Abstract. West Africa is one of the linguistically most diverse parts of the world, in which hundreds of languages that belong to four different language families are spoken. Because English is ...West Africa is home to well over 1,000 languages. On a daily basis, one person may communicate in many languages: their mother tongue; other African …The main economic activity in the region is subsistence agriculture. Minerals, diamonds, or oil are also extracted in varying amounts in West Africa. West Africa has a large number of independent states that share similar economic qualities of poverty with rapidly expanding populations. Foreign aid and international assistance have been extensive.Light green is the Kwa subfamily. The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The name was introduced 1895 by Gottlob Krause and derives from the word for 'people' ( Kwa) in many of these ...The languages of West Africa by Westermann, Diedrich, 1875-1956. Publication date 1952 Topics African languages, Africa, West -- Languages Publisher London ; New York : Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press CollectionThe Mandé peoples are an ethnolinguistic grouping of native African ethnic groups who speak Mande languages. Various Mandé speaking ethnic groups are found particularly in the western regions of West Africa. The Mandé-speaking languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé. The Mandinka or Malinke, a western ...Benin (/ b ɛ ˈ n iː n / ⓘ ben-EEN, / b ɪ ˈ n iː n / bin-EEN; French: Bénin, Fon: Benɛ, Fula: Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (French: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa.It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its …Jan 28, 2019 · Words uttered in the Niger-congo languages of West Africa are predominately tonal and the orature of the cultures that speak them is often stylized, epithetic, proverbial, and melodic. These are the very expanded patterns of expression on which the talking drum depends. A spoken word, given context, tone, and rhythm in a drum motif ... According to the CIA World Factbook, Arabic is tied with French as the fifth most spoken language in the world, used as a native language by 3.6% of the world's population. However, the widest diversity of Semitic languages is found on the Horn of Africa, including the Tigrinya, Amharic, Gurage, and Ge'ez languages spoken in Eritrea …Contents ; The English Language in Nigeria. 35 ; Education and the Role of English in Ghana. 49 ...Yoruba language, one of a small group of languages that comprise the Yoruboid cluster of the Defoid subbranch of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The other Yoruboid languages include Igala and Itsekiri. Yoruba is spoken by more than 20 million people in southwestern Nigeria and parts of Benin and Togo.It is also used widely …Sep 9, 2022 · It is commonly spoken as a second language alongside indigenous languages, though many urban communities in Cameroon and Gabon have adopted French as a first language. English is spoken as an official language in 24 African countries, including Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, and Nigeria. Portuguese is spoken as the official ... West Africa is, without doubt, the powerhouse of the African continent. Many people, however, find it confusing on which country or not is in the region. Here is a list of countries in West Africa AnswersAfrica AnswersAfrica.com ... Only 14% of the population in Guinea-Bissau speaks Portuguese as the official language, the majority (up to 44%) speak Kriol …From the late 1600s to the early 1900s, the West African kingdom of Dahomey (in present-day Benin) was protected by an all-female regiment of warriors. Depicted here in a 19th-century lithographic ...The majority of the world’s French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. French is the second most popular language on earth and the second most spoken language in West Africa.The e-books presented here are in major languages of West Africa: Bamanankan, Jula, Fula, Fulfulde, Kriolu, Mandinka, Mooré, Pulaar, and Wolof. African Language ...Sep 21, 2023 · Hausa language, the most important indigenous lingua franca in West and Central Africa, spoken as a first or second language by about 40–50 million people. It belongs to the Western branch of the Chadic language superfamily within the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Many linguists argue that this early West African Creole English was the ancestral language that gave rise to the modern English -based creoles in West Africa (Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin, etc.) as well as to the English-based creoles spoken by black populations in the Americas (Gullah, Jamaican Creole, Guyana Creole, etc.).Aug 10, 2022 · The majority of the world’s French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. French is the second most popular language on earth and the second most spoken language in West Africa. Ancient African writing is the oldest system of writing in the world, pre-dating European, Greek, by at least 2000 years respectively. Nsibidi and most other written African languages are known to have developed outside Arab, or European influences. The oldest written scripts ever discovered are what called Proto Saharan, found by the Kharga ...Yoruba is one of West Africa’s most spoken languages, and also one of Nigeria’s official languages. The Yoruba language is the seventh most commonly spoken language in Africa and itnaccounts for over 50 million speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo. 8. Fula / Fulfude. Speakers: Over 40 millionThe majority of the world’s French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. French is the second most popular language on earth and the second most spoken language in West Africa.The MABIA languages, numbering about 80, are spoken as first languages by more than 30 million people who live mostly in the Savanna grasslands of West Africa, the middle belt between the forest ...Northeast of the plateau is a tableland, the highest elevations reaching 1,300 to 1,500 feet (400 to 460 metres). This region is drained by the Mono River and its tributaries, including the Ogou, and other smaller rivers. West and southwest of the tableland the terrain gradually rises toward the Togo Mountains, also known as the Togo …Hausa is the primary language for Chadic people in Nigeria, Niger and Chad, while Yoruba is spoken in southwest Nigeria, Benin Republic, and Togo. More than 150 million people speak each of these languages, with Swahili alone having more than 100 million fluent speakers in Africa. In West Africa, the Pidgin version of the English …Sep 23, 2022 ... French, being the main official language, is taught from primary school to university level whereas English lessons start in middle school in ...Jun 1, 2018 · N’Ko Alphabet: a West African Script. Language Mia Sogoba 1 June 2018. As the Mandika proverb goes, “the roof of a hut from one village will never fit a hut in a different village.”. The same is true of language: the script of one will never perfectly fit the language of another. Thus, Souleymane Kanté created the N’Ko () alphabet in ... So prosodic are the primarily tonal languages of West Africa, that most speech reverberates far, able to be beautifully mimicked, rhythmically reproduced, and literally "banged out" through the elaborate talking drum motifs inherent to this region of the world. This rise and fall of pitch is characteristic of West African languages― with some non-tonal language exceptions like Fula ...However, indigenous languages like Zulu and Xhosa hold a central position, especially in South Africa. Afrikaans, a language rooted in Dutch, also has many speakers here, particularly in South Africa and Namibia. West African languages. West Africa is a linguistic hotspot boasting hundreds of languages in the 16 countries that make up this region.Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over 1,241,238 square kilometres (479,245 sq mi). The country is bordered on the north by Algeria, on the east by Niger, on the northwest by Mauritania, on the south by Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and on the west by Guinea and Senegal. The population of Mali is 21.9 million. Nigeria (/ n aɪ ˈ dʒ ɪər i ə / ⓘ ny-JEER-ee-ə), officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea to the south in the Atlantic Ocean.It covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 sq mi), and with a population of over 230 million, it is the most populous country in …Category:Languages of West Africa - Wikipedia. Help. Language portal. Subcategories. This category has the following 13 subcategories, out of 13 total. B. Languages of Benin …The Bantu languages of Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa form a sub-group of the Niger Congo branch. Khoisan gathering about thirty languages in Western part of Southern Africa. All African languages are considered official languages of the African Union : Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African ... The Atlantic or Senegalo-Guinean languages have given linguists problems ever since they were first recorded. "Their present distribution, their interrelationships with one another and with other West African languages and the origin of their most salient grammatical features are still subjects of speculation" (Bendor-Samuel 81).The main economic activity in the region is subsistence agriculture. Minerals, diamonds, or oil are also extracted in varying amounts in West Africa. West Africa has a large number of independent states that share similar economic qualities of poverty with rapidly expanding populations. Foreign aid and international assistance have been extensive. West Africa: The 16 West African Countries, Their Language And Population. By Uzonna Anele. December 17, 2017. Western Africa comprises an area of …The primary goal of the project is to compile cross-linguistically oriented descriptions of West African languages. In the course of doing that, we pursue ...Western Africa, region of the western African continent comprising the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.Countries Of West Africa. Benin. Burkina Faso. Cabo Verde. Ivory Coast. Gambia. Ghana. Guinea-Bissau. Liberia. Mali. Mauritania. Nigeria. Senegal. Sierra …Oct 20, 2023 · The region may be divided into several broad physiographic regions. The northern portion of western Africa is composed of a broad band of semiarid terrain, called the western Sudan, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to the area of Lake Chad on the east, a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km). Feb 8, 2020 · North Africa: Arabic dialects, including Egyptian Arabic (~100M speakers), Maghrebi Arabic/Darija (~100M speakers) Horn of Africa: Amharic (~25M speakers), spoken in Ethiopia, plus Oromo (50+M speakers) and Somali. West Africa: Hausa (~115M speakers), mostly in the Sahel, as well as Yoruba, Igbo, and Fula. Aug 1, 2017 · The language is spoken by the Mende people in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Vai . The language is spoken by about 104,000 Vai people living in Liberia and by about 15,500 people in Sierra Leone. It is written in the Vai script and is noted for being one of the few languages of Africa that lack a Latin or Arabic script based writing system. 302 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 30, NUMBER 2 Languages of West Africa. By DIETRICH WESTERMANN and M. A. BRYAN. (Handbook of African languages, Part 2.) Pp. 215, …First, through trade contacts along the African West coast, which occurred from the fifteenth century onward, giving rise to pidgin Englishes in West Africa. Second, native varieties in Africa are spoken by descendants of British settlers and others who shifted to English as their native language.In West Africa these mixes include English and French, on the one hand, and local languages on the other. The mixing has developed into lingua franca of the region. Pidgin is used...Jul 19, 2018 ... 3. YORUBA ... There are over 30 million Yoruba speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo combined, making it one of West Africa's most spoken languages.Language and pottery both suggest that the ancestors of the Wolof had originally migrated here from central or eastern Africa. They fished, grew wet rice, and herded cattle, sheep, and goats (and later, pigs). They used iron for tools, pottery, and jewellery. The people of this area of West Africa also set up megalithic monuments and burial ...Languages of Africa Africa's languages can be subdivided into three main language families, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger-Congo. ... West Africa, Central or Middle Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. North Africa. North Africa refers to the northern part of the African continent. According to the United Nations classification of …#3 YORUBA ... Yoruba is one of West Africa's most spoken languages, accounting for over 30 million speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and it is one of Nigeria's ...West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa.The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom Overseas Territory). SA Sign Language. 0.5%. At least thirty-five languages indigenous to South Africa are spoken in the Republic, twelve of which are official languages of South Africa: Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, and English, which is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all ...7. Berber. Berber is a group of closely connected languages often referred to as the Amazigh languages, or simply Tamazight. The languages are spoken by millions in North Africa, mainly in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Burkino Faso and the Siwa Oasis of Egypt.Benin, country of western Africa. The official capital is Porto-Novo, but Cotonou is Benin’s largest city, its chief port, and its de facto administrative capital. Benin was a French colony from the late 19th century until 1960. Learn more about the history, geography, and culture of Benin in this article.Namibia, country located on the southwestern coast of Africa. It is bordered by Angola to the north, Zambia to the northeast, Botswana to the east, South Africa to the southeast and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It ranges from arid in the north to desert on the coast and in the east.Yoruba (IPA: /jōrùbá/, UK: / ˈjɒrʊbə /, [2] US: / ˈjɒrəbə /; [3] Yor. Èdè Yorùbá; Ajami: عِدعِ يوْرُبا) is a language spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speakers is roughly 44 million, plus about 2 million second-language ...The various class-denoting languages in West Africa and the Sudan are spoken by practically pure Negroes. The Ful language again is spoken by a people of unmistakably Hamitic descent.2 In the Bantu field, where the uniformity of the language would naturally lead one to expect anthropological uniformity too, there is another surprise.Northeast of the plateau is a tableland, the highest elevations reaching 1,300 to 1,500 feet (400 to 460 metres). This region is drained by the Mono River and its tributaries, including the Ogou, and other smaller rivers. West and southwest of the tableland the terrain gradually rises toward the Togo Mountains, also known as the Togo …Most of the largest West African cities (by population and land mass) and the most developed ones are in Nigeria. The ten largest cities in West Africa by population are: Lagos city in Nigeria - Over 15.9 million people. Abidjan city in Côte d’Ivoire - Over 5.6 million people. Kano city in Nigeria - Over 4.3 million people.The study finds that the existence of a linguistic gap is a fact in. West Africa, however, the development of multilinguism and cross-border languages have been.Jul 30, 2017 · What languages do West Africans speak? July 30, 2017 Less than 2% of Africans identify English, French of Portuguese as the language they speak at home according to a recent Afrobarometer working paper. Adventist University of West Africa, a post-secondary learning environment that is situated in Margibi County, on the Roberts International Airport. United Methodist University, a private Christian university located in Liberia, West Africa, it is commonly known amongst locals as UMU. As of 2016, it had approximately 9,118 students.Summarize this article for a 10 years old. SHOW ALL QUESTIONS. Balanta (or Balant) is a group of two closely related Bak languages of West Africa spoken by the Balanta people. Balanta. Native to. ( Balanta-Kentohe) Guinea-Bissau, ( Balanta-Ganja) the Gambia, Senegal. Ethnicity. Balanta. Native speakers.Dagbani, Kusaal and Mampruli are Mabia languages spoken in the Northern Region, the Upper East Region and the North-East Region of Ghana respectively. According to Bodomo (2020: 6–7) speakers of these languages in Ghana number around 900,000 for Dagbani, 500,000 for Kusaal and 300,000 for Mampruli.Kono is a language used in the south of Guinea, mostly in Lola. Conakry. According to a report by Alpha Mamadou Diallo, the first language of inhabitants of the city of Conakry in decreasing order was: Susu 42%, Pular (Fula) 20%, Maninka (with koniaka) 19%, Kissi 4%, Guerzé 4%, French 2% and Toma 2%. References. Language portal This page was last …From the late 1600s to the early 1900s, the West African kingdom of Dahomey (in present-day Benin) was protected by an all-female regiment of warriors. Depicted here in a 19th-century lithographic ...Mar 21, 2019 · We explore the five major ones in West Africa. It is home to an estimated 1500–2000 local languages. By comparison, Europe, the third-most-populous continent in the world, has only about 300 ... North Africa: Arabic dialects, including Egyptian Arabic (~100M speakers), Maghrebi Arabic/Darija (~100M speakers) Horn of Africa: Amharic (~25M speakers), spoken in Ethiopia, plus Oromo (50+M speakers) and Somali. West Africa: Hausa (~115M speakers), mostly in the Sahel, as well as Yoruba, Igbo, and Fula.Yoruba is one of West Africa's most spoken languages, accounting for over 30 million speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and it is one of Nigeria's official languages. It is also widely spoken by West African expats in the US and UK. It is the mother tongue of the Yoruba people in Nigeria, and has over fifteen dialects including Awori ...The Ewe Language is spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin with a trace of the language in West Nigeria. Out of the many dialects of Ewe spoken in Ghana, the major ones are Anlo, Tongu, Vedome, Gbi, and Krepi. Dagbani. Dagbani is one of the Gur languages. It is the most spoken language in Northern Ghana. The number of native speakers numbers …Bantu languages have spread over much of Africa, reducing the previous levels of diversity. One endangered language in this area is Yangkam, spoken by fewer than 100 people, all of whom are 50 years old or older. Most of the Yangkam have shifted to speaking Hausa, one of the major national languages of Nigeria. 7. Berber. Berber is a group of closely connected languages often referred to as the Amazigh languages, or simply Tamazight. The languages are spoken by millions in North Africa, mainly in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Burkino Faso and the Siwa Oasis of Egypt.Guinea (/ ˈ ɡ ɪ n i / ⓘ GHIN-ee), officially the Republic of Guinea (French: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa.It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Cote d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sierra Leone and Liberia to the south. It is sometimes referred to as …Africans speaking a rich assortment of West African languages such as Mandinka, Mende, and Gola-among many others-learned English subsequent to their shackled emigration from Africa to North America.Liberia (/ l aɪ ˈ b ɪər i ə / ⓘ), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest.It has a population of around 5 million and covers an area of 43,000 square miles (111,369 km 2).The country's official …Description. This volume, originally published in 1970, presents a survey of the languages spoken in an area extending from the Atlantic coast at the Sengal River eastward to the Lake Chad region. The area covered by this volume is mainly a goegraphical one, so it follows that not all the languages included are related to one another, though a ...The study finds that the existence of a linguistic gap is a fact in. West Africa, however, the development of multilinguism and cross-border languages have been.Bantu languages have spread over much of Africa, reducing the previous levels of diversity. One endangered language in this area is Yangkam, spoken by fewer than 100 people, all of whom are 50 years old or older. Most of the Yangkam have shifted to speaking Hausa, one of the major national languages of Nigeria. Abstract. This chapter describes the history, role, and structural properties of English in the West African countries the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, the anglophone part of Cameroon, and the island of Saint Helena. It provides an overview of the historical phases of trading contact, British colonization and missionary ...