African languages: Difference between revisions
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This is a page to gather useful information about '''African languages''' in Wikimedia projects, in order to increase the number of writers on the continent itself. Specifically African languages with many speakers, but not many writers, so excluding French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Afrikaans, which have fairly active Wikipedias already.
''Si tu veux tu peux écrire en français ici, soit on traduira les phrases en anglais, soit on créera une traduction en français.'' <!-- [[Langues africaines]] -->
The term "African languages" refers to the approximately 1800 languages spoken in Africa. Some African languages, such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo, are spoken by a few hundred or fewer.
Generally, books are expensive in Africa. Many languages have a purely oral tradition. Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects are
Would you be willing to help develop the presence of African languages on Wikipedia and Wiktionary? That is, to help set up Wikipedias in African languages, and to accelerate the process of adding words to the Wiktionaries.
== Your knowledge ==
In which languages are you able to write? Also, since you're studying, you might know more people who are interested in a project like this.
Line 19:
** English, German, French, Dutch, little Spanish
** currently in Mali
* [[User:Moyogo|moyogo]]:
** learning Lingala
** in possession of French-Bangala-Lingala dictionary, three Lingala teaching books and a Lingala dictionary
** French, English, little Dutch, intermediary Spanish
* [[User:Inisheer|Inisheer]]:
** learning kinyarwanda
Line 31 ⟶ 28:
** French, English, German, little Spanish
** currently in Switzerland
* [[User:A12n|A12n]] 14:59, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
** [[:w:en:Fula_language|Fula]], [[:w:en:Bambara_language|Bambara]]
** Have a bunch of materials in storage; published a lexicon of Fula (focusing on [[:w:en:Maasina_Fulfulde|Maasinankoore]]
** French, lesser knowledge of various other languages
** Coordinating [http://www.panafril10n.org PanAfriL10n project]; co-founder of [[Afrophonewikis]] group
* <small><b><span style="border:1px solid #FF0000;padding:1px 3px;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;">[[User:Jagwar|<font color="#0000FF">Jagwar</font>]] </span></b></small><small>[[User talk:Jagwar|grrr...]]</small> 16:29, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
** [[:w:Malagasy language|Malagasy]] as native language.
** Malagasy language dictionary : ''Rakibolana Malagasy'', 1985 Ed. ; online Malagasy language dictionaries
** French (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish.
** Currently in Paris (France).
<!--
* your name, alias
** your knowledge of African languages
Line 37 ⟶ 44:
** your knowledge of other languages
** other useful information
-->
== Wikipedias set up ==
=== Active ===
The table lists article counts at several different times from several sources (see notes below table):
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:90%;"
|-
!scope="col" width="19%"| Language
!scope="col" width="9%"| Sep. 2006
!scope="col" width="9%"| Dec. 2008
!scope="col" width="9%"| April 2011
!scope="col" width="9%"| Nov. 2011
!scope="col" width="9%"| June 2012
!scope="col" width="9%"| Sep. 2013
!scope="col" width="9%"| July 2014
!scope="col" width="9%"| June 2015
!scope="col" width="9%"| Jan. 2016
!scope="col" width="9%"| June 2018
!scope="col" width="9%"| April 2019
!scope="col" width="9%"| Nov. 2021
!scope="col" width="9%"| Nov. 2022
!scope="col" width="9%"| Nov. 2023
|-
|[//af.wikipedia.org Afrikaans] (af)
||
||11,285
||17,000
||20,000
||23,040
||26,752
||32,161
||35,856
||38,354
||50,275
||77,941
||101,011
||105,677
||112,648
|-
|[//ak.wikipedia.org Akan] (ak)
||8
||
||67
||144
||158
||
||286
||
||252
||
||560
||1,407
||591
||''moved to Twi''
|-
|[//am.wikipedia.org Amharic] (am)
||437
||3,251
||7,000
||11,317
||11,654
||12,360
||16,109
||12,950
||13,017
||14,286
||14,594
||15,007
||15,022
||15,252
|-
|[//bm.wikipedia.org Bamanankan] (bm)
||128
||
||378
||386
||385
||
||403
||
||358
||
||652
||720
||783
||819
|-
|[//ny.wikipedia.org Chi Chewa] (ny)
||
||
||129
||133
||140
||
||216
||
||160
||
||535
||855
||933
||1,025
|-
|[//sn.wikipedia.org ChiShona] (sn)
||37
||
||107
||279
||1,027
||1,421
||2,075
||2,321
||2,455
||3,630
||4,290
||7,385
||9,287
||11,315
|-
|[//tum.wikipedia.org ChiTumbuka] (tum)
||15
||
||128
||147
||151
||
||174
||
||439
||
||572
||600
||8,099
||18,646
|-
|[//arz.wikipedia.org Egyptian Arabic] (arz)
||
||
||
||
||
||12,440
||
||
||14,648
||18,605
||20,243
||1,370,994
||1,610,868
||1,620,361
|-
|[//ee.wikipedia.org Ɛʋɛ] (ee)
||
||
||256
||280
||291
||
||298
||
||317
||
||350
||384
||462
||840
|-
|[//fat.wikipedia.org Fante] (fat)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||506
|-
|[//gur.wikipedia.org Farefare] (gur)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||852
|-
|[//ff.wikipedia.org Fulfulde] (ff)
||14
||
||114
||131
||150
||
||210
||
||182
||
||227
||362
||637
||1,678
|-
|[//fo.wikipedia.org Fon] (fo)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||527
|-
|[//gpe.wikipedia.org Ghanaian Pidgin] (gpe)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||894
|-
|[//ki.wikipedia.org Gĩkũyũ or Kikuyu] (ki)
||
||
||111
||115
||198
||
||359
||
||741
||1,357
||1,359
||1,501
||1,502
||1,533
|-
|[//guw.wikipedia.org Gun] (guw)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||1,128
||1,223
|-
|[//ha.wikipedia.org Hausa] (ha)
||14
||
||263
||270
||274
||
||1,389
||1,345
||1,356
||1,856
||3,471
||13,048
||19,423
||32,541
|-
|[//ig.wikipedia.org Igbo] (ig)
||11
||
||668
||686
||692
||
||1,008
||1,019
||1,045
||1,320
||1,395
||2,532
||13,422
||21,526
|-
|[//zu.wikipedia.org isiZulu] (zu)
||76
||182
||225
||256
||558
||579
||676
||683
||696
||
||1,070
||10,460
||10,685
||11,534
|-
|[//kab.wikipedia.org Kabyle] (kab)
||
||
||
||
||
||1,503
||
||2,296
||2,507
||2,844
||3,037
||6,224
||6,510
||6,720
|-
|[//kg.wikipedia.org Kikongo] (kg)
||142
||
||596
||622
||679
||
||878
||
||1,116
||1,179
||1,193
||1,233
||1,258
||1,272
|-
|[//rw.wikipedia.org Kinyarwanda] (rw)
||34
||
||1,798
||1,805
||1,808
||1,817
||1,832
||1,780
||1,784
||1,823
||1,821
||2,545
||3,907
||6,619
|-
|[//rn.wikipedia.org Kirundi] (rn)
||11
||
||177
||189
||183
||
||429
||
||487
||
||609
||620
||621
||639
|-
|[//sw.wikipedia.org Kiswahili or Swahili] (sw)
||1,584
||7,807
||21,000
||22,310
||24,054
||25,265
||26,496
||29,127
||31,616
||42,773
||49,593
||68,202
||75,349
||78,614
|-
|[//ln.wikipedia.org Lingala] (ln)
||217
||1,074
||1,600
||1,792
||1,828
||2,025
||2,080
||2,062
||2,112
||3,023
||3,115
||3,235
||3,302
||3,352
|-
|[//lg.wikipedia.org Luganda] (lg)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||709
||1,162
||1,170
||1,370
||1,526
||2,805
|-
|[//mg.wikipedia.org Malagasy] (mg)
||
||
||3,213
||4,050
||37,840
||45,361
||47,147
||79,329
||81,138
||84,996
||91,644
||94,316
||95,100
||96,264
|-
|[//pcm.wikipedia.org Nigerian Pidgin] (pcm)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||401
||989
|-
|[//nso.wikipedia.org Northern Sotho] (nso)
||
||301
||
||
||
||685
||
||1,000
||2,773
||8,050
||8,019
||8,446
||8,533
||8,581
|-
|[//om.wikipedia.org Oromo] (om)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||682
||
||776
||1,076
||1,100
||1,628
|-
|[//sg.wikipedia.org Sango] (sg)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||240
||
||255
||278
||314
||6,578
|-
|[//st.wikipedia.org Sesotho] (st)
||37
||68
||120
||132
||145
||188
||197
||223
||293
||
||547
||821
||900
||935
|-
|[//tn.wikipedia.org Setswana] (tn)
||18
||102
||112
||251
||491
||495
||509
||503
||503
||
||645
||723
||955
||1,291
|-
|[//so.wikipedia.org Soomaali] (so)
||32
||
||1,800
||2,249
||2,408
||3,646
||3,658
||
||3,785
||4,898
||5,455
||7,094
||8,701
||7,880
|-
|[//ss.wikipedia.org Swati] (ss)
||
||146
||
||
||
||364
||
||410
||412
||
||467
||543
||599
||879
|-
|[//ti.wikipedia.org Tigrinya] (ti)
||
||
||249
||254
||257
||
||270
||
||160
||
||169
||217
||238
||258
|-
|[//tw.wikipedia.org Twi] (tw)
||15
||
||65
||125
||142
||
||516
||
||559
||
||651
||1,135
||2,154
||3,508
|-
|[//kcg.wikipedia.org Tyap] (kcg)
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||
||587
||826
|-
|[//ve.wikipedia.org Venda] (ve)
||
||120
||
||
||
||204
||
||151
||189
||
||265
||636
||748
||748
|-
|[//wo.wikipedia.org Wolof] (wo)
||226
||
||1,000
||1,109
||1,117
||1,161
||1,143
||1,023
||1,042
||1,166
||1,186
||1,643
||1,650
||1,692
|-
|[//xh.wikipedia.org Xhosa] (xh)
||29
||109
||118
||125
||139
||148
||337
||356
||460
||
||790
||1,222
||1,241
||1,611
|-
|[//ts.wikipedia.org Xitsonga] (ts)
||
||150
||188
||192
||241
||240
||303
||266
||281
||
||586
||709
||720
||751
|-
|[//yo.wikipedia.org Yoruba] (yo)
||55
||6,246
||12,000
||29,652
||30,008
||30,585
||30,949
||31,068
||31,135
||31,672
||31,879
||33,503
||31,889
||33,294
|}
Notes:
* The 2006 figures, which are incomplete, come from a [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/afrophonewikis/conversations/messages/51 thread on] the AfrophoneWikis list (6 Sept. 2006).
* The "Neverness" blog is the source of the [http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=433 2008 figures], and the [http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=1772 2013 & 2015 figures]. These are also incomplete, as this blog focuses mainly on South Africa .
* The 2016 figures were extracted manually from [http://wikistats.wmflabs.org/wikimedias_html.php?s=lang_asc&th=0&lines=866 Wikistats - All Wikimedia Projects by Size]. The 2019 figures were also extracted manually, but from the counter on the main page of each wiki.
* The 2011, 2012 & 2014 figures were previously entered in table.
The 2018 figures are from http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=2244 Data available only if >1000.
* Other sources for pagecounts: [[List of Wikipedias]]; [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias#Detailed_list|Detailed list of Wikipedias] on en.wikipedia.org; and a user page on the Lingala edition that has an additional set of page counts[[:ln:Utilisateur:Eruedin/Wikiafrika|for 2011]].<!-- The latter item is preserved here for ref -->
=== Closed (and in incubator) ===
* [//aa.wikipedia.org Afar] --> ([//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/aa aa])
* [//hz.wikipedia.org Herero] --> ([//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/hz hz])
* [//kr.wikipedia.org Kanuri] --> ([//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/kr kr])
* [//kj.wikipedia.org Kuanyama] --> ([//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/kj kj])
* [//ng.wikipedia.org Ndonga] --> ([//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ng ng])
===
A number of African languages are [https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Wikis listed in the incubator], most without substantive content. Some Wikipedia incubatees that do have a number of pages include:
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/arq Algerian Arabic] (arq)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/tzm Central Atlas Tamazight] (tzm)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/dag Dagbani] (dag)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/kbp Kabiye] (kbp)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/kea Kabuverdianu] (kea)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/kri/Men_Pej Krio] (kri)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/mfe Mauritian Creole] (mfe)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/rcf/Lakey Reunion Creole] (rcf)
* [//incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/zgh Standard Moroccan Tamazight] (zgh)
===
== Words in Wiktionary ==
===
* [[:wikt:fr:Cat%C3%A9gorie:bambara|Mots bambaras dans Wiktionnaire]], >1000
* [//fr.wiktionary.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Mod%C3%A8le%3Abm Mots français avec une traduction en bambara]
==
* [[:wikt:fr:Cat%C3%A9gorie:dogon|Mots dogons dans Wiktionnaire]]
* [//fr.wiktionary.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Mod%C3%A8le%3Adog Mots français avec une traduction en dogon]
==
* [[:wikt:fr:Catégorie:kinyarwanda|Mots kinyarwanda dans le Wiktionnaire]]
* [//fr.wiktionary.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Modèle:rw Mots français avec une traduction en kinyarwanda]
=== Lingala ===
* [[:wikt:fr:Cat%C3%A9gorie:lingala|Mots lingalas dans Wiktionnaire]] >100
* [//fr.wiktionary.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Mod%C3%A8le%3Aln Mots français avec une traduction en lingala]
=== Swahili ===
* [[:wikt:fr:Cat%C3%A9gorie:swahili|Mots swahilis dans Wiktionnaire]] >500
* [//fr.wiktionary.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Mod%C3%A8le%3Asw Mots français avec une traduction en swahili]
* [//en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Whatlinkshere&target=Template%3ASw English words with a Swahili translation]
=== Hausa ===
=== Yoruba ===
=== Songhay ===
== Number of speakers ==
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|+'''List of major African languages (by total number of speakers)'''
|-
!scope="col" data-sort-type="string"| name
!scope="col" data-sort-type="number"| number of speakers (millions)
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Swahili language|Swahili]] (Southeast Africa) || 5-10 native + 80 secondary
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Maghrebi Arabic|Maghrebi Arabic]] || 80
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Egyptian Arabic|Egyptian Arabic]] || 76
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Hausa language|Hausa]] (West Africa) || 40 native + 15 secondary
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Oromo language|Oromo]] (East Africa) || 30-35
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Yoruba language|Yoruba]] (West Africa) || 25
|-
|[[Wikipedia: Amharic language|Amharic]] (East Africa) || 25
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Sudanese Arabic|Sudanese Arabic]] || 19
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Somali language|Somali]] (Somalia) || 15
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Ibibio Language|Ibibio]] (Ibibio/Annang/Efik, Nigeria) || 8-12
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Igbo language|Igbo]] (Nigeria) || 10-16
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Fula language|Fula]] (West Africa)|| 10-16
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Malagasy language|Malagasy]] (Madagascar) || 17
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Zulu language|Zulu]] (South Africa) || 10
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Afrikaans|Afrikaans]] (South Africa) || 10
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Chichewa language|Chichewa]] (East Africa) || 9
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Akan language|Akan]] || 9
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Shona language|Shona]] || 7
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Xhosa language|Xhosa]] (South Africa) || 8
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Kinyarwanda language|Kinyarwanda]] (Rwanda) || 7
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Kongo language|Kongo]] || 7
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]] || 7
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Tshiluba language|Tshiluba]] (Congo) || 6
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Wolof language|Wolof]] || 3 native + 3 secondary
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Gikuyu language|Gikuyu]] (Kenya) || 5
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Kalenjin language|Kalenjin]] (Kenya) || 8
|-
|[[Wikipedia:More language|More]] (West Africa) || 5
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Kirundi|Kirundi]] (Central Africa) || 5
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Sotho language|Sotho]] (South Africa) || 5
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Luhya languages|Luhya]] (Kenya)|| 4
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Tswana language|Tswana]] (Southern Africa) || 4
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Kanuri language|Kanuri]] (West Africa) || 4
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Umbundu language|Umbundu]] (Angola) || 4
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Northern Sotho language|Northern Sotho]] (South Africa) || 4
|-
|[[Wikipedia:Dagbani language|Dagbani]] (Ghana) || 4
|-class="sort-bottom"
|colspan="2"| (there are lots of missing languages with smaller communities, and the estimations above may be very inaccurate)
|-class="sort-bottom"
| Total number of people in this table|| about 538
|-class="sort-bottom"
| Total number of people in Africa|| about 900
|}
== External links ==
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/26/arts/26wiki.html Article (in English) on African languages in Wikipedia, ''New York Times'', 2006-08-26] (old, may be inaccessible, or no longer relevant to the current situation)
== See also ==
* [//en.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/Sitemap.htm Wikipedia statistics (in English) per language]
* [[:w:en:List of languages by total speakers|List of languages by total speakers]]
* [[Afrophonewikis]]
* [http://www.bisharat.net/wikidoc/ PanAfriL10n wiki] - a resource for localization and other work on African languages & ICT
** [http://www.bisharat.net/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/MajorLanguages PanAfriL10n list of "Major languages" of Africa] (includes discussion of category and links to alternative lists)
** [http://www.bisharat.net/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/MoreLanguages PanAfriL10n page for other languages of Africa not in the "Major languages" section]
[[Category:
|
Latest revision as of 09:19, 2 December 2023
This content is a stub. You can help by expanding it. |
This is a page to gather useful information about African languages in Wikimedia projects, in order to increase the number of writers on the continent itself. Specifically African languages with many speakers, but not many writers, so excluding French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Afrikaans, which have fairly active Wikipedias already.
Si tu veux tu peux écrire en français ici, soit on traduira les phrases en anglais, soit on créera une traduction en français.
The term "African languages" refers to the approximately 1800 languages spoken in Africa. Some African languages, such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo, are spoken by a few hundred or fewer.
Generally, books are expensive in Africa. Many languages have a purely oral tradition. Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects are excellent ways of improving the situation of African languages.
Would you be willing to help develop the presence of African languages on Wikipedia and Wiktionary? That is, to help set up Wikipedias in African languages, and to accelerate the process of adding words to the Wiktionaries.
Your knowledge[edit]
In which languages are you able to write? Also, since you're studying, you might know more people who are interested in a project like this.
- Guaka:
- basic knowledge of Bambara
- in possession of Bambara-French, French-Bambara dictionary
- English, German, French, Dutch, little Spanish
- currently in Mali
- moyogo:
- learning Lingala
- in possession of French-Bangala-Lingala dictionary, three Lingala teaching books and a Lingala dictionary
- French, English, little Dutch, intermediary Spanish
- Inisheer:
- learning kinyarwanda
- english-kinyarwanda (tiny) dictionnary, one teaching book
- French, English, German, little Spanish
- currently in Switzerland
- A12n 14:59, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
- Fula, Bambara
- Have a bunch of materials in storage; published a lexicon of Fula (focusing on Maasinankoore
- French, lesser knowledge of various other languages
- Coordinating PanAfriL10n project; co-founder of Afrophonewikis group
- Jagwar grrr... 16:29, 2 September 2012 (UTC)
- Malagasy as native language.
- Malagasy language dictionary : Rakibolana Malagasy, 1985 Ed. ; online Malagasy language dictionaries
- French (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish.
- Currently in Paris (France).
Wikipedias set up[edit]
Active[edit]
The table lists article counts at several different times from several sources (see notes below table):
Language | Sep. 2006 | Dec. 2008 | April 2011 | Nov. 2011 | June 2012 | Sep. 2013 | July 2014 | June 2015 | Jan. 2016 | June 2018 | April 2019 | Nov. 2021 | Nov. 2022 | Nov. 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans (af) | 11,285 | 17,000 | 20,000 | 23,040 | 26,752 | 32,161 | 35,856 | 38,354 | 50,275 | 77,941 | 101,011 | 105,677 | 112,648 | |
Akan (ak) | 8 | 67 | 144 | 158 | 286 | 252 | 560 | 1,407 | 591 | moved to Twi | ||||
Amharic (am) | 437 | 3,251 | 7,000 | 11,317 | 11,654 | 12,360 | 16,109 | 12,950 | 13,017 | 14,286 | 14,594 | 15,007 | 15,022 | 15,252 |
Bamanankan (bm) | 128 | 378 | 386 | 385 | 403 | 358 | 652 | 720 | 783 | 819 | ||||
Chi Chewa (ny) | 129 | 133 | 140 | 216 | 160 | 535 | 855 | 933 | 1,025 | |||||
ChiShona (sn) | 37 | 107 | 279 | 1,027 | 1,421 | 2,075 | 2,321 | 2,455 | 3,630 | 4,290 | 7,385 | 9,287 | 11,315 | |
ChiTumbuka (tum) | 15 | 128 | 147 | 151 | 174 | 439 | 572 | 600 | 8,099 | 18,646 | ||||
Egyptian Arabic (arz) | 12,440 | 14,648 | 18,605 | 20,243 | 1,370,994 | 1,610,868 | 1,620,361 | |||||||
Ɛʋɛ (ee) | 256 | 280 | 291 | 298 | 317 | 350 | 384 | 462 | 840 | |||||
Fante (fat) | 506 | |||||||||||||
Farefare (gur) | 852 | |||||||||||||
Fulfulde (ff) | 14 | 114 | 131 | 150 | 210 | 182 | 227 | 362 | 637 | 1,678 | ||||
Fon (fo) | 527 | |||||||||||||
Ghanaian Pidgin (gpe) | 894 | |||||||||||||
Gĩkũyũ or Kikuyu (ki) | 111 | 115 | 198 | 359 | 741 | 1,357 | 1,359 | 1,501 | 1,502 | 1,533 | ||||
Gun (guw) | 1,128 | 1,223 | ||||||||||||
Hausa (ha) | 14 | 263 | 270 | 274 | 1,389 | 1,345 | 1,356 | 1,856 | 3,471 | 13,048 | 19,423 | 32,541 | ||
Igbo (ig) | 11 | 668 | 686 | 692 | 1,008 | 1,019 | 1,045 | 1,320 | 1,395 | 2,532 | 13,422 | 21,526 | ||
isiZulu (zu) | 76 | 182 | 225 | 256 | 558 | 579 | 676 | 683 | 696 | 1,070 | 10,460 | 10,685 | 11,534 | |
Kabyle (kab) | 1,503 | 2,296 | 2,507 | 2,844 | 3,037 | 6,224 | 6,510 | 6,720 | ||||||
Kikongo (kg) | 142 | 596 | 622 | 679 | 878 | 1,116 | 1,179 | 1,193 | 1,233 | 1,258 | 1,272 | |||
Kinyarwanda (rw) | 34 | 1,798 | 1,805 | 1,808 | 1,817 | 1,832 | 1,780 | 1,784 | 1,823 | 1,821 | 2,545 | 3,907 | 6,619 | |
Kirundi (rn) | 11 | 177 | 189 | 183 | 429 | 487 | 609 | 620 | 621 | 639 | ||||
Kiswahili or Swahili (sw) | 1,584 | 7,807 | 21,000 | 22,310 | 24,054 | 25,265 | 26,496 | 29,127 | 31,616 | 42,773 | 49,593 | 68,202 | 75,349 | 78,614 |
Lingala (ln) | 217 | 1,074 | 1,600 | 1,792 | 1,828 | 2,025 | 2,080 | 2,062 | 2,112 | 3,023 | 3,115 | 3,235 | 3,302 | 3,352 |
Luganda (lg) | 709 | 1,162 | 1,170 | 1,370 | 1,526 | 2,805 | ||||||||
Malagasy (mg) | 3,213 | 4,050 | 37,840 | 45,361 | 47,147 | 79,329 | 81,138 | 84,996 | 91,644 | 94,316 | 95,100 | 96,264 | ||
Nigerian Pidgin (pcm) | 401 | 989 | ||||||||||||
Northern Sotho (nso) | 301 | 685 | 1,000 | 2,773 | 8,050 | 8,019 | 8,446 | 8,533 | 8,581 | |||||
Oromo (om) | 682 | 776 | 1,076 | 1,100 | 1,628 | |||||||||
Sango (sg) | 240 | 255 | 278 | 314 | 6,578 | |||||||||
Sesotho (st) | 37 | 68 | 120 | 132 | 145 | 188 | 197 | 223 | 293 | 547 | 821 | 900 | 935 | |
Setswana (tn) | 18 | 102 | 112 | 251 | 491 | 495 | 509 | 503 | 503 | 645 | 723 | 955 | 1,291 | |
Soomaali (so) | 32 | 1,800 | 2,249 | 2,408 | 3,646 | 3,658 | 3,785 | 4,898 | 5,455 | 7,094 | 8,701 | 7,880 | ||
Swati (ss) | 146 | 364 | 410 | 412 | 467 | 543 | 599 | 879 | ||||||
Tigrinya (ti) | 249 | 254 | 257 | 270 | 160 | 169 | 217 | 238 | 258 | |||||
Twi (tw) | 15 | 65 | 125 | 142 | 516 | 559 | 651 | 1,135 | 2,154 | 3,508 | ||||
Tyap (kcg) | 587 | 826 | ||||||||||||
Venda (ve) | 120 | 204 | 151 | 189 | 265 | 636 | 748 | 748 | ||||||
Wolof (wo) | 226 | 1,000 | 1,109 | 1,117 | 1,161 | 1,143 | 1,023 | 1,042 | 1,166 | 1,186 | 1,643 | 1,650 | 1,692 | |
Xhosa (xh) | 29 | 109 | 118 | 125 | 139 | 148 | 337 | 356 | 460 | 790 | 1,222 | 1,241 | 1,611 | |
Xitsonga (ts) | 150 | 188 | 192 | 241 | 240 | 303 | 266 | 281 | 586 | 709 | 720 | 751 | ||
Yoruba (yo) | 55 | 6,246 | 12,000 | 29,652 | 30,008 | 30,585 | 30,949 | 31,068 | 31,135 | 31,672 | 31,879 | 33,503 | 31,889 | 33,294 |
Notes:
- The 2006 figures, which are incomplete, come from a thread on the AfrophoneWikis list (6 Sept. 2006).
- The "Neverness" blog is the source of the 2008 figures, and the 2013 & 2015 figures. These are also incomplete, as this blog focuses mainly on South Africa .
- The 2016 figures were extracted manually from Wikistats - All Wikimedia Projects by Size. The 2019 figures were also extracted manually, but from the counter on the main page of each wiki.
- The 2011, 2012 & 2014 figures were previously entered in table.
The 2018 figures are from http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=2244 Data available only if >1000.
- Other sources for pagecounts: List of Wikipedias; list of Wikipedias on en.wikipedia.org; and a user page on the Lingala edition that has an additional set of page countsfor 2011.
Closed (and in incubator)[edit]
Incubator[edit]
A number of African languages are listed in the incubator, most without substantive content. Some Wikipedia incubatees that do have a number of pages include:
- Algerian Arabic (arq)
- Central Atlas Tamazight (tzm)
- Dagbani (dag)
- Kabiye (kbp)
- Kabuverdianu (kea)
- Krio (kri)
- Mauritian Creole (mfe)
- Reunion Creole (rcf)
- Standard Moroccan Tamazight (zgh)
Deleted[edit]
Words in Wiktionary[edit]
Bamanankan[edit]
Dogon[edit]
Kinyarwanda[edit]
Lingala[edit]
Swahili[edit]
- Mots swahilis dans Wiktionnaire >500
- Mots français avec une traduction en swahili
- English words with a Swahili translation
Hausa[edit]
Yoruba[edit]
Songhay[edit]
Number of speakers[edit]
name | number of speakers (millions) |
---|---|
Swahili (Southeast Africa) | 5-10 native + 80 secondary |
Maghrebi Arabic | 80 |
Egyptian Arabic | 76 |
Hausa (West Africa) | 40 native + 15 secondary |
Oromo (East Africa) | 30-35 |
Yoruba (West Africa) | 25 |
Amharic (East Africa) | 25 |
Sudanese Arabic | 19 |
Somali (Somalia) | 15 |
Ibibio (Ibibio/Annang/Efik, Nigeria) | 8-12 |
Igbo (Nigeria) | 10-16 |
Fula (West Africa) | 10-16 |
Malagasy (Madagascar) | 17 |
Zulu (South Africa) | 10 |
Afrikaans (South Africa) | 10 |
Chichewa (East Africa) | 9 |
Akan | 9 |
Shona | 7 |
Xhosa (South Africa) | 8 |
Kinyarwanda (Rwanda) | 7 |
Kongo | 7 |
Tigrinya | 7 |
Tshiluba (Congo) | 6 |
Wolof | 3 native + 3 secondary |
Gikuyu (Kenya) | 5 |
Kalenjin (Kenya) | 8 |
More (West Africa) | 5 |
Kirundi (Central Africa) | 5 |
Sotho (South Africa) | 5 |
Luhya (Kenya) | 4 |
Tswana (Southern Africa) | 4 |
Kanuri (West Africa) | 4 |
Umbundu (Angola) | 4 |
Northern Sotho (South Africa) | 4 |
Dagbani (Ghana) | 4 |
(there are lots of missing languages with smaller communities, and the estimations above may be very inaccurate) | |
Total number of people in this table | about 538 |
Total number of people in Africa | about 900 |
External links[edit]
- Article (in English) on African languages in Wikipedia, New York Times, 2006-08-26 (old, may be inaccessible, or no longer relevant to the current situation)
See also[edit]
- Wikipedia statistics (in English) per language
- List of languages by total speakers
- Afrophonewikis
- PanAfriL10n wiki - a resource for localization and other work on African languages & ICT
- PanAfriL10n list of "Major languages" of Africa (includes discussion of category and links to alternative lists)
- PanAfriL10n page for other languages of Africa not in the "Major languages" section