- Chapter 1 (Founding Provisions), Section 6 (Languages) of the Constitution of South Africa is the basis for government language policy.
- The country’s Constitution guarantees equal status to 11 official languages to cater for South Africa’s diverse peoples and their cultures.
- There are 11 official languages of South Africa with another likely to be added in the near future: South African Sign Language.
- It is the home language of 4.6% of Indian or Asian people, and of 1.5% of black South Africans. Afrikaans and South Africa’s population groups.
- South Africa has diverse cultures and languages with eleven officially recognized languages in the constitution.
- Read about the 11 official languages of South Africa, the language use, South African slang and interesting South African language facts.
- Zulu (isiZulu): Zulu is one of the most widely spoken languages in South Africa, particularly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
- To get you more in tune with the diversity of South Africa below are greetings in the 11 official South African languages.
- The official languages of South Africa are Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Swati, Tswana, and Venda.
- Today, English is the country's lingua franca, and the primary language of South Africa's Asian people, although many also retain their languages of origin.
- About 4.5% of South Africa’s population speaks Xitsonga, but as the country borders Mozambique, many in Mozambique also speak this language.
- It is primarily spoken in urban areas as a first language. In 1910, the new Union of South Africa declared English and Dutch to be their official languages.
- There are eleven major languages of South Africa; Afrikaans, English, Swazi, Sotho, Swan, Ndebele, Venda, Zulu, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, and Xhosa.
