africa is home to approximately a third
of the world's languages
estimates of the number of languages
people speak on the african continent
vary from 2
500 to over 3 000.
many african languages can be easy to
learn while others not so much
welcome to tuna cheki in today's video
we present the top 10 hardest african
languages
speaking of african languages today's
video is made possible by afro tongues
this is the world's first crowd-sourced
language app dedicated
exclusively to african-based languages
watch to the end of the video to find
out more on the app
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10. kenyarwanda from rwanda drc and
uganda
speaking and understanding kenya wonder
language is difficult
this is in large part due to the fact
that the sentence structures
particularly of questions are almost
entirely backwards
in kenya wonder question words almost
always go at the end of sentences
kenya wonder is an official language of
rwanda and a dialect of the rwanda
roondi language spoken by at least 10
million people in rwanda eastern
democratic republic of the congo and
adjacent parts of southern uganda where
it is known as rufumbira
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nine dinka from south sudan
dinka is a nilotic language spoken by
the dhinka people
the major ethnic group of south sudan
there are several main dialects
including padang rek
hall twik east twik atuk and hok which
show limited variation
the dialects are almost mutually
intelligible
the dingo language is tricky
but once you figure out which of the
five dialects you're learning you have
to get your pronunciation perfect which
may need a lot of time and dedication in
order to be familiar with the language
amharic from ethiopia
amharic is one of the main languages
spoken in ethiopia by over 20 million
speakers
it is considered the second most spoken
semantic language in the world after
arabic
these are languages that originated
alongside hebrew tingrinia and more
amharic is written using the very unique
ge's writing system
while with its difficult writing system
and a complex grammar it is
characterized as a hard language for an
english speaker to learn
it is easier to learn if you have a
background in arabic then you will have
an advantage in learning it quicker
7 zulu from south africa
zulu is one of the 11 official languages
of south africa spoken primarily in
kwazulu-natal province
you'll also find some of the 12 million
zulu speakers in lesotho malawi
mozambique swaziland and zimbabwe
zulu uses a latin script for its written
form comprising an alphabet of the basic
26 letters plus additional synonyms
which are displayed using multiple
letters there are three clicks or
releases which are represented by the
letter c for dental clicks
q for alveolar and x for lateral
in terms of mutual intelligibility with
other languages as well as tosa
zulu shares a lot of intelligibility
with ndebele and swati
there is also both a low and high tone
in zulu
along with the mastery of clicks this
short list might justify why some feel
zulu is a difficult language to learn
6. berber from north africa
the berber languages are a group of 26
closely related languages that
constitute a branch of the afro-asiatic
language family
they are spoken by 14 to 25 million
people in north africa throughout the
mediterranean coast the sahara desert
and soho
an area which used to be dominated by
berbers before the arrival of the arabs
today there are large groups of
berber-speaking people in north and west
africa
the berber languages have two cases of
the noun
organized an absolute alignment
one being unmarked while the other
serves for the subject of a transitive
verb and the object of a preposition
among other contexts
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5 sandawi from tanzania
sandawee is a language spoken
by about 60 000
sandawi people in the doduma region of
tanzania
sendaway's use of clique consonants
array feature shared with only two other
languages of east africa hadza and
dahalo had been the basis of its
classification as a member of the
defunct khoisan family of southern
africa in the 1920s
recent investigations however suggest
that sandalwood may be related to the
koi family regardless of the validity of
koi-san as a whole
also include extinct languages such as
the guanche languages of the canary
islands
old libyan and old mauritanian which are
known from inscriptions but have not yet
been studied thoroughly enough to make
any affirmative generalizations about
their linguistics
characteristics
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number four tuarek tamashek from north
and west africa
tamashik is the language of the tuarek
who often call themselves the kel
tamachek or tamashek speakers
the language is also spoken in algeria
and mali and possesses its own writing
called tifinach which is in widespread
use and canoeri is spoken not only in
niger
the family may also include extinct
languages such as the quanched languages
of the canary islands
old libyan and old mauritanian
which are known from inscriptions but
have not yet been studied thoroughly
enough to make any affirmative
generalizations about their linguistic
characteristics
three hadza from tanzania
the hadza or zabe
are an indigenous ethnic group in north
central tanzania
living around lake ayasi in the central
rift valley and in the neighboring
serengeti plateau
there are between 1 200 and 1 300 huds
of people living in tanzania
however only 400 hadza still survive
exclusively based on the traditional
means of foraging
once classified among the koisan
languages
primarily because it has clicks the
hadza language hadzane is actually
thought to be an isolate unrelated to
any other
hadzane is an entirely oral language but
it is not predicted to be in danger of
extinction
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number two
tulsa from southern africa
there are 11 official languages in south
africa of which koza is one of the most
widely spoken
approximately 16
of south africa's population or 8.3
million people
cite torsa as being their home language
corsa is characterized by a number of
clicking sounds which are formed by the
tongue
hotha is an unusual yet pretty sounding
language
to many it is difficult to learn because
the consonants are uncommon and are also
densely populated
and the number one spot for most
difficult african language to learn
goes to ta
southern koi san from botswana and
namibia
thai is also known as tu
is a two language notably for its large
number of phenoms
perhaps the largest in the world
it is also notable for having perhaps
the heaviest functional load of click
consonants which one count finding that
82 percent of basic vocabulary
items started with the click
with five distinct kind of clicks
multiple tones and stranded vowels
vocalized with a quick choking sound
the tar language spoken by a few
thousand people in botswana and namibia
is believed by most linguists to have
the largest sound inventory of any
tongue in the world thus making it one
of the most difficult languages to learn
thanks for watching feeling inspired
want to learn some of these languages
the afro tongue app is a free learning
app that currently hosts lessons in
seven african languages
swahili yoruba
wolf corsa shauna kenyarwanda and ga
from ghana
its goal is to encourage more africans
and african americans to begin learning
african languages and also to connect
africans on the continent with those in
the diaspora
it is available both on the apple store
and the play store
all the information shall be linked in
the description box below
did you enjoy our video
are there any african languages we might
have left out that should be on our list
if so do leave your comment below
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