledgeable on the topic, but I assumed it was more like Macedonia for North Macedonia. I think I was thinking of Sesotho anyhow, though.
thread
+2
Level 67
May 7, 2022
Amazing quiz! I've been doing a JetPunk language project the last few months so I appreciate these quizzes a lot more even though i already appreciated them infinitely . I found a lot more 1 Million speaker languages myself, and I also tried to use your source but it seemed to be very faulty. I also had a lot of trouble finding sources but the pages of the languages themselves were pretty reasonable :)
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
May 9, 2022
Originally the source was even worse since not all the languages even had the number of speakers. I believe it has been updated by someone with a (reasonably priced) Ethnologue subscription but when I update the quiz I may have to exclude all languages with under 5 million speakers. It's crazy how some languages with 2-3 million speakers can have so little information, it's like a mystery!
Speed4TheNeed
+2
Level 89
May 7, 2022
Great quiz...even though I did rather poorly on it lol. Nom'd!
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
May 9, 2022
Thank you!
kiwiquizzer
+1
Level 68
Jul 23, 2022
Really fun quiz, thanks! I have done it again and again and learned the ones I didn't know. You have improved my knowledge!
belor
+1
Level 60
Jul 23, 2022
Unsure if anyone has mentioned this yet, though maybe accept Morisyen / Morisien for Mauritian Creole?

I tried Morisyen, after it didn't work I didn't think to try Mauritian Creole, though I guess that bit is on me^^'

GeoRockstar14
+1
Level 90
Jul 23, 2022
Of course, English was one of the few random languages I missed:)
Jato
+1
Level 71
Jul 31, 2023
30 correct only gives one point? Given the difficulty of this quiz, JetPunk’s scoring system is so messed up.
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Jul 31, 2023
It will become more lenient with time and as more people take the quiz. Getting points is brutal when the quiz first gets featured but give it a month and the average scores will be way lower!
Jiaozira
+2
Level 71
Aug 1, 2023
Now 28 answers correct will give you 4 points.
Neodymium
+2
Level 62
Jul 31, 2023
May I make a Spanish Translation?
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Jul 31, 2023
Go ahead :)
Difluzi
+4
Level 82
Jul 31, 2023
Based quiz
HenriettaHousini
+2
Level 50
Aug 1, 2023
Please correct from "Luhaya" to "Luhya". There is no language referred to as the former.
Dollyfroggy
+1
Level 63
Aug 3, 2023
Thought Italian would make it on. It wasn't even close.
Constantinos
+2
Level 73
Aug 8, 2023
So, the two most widely spoken are not native to the continent. Interesting still, despite being aware of it. I just never realised the huge gap between Arabic/French and Hausa.
Zefyrinus
+2
Level 72
Aug 23, 2023
The source does mention the number of (estimated) native speakers of the European languages, so why not use those figures?
Jiaozira
+1
Level 71
Aug 24, 2023
This is a good question. Actually I found that the number of native speakers given for the European languages is unreliable for a variety of reasons, and so I decided to use the L2 data.
Jesperbf
+2
Level 68
Aug 23, 2023
Mossi is the ethnicity. The language is moré
SpartanLlama
+1
Level 73
Aug 23, 2023
14, tough one
moret29
+2
Level 44
Aug 24, 2023
How Swahili and Afrikaans get more that portuguese and spanish?
jump4jojo
+4
Level 69
Aug 25, 2023
Zarma is the name for the language spoken in Niger — can you accept the names used for that same language in northern Mali: Songhoy/Sonrai or Koyraboro Senni? Or move the dot over ;-) I tried Tamacheq and Bella, guessing those do not have enough speakers.

Also agree with the comment about Twi — is that accepted now? Otherwise great quiz!

Willuna
+2
Level 57
Oct 2, 2023
Is Krio not spoken widely enough?

edit: of course not im dumb

stalintime
+2
Level 78
Nov 9, 2023
ahhhh i missed two by one letter (akan vs aka and maninka vs mandinka)
Sifhraven
+2
Level 72
Mar 30, 2024
Makes a quiz called top languages. Includes like 100 languages (I know there are not literally 100 on here). I would put the cut-off point at above 5 million speakers. Or maybe at 7+
ScrumpyHound
+2
Level 39
May 30, 2024
Great quiz. Many thanks.
TheLonelyAlula
+2
Level 55
Aug 8, 2024
Great quiz! I think your source says there are only 1.2 mil native French speakers in Africa, not 120 mil. This more sense, although there are 300+ French speakers in Africa if you count non-native speakers. 1.2 is probably a lowball number but 120 mil native speakers is not really believable. Also, is there any reason for leaving out creoles/pidgins? I'm pretty sure Nigerian Pidgin and Ghanaian Pidgin each have at least 4 mil native speakers. Also, Bemba and Luo should be on here (there also might be more languages missing I'm not sure). Anyways, thanks.
TheLonelyAlula
+2
Level 55
Aug 9, 2024
Just saw the caveat... non-native speakers are clearly not counted for English and Portuguese, so shouldn't they also not be counted for French?
Pandryf
+1
Level 63
Sep 29, 2024
I had 19. I forgot Portuguese. If I remembered, I'd have 4 points instead of 3.
AntiMatter8192
+1
Level 74
Dec 1, 2024
Nigerian Pidgin should 100% be on here. Despite its name, it's a creole with proper grammar rules and some degree of standardisation. If it's considered a non-native language, it has enough speakers to be on here easily, and even if it's considered a native language, it should have just enough native speakers to be on here.

Wikipedia

CryonicCrusader76
+1
Level 74
Dec 4, 2024
Confusing this is that there are two languages called "Luo" and they are fairly closely related. The Luo that has 4.2 million speakers (Dholuo) is actually located primarily in western Kenya with some in Tanzania. The one in South Sudan (Dheluwo) has just over a quarter-million speakers as of 2017. More of a map correction.

Good quiz overall, though! :-) I'm a major language and geography geek and love quizzes like these!

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