Swahili is most widely spoken African language. Swahili is spoken in these countries: Tanzania 99%, Kenya 87%, Uganda 85%, Burundi 55%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 48%, Rwanda 28%, Swahili is also spoken in southern Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan and northern Mozambique and the Comoros Islands. It has more than 11 million native speakers (speak Swahili as first language) and more than 120 million secondary speakers. That makes Swahili the largest African language.

Arabic is widely spoken in many African countries, but it is naturally not counted as one of African languages even though there's arabic-africans lives in Africa; it is because most of native African countries has a low percentage of Arabic speakers.

Since almost every African country was at one time a colony, speaking English, Portuguese, or French will also help you communicate. Many Africans will speak Creole or pidgin versions of these European languages and they may not be so easy to understand when you first hear them.

1) Arabic
2) Kiswahili
3) Hausa
4) English
5) Amharic
6) French
7) Oromo
Yoruba
9) Igbo
10) Zulu
Source(s): http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/9546 (<click to see the top 50)

Swahili the sweetest and most beautiful language in this Continent then Lingala...

Answerbag is your source? SMH

Actually its a close call between Kiswahili and Hausa. Swahili for the East and Hausa for West.

gbogboti: Swahili is most widely spoken African language. Swahili is spoken in these countries: Tanzania 99%, Kenya 87%, Uganda 85%, Burundi 55%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 48%, Rwanda 28%, Swahili is also spoken in southern Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan and northern Mozambique and the Comoros Islands. It has more than 11 million native speakers (speak Swahili as first language) and more than 120 million secondary speakers. That makes Swahili the largest African language.

Arabic is widely spoken in many African countries, but it is naturally not counted as one of African languages even though there's arabic-africans lives in Africa; it is because most of native African countries has a low percentage of Arabic speakers.

Since almost every African country was at one time a colony, speaking English, Portuguese, or French will also help you communicate. Many Africans will speak Creole or pidgin versions of these European languages and they may not be so easy to understand when you first hear them.

1) Arabic
2) Kiswahili
3) Hausa
4) English
5) Amharic
6) French
7) Oromo
Yoruba
9) Igbo
10) Zulu
Source(s): http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/9546 (<click to see the top 50)

Oromo, Amharic, Yoruba and Igbo shouldn't even be on the list.

How did they make it in the list and Fulani and Lingala did not?

LOL @ list.Aside Swahili and Hausa,the list is funnnny.

I wonder which 10 languages in Africa are the least spoken.

gbogboti: Swahili is most widely spoken African language. Swahili is spoken in these countries: Tanzania 99%, Kenya 87%, Uganda 85%, Burundi 55%, Democratic Republic of the Congo 48%, Rwanda 28%, Swahili is also spoken in southern Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan and northern Mozambique and the Comoros Islands. It has more than 11 million native speakers (speak Swahili as first language) and more than 120 million secondary speakers. That makes Swahili the largest African language.

Hi Gbogboti!
Thanks for the statistics, but am not so sure about its authenticity. For instance, Swahili, apart from English, is Kenya's official language. It is spoken ALL OVER the country, so I wonder why the statistics would indicate that it's 87% widespread. 99% seems to me like the accurate figure.
With Uganda on the other hand, Swahili is seldom spoken by its citizens (apart from a few in Eastern Uganda and Southern Uganda; both regions bordering Western Kenya and North-West Tanzania respectively). Most Ugandans do not speak/understand Swahili, so 85% appears like a very inaccurate statistic to portray the magnitude of how spread Swahili is in Uganda.

Nayah: Swahili the sweetest and most beautiful language in this continent then Lingala...

True talk! Umesema ukweli kabisa Nayah!

Ask pendo89 to translate that for you.

Good Girl:

True talk! Umesema ukweli kabisa Nayah!

Ask pendo89 to translate that for you.

Eh my Good Girl Habari!Actually, my Tanzanian blood is coming slowly and I'm improviong a bit my swahili!!

Are we talking of the languages with the most speakers or the language that are widely spoken.

Am also doubting the figures on Kenyan swahili speakers.... The percentage is higher than that

Hausa ranked first in Africa and according to Wikipedia Hausa ranked 34th in the World ( 6000 languages) most spoken languages by Native speakers.
The stastistic was based on the first language.While Swahili ranked 59th in the world.
Oromo of Ethiopia ranked second behind Hausa in Africa and 56th in the world.
Yoruba ranked 3rd,Amharic 4th,Igbo 5th,Fulani 6th,Somali 7th in Africa.
These stastistics are based on the daily most spoken languages by Native speakers,not second language speakers.

The Northern Nigeria is dominated by Hausa,and the total Population of Northern Nigerian is over 70 millions.Almost of these Northern states speak Hausa languages.

55% of total population of the republic of Niger are Native Hausa which is equal to over 8 millions to the total of 16 millions of Nigeriens are Native Hausa.Almost 90% of Nigeriens speak Hausa ,or close to over 14 millions of Niger citizen speak Hausa.

When you Go to Ghana,there are Over 5 millions Ghanains who speak Hausa either first or second language.

What about Sudan,where there are over 1 million Sudanese Hausa,who speak Hausa as first language alongside of Arabic.

Cameroon,over there are Native Hausa who are numbered little bit more over 500,000 ,and another 500,000 speak Hausa as second language.

Benin,Hausa is the first most spoken foreign language alongside of indigenous languages of Benin.

Togo has noticeble Hausa speakers,and Hausa is also using to broacast on Togolese National Radio station ( Radio Lome )

Gabon has more than 100,000 Hausa speakers.

There more than 50,000 Hausa speakers in Algeria.

Libya also has few 1000s Hausa speakers.

Cote D'Ivoire has couple 100s of 1000s Hausa speakers.

Go to Senegal,there you will see numbered Hausa speaker.


The current speakers of Hausa Language is Numbered to over 100 millions included 65 millions speak Hausa as first language ( 45 million Native speakers)


Wherearea,Swahili has 5 million to 8 millions Native speakers,and ranked 59th in the world way behind Yoruba 48th,Igbo 55th in the world 6000 languages

Baayanjida: Hausa ranked first in Africa and according to Wikipedia Hausa ranked 34th in the World ( 6000 languages) most spoken languages by Native speakers.
The stastistic was based on the first language.While Swahili ranked 59th in the world.
Oromo of Ethiopia ranked second behind Hausa in Africa and 56th in the world.
Yoruba ranked 3rd,Amharic 4th,Igbo 5th,Fulani 6th,Somali 7th in Africa.
These stastistics are based on the daily most spoken languages by Native speakers,not second language speakers.

The Northern Nigeria is dominated by Hausa,and the total Population of Northern Nigerian is over 70 millions.Almost of these Northern states speak Hausa languages.

55% of total population of the republic of Niger are Native Hausa which is equal to over 8 millions to the total of 16 millions of Nigeriens are Native Hausa.Almost 90% of Nigeriens speak Hausa ,or close to over 14 millions of Niger citizen speak Hausa.

When you Go to Ghana,there are Over 5 millions Ghanains who speak Hausa either first or second language.

What about Sudan,where there are over 1 million Sudanese Hausa,who speak Hausa as first language alongside of Arabic.

Cameroon,over there are Native Hausa who are numbered little bit more over 500,000 ,and another 500,000 speak Hausa as second language.

Benin,Hausa is the first most spoken foreign language alongside of indigenous languages of Benin.

Togo has noticeble Hausa speakers,and Hausa is also using to broacast on Togolese National Radio station ( Radio Lome )

Gabon has more than 100,000 Hausa speakers.

There more than 50,000 Hausa speakers in Algeria.

Libya also has few 1000s Hausa speakers.

Cote D'Ivoire has couple 100s of 1000s Hausa speakers.

Go to Senegal,there you will see numbered Hausa speaker.


The current speakers of Hausa Language is Numbered to over 100 millions included 65 millions speak Hausa as first language ( 45 million Native speakers)


Wherearea,Swahili has 5 million to 8 millions Native speakers,and ranked 59th in the world way behind Yoruba 48th,Igbo 55th in the world 6000 languages

Good morning, if you base your analysis on Wilkipiedia's sources you could be mistaken because references are written from "ordinary"people like you and I meanwhile we need to disociate the most spoken from the most used! MANDARIN (a chinese language among others) is more spoken than English while English is the most spreding and used language in the World. So the same for Swahili and Hausa. Sorry but Swahili hands down

PS As for Gabon there's NO hausa as tribe in this country but only immigrants.

Nayah:

Good morning, if you base your analysis on Wilkipiedia's sources you could be mistaken because references are written from "ordinary"people like you and I meanwhile we need to disociate the most spoken from the most used! MANDARIN (a chinese language among others) is more spoken than English while English is the most spreding and used language in the World. So the same for Swahili and Hausa. Sorry but Swahili hands down

PS As for Gabon there's NO hausa as tribe in this country but only immigrants.

Well,Hausa is not a tribe but ethnic ,so don't mistake them . There are over 50,000 Hausa in Gabon ,there even Hausa in gabonaise politician.

Hausa spread in Africa before Europeans colonialist invaded Africa. Some survives til today,some lost .
Swahili is just name,but when it come to number swahili is behind Hausa .

Niko DRC (ZAIROIS)Our swahili is mixture like other swahili of arabic, but also our own dialect Katangaise with french in it njo vile.

Baayanjida: Hausa ranked first in Africa and according to Wikipedia Hausa ranked 34th in the World ( 6000 languages) most spoken languages by Native speakers.
The stastistic was based on the first language.While Swahili ranked 59th in the world.

Baayanjida.....you confused facts between 1st language and most widely spoken. Hausa beats Swahili as first language spoken by many people, but Swahili beats Hausa by far as more widely spoken as it has more than 80 million speakers.

Did you know that SOMALIA, ETHIOPIA are the only two countries that speak their ethnic language as the national language.


THE REST USE EUROPEAN LANGAUGES.

somalia1: Did you know that SOMALIA, ETHIOPIA are the only two countries that speak their ethnic language as the national language.


THE REST USE EUROPEAN LANGAUGES.

Do you know that Somalia has two Official languages ( Somali and Arabic)?
And also English as 3rd unofficial language.?
Even Ethiopia uses English defactor,despite multiple Native languages (Amharic,Oromo...etc)as Official .

The most important are African Languages,European languages are needed only for modern sciences and technologies.
Like in Somalia,you cannot use Somali language to learn how to fly the Commercial Aircraft or militatry Jet,European languages are needed in those fields.

gbogboti: 1) Arabic
2) Kiswahili
3) Hausa
4) English
5) Amharic
6) French
7) Oromo
8 ) Yoruba
9) Igbo
10) Zulu
Source(s): http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/9546 (<click to see the top 50)

interesting. i would love to learn some african languages. at least one from each region.

you have got to be kidding me. smh.

#goddamnvirus!

Do you know why BBC,VOA,DUTCH WELLÈ, radio Beijing etc all have Swahilli and Hausa service?

There are no Hausa in Gabon or any Central African country. The Hausas found outside Nigeria and Niger are immigrants to those countries.

Ngodigha1: There are no Hausa in Gabon or any Central African country. The Hausas found outside Nigeria and Niger are immigrants to those countries.

same as the fact that french are only in france but are now spoken in about fifty countries

HAH: Do you know why BBC,VOA,DUTCH WELLÈ, radio Beijing etc all have Swahilli and Hausa service?

interesting.
when africa becomes home to many of the world powers in the future,
there is no doubt swahili will be an official language of business/trade.

Yoruba came before Igbo!! Yaay!

HAH: Do you know why BBC,VOA,DUTCH WELLÈ, radio Beijing etc all have Swahilli and Hausa service?

Many that speak Hausa and listen to the radio don't understand English as well as the rest of African people.

ezeagu:

Many that speak Hausa and listen to the radio don't understand English as well as the rest of African people.

am not talking about the listeners but for the fact that these world super power have seen the spread and acceptability of hausa and swahili as lingua francas in Africa thus having a section in their media

Shollypopz: Yoruba came before Igbo!! Yaay!

So?
(i'm also yoruba)

One_Naira:

Oromo, Amharic, Yoruba and Igbo shouldn't even be on the list.

How did they make it in the list and Fulani and Lingala did not?

fulani what! LMAO

LBT: fulani what! LMAO

Fulani language has 20 million speakers why the LMAO? It is one of the most widespread languages in west Africa

wrong,hausa were recognised as an ethnic group of gabon in 2005, hausas have been in gabon since the 1890s or so and are mostly found in the nort and north east of the country. the number of hausa speackers in gabon is closer to 35000 and not 100 000 like someone suggested earlier. among the politicians some are hausa and as a manner of fact miss gabon 2001 was an hausa girl called aicha sidi. i am also pretty much sure hausas can be found in cameroon as well.

Ngodigha1: There are no Hausa in Gabon or any Central African country. The Hausas found outside Nigeria and Niger are immigrants to those countries.