Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, none of which is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter being inherited from colonial rule (see Tanganyika Territory), are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than English in Tanzania.
Overview
According to Ethnologue, there are a total of 126 languages spoken in Tanzania. Two are institutional, 18 are developing, 58 are vigorous, 40 are endangered, and 8 are dying. There are also three languages that recently became extinct.
Most languages spoken locally belong to two broad language families: Niger-Congo (Bantu branch) and Nilo-Saharan (Nilotic branch), spoken by the country's Bantu and Nilotic populations, respectively. Additionally, the Hadza and Sandawe hunter-gatherers speak languages with click consonants, which have tentatively been classified within the Khoisan phylum (although Hadza may be a language isolate). The Cushitic and Semitic ethnic minorities speak languages belonging to the separate Afro-Asiatic family, with the Hindustani and British residents speaking languages from the Indo-European family.
Tanzania's various ethnic groups typically speak their mother tongues within their own communities. The two official languages, Swahili and English, are used in varying degrees of fluency for communication with other populations. According to the official national linguistic policy announced in 1984, Swahili is the language of the social and political sphere as well as primary and adult education, whereas English is the language of secondary education, universities, technology, and higher courts.J. A. Masebo & N. Nyangwine: Nadharia ya lugha Kiswahili 1. S. 126, The government announced in 2015 that it would discontinue the use of English as a language of education as part of an overhaul of the Tanzanian school system. Despite this plan, English remains the predominant language for secondary education.
Additionally, several Tanzanian sign languages are used.
Language families
Major languages
Major languages spoken in Tanzania include:
Niger-Congo Bantu Bemba Bena (592,000, 2009) Chaga Digo (166,000, 2009) Gogo (1.08 million, 2009) Haya (1.94 million, 2016) Hehe (1.21 million, 2016) Iramba Luguru (404,000, 2009) Makonde (1.47 million, 2016) Ndengereko Ngoni Nyakyusa Nyamwezi (1.47 million, 2016) Nyika Nyiramba Pare Rangi (410,000, 2007) Safwa (322,000, 2009) Sonjo Sukuma (8.13 million, 2016) Swahili Sambaa language (660,000, 2001) Tongwe language Tumbuka (400,000, 2007) Turu Vidunda language Yao (630,000, 2016) Zanaki Kerewe Nyambo Gweno West Kilimanjaro (Meru) Nilo-Saharan Nilotic Datooga Kisankasa Maasai (682,000, 2016) Ngasa Ogiek Luo (185,000, 2009) Zinza language
Minor languages Languages spoken by the country's ethnic minorities include:
Khoisan Khoe Hadza (possibly a language isolate) Sandawe (possibly a language isolate) Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Alagwa Burunge Gorowa Iraqw Semitic Arabic Indo-European Indo-Iranian Gujarati Hindustani Kutchi Germanic English German
Extinct languages Asa language Kw'adza language
See also Commonwealth English Languages of Africa
References
Further reading Nurse, D. and Philippson, G. (2019). CLDF dataset derived from Nurse and Philippson's "Tanzania Language Survey" from 1975 (Version v3.0) [Data set]. Zenodo.
External links Languages of Tanzania at Ethnologue site. Map of languages of Tanzania at Ethnologue
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