s2nano17 ‘A Guide to Atrican Languages Listed by County DESTINATIONS > AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST A Guide to African Languages Listed by Country BY ANOUK ZIJLMA | Updated 07/19/17 Even for a continent with 54 very different countries, Africa has a lot of languages. It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,000 languages are spoken here, many with their own set of varying dialects. To make things even more confusing, in many countries the htps:wmr tripsaveycomindigenous-africananguages- 1454068 19s2nano17 ‘A Guide to Atrican Languages Listed by County tripsavvy Tf you're planning a trip to Africa, it's a good idea to research both the official language and the lingua franca of the country or region you're traveling to. ipso tripsavey.comindigenous-africananguages- 1454068 219s2nano17 ‘A Guide to Atrican Languages Listed by County tripsavvy In this way, you can attempt to learn a few key words or phrases before you go. This can be difficult - especially when a language isn’t written phonetically (like Afrikaans), or includes click consonants (like Xhosa) - but making the effort will be greatly appreciated by the people that you meet on your travels. If you're traveling to an ex-colony (like Mozambique, Namibia or Senegal), you'll find that European languages can also come in handy - although be prepared for the Portuguese, German or French that you hear there to sound quite different than it would in Europe. In this article, we look at the official and most widely spoken languages for some of Africa's top travel destinations, arranged in alphabetical order. Algeria Official Languages: Modern Standard Arabic and Tamazight (Berber) The most widely spoken languages in Algeria are Algerian Arabic and Berber. Angola Official Language: Portuguese Portuguese is spoken as a first or second language by just over 70% of the population. There are approximately 38 African languages in Angola, including Umbundu, Kikongo and Chokwe. Benin Official Language: French ipso tripsavey.comindigenous-africananguages- 1454068