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Notes 1
TOPIC 2 - MJENGO WA TUNGO
TOPIC 3 - MAENDELEO YA KISWAHILI
TOPIC 4 - (a) UHAKIKI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI ANDISHI (Utangulizi, Maelezo)
(b) UHAKIKI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI ANDISHI (Riwaya, Tamthiliya, Ushairi)
TOPIC 5 - UTUNGAJI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI ANDISHI
TOPIC 6 - UANDISHI WA INSHA NA MATANGAZO
TOPIC 7 - KUSOMA KWA UFAHAMU
4. KUKUA NA KUENEA KWA KISWAHILI NCHINI TANZANIA WAKATI WA UKOLONI
5. UHAKIKI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI ANDISHI
6. UTUNGAJI WA KAZI ZA FASIHI ANDISHI
7. UANDISHI WA INSHA NA MATANGAZO
TOP 10 LANGUAGES SPOKEN IN AFRICA
As the second-largest
continent, both in population and land mass, Africa is one of the most diverse
places in the world. Really, it’s huge – bigger than the United
States, China, India, and most of Europe combined. But what's the most spoken
language in Africa?
Because of its size,
Africa and its 54 countries are incredibly diverse – linguists
estimate that nearly 2,000 native languages are spoken in
Africa, along with more global languages
like English and French. And due to that diversity, many
Africans are at least bilingual, if not trilingual.
Below are the top 10 Languages spoken in Africa:
1.
Swahili:
Swahili,
which is also known as Kiswahili in the native tongue, is a Bantu language
spoken by some 150 million Africans in the African Great Lakes region in
Central and Southern Africa.
It is
the official language in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, Burundi,
and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Swahili holds quite an appeal for many
language learners owing to the wide number of people speaking this language and
its rich history. Many critics fault the decision of the African Union not to
include Swahili as a working language in the commission.
2.
Arabic:
The
presence of Arabic in the languages spoken in Africa may come as a surprise to
many, being that it is a foreign language. Again, this shows the level of
external influences on the continent. Arabic is spoken by more than 100 million
Africans, making it one of the most spoken languages in the continent.
It is
an official language in Egypt, Comoros, Djibouti, Chad, Algeria, Mauritania,
Morocco, and Libya and is mostly concentrated in the North African region.
Interestingly, although Arabic is regarded as one of the world’s most widely
spoken languages, 62% of the total speakers of Arabic in the world are
Africans.
3.
French:
French
comes third on the list; this means there are more French speakers in Africa
than in France. French is a European language that saw the light of Africa
after the Colonization period. Not surprisingly, 26 African states form part of
the top French-speaking countries on the continent.
In
some areas, such as Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Gabon, French is spoken in the
highest percentage in Mauritius, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Sao Tome e Principe,
Seychelles, and Guinea. The fact that it has approximately 90 million speakers
in Africa comes as no big surprise then.
4.
Hausa:
Hausa,
one of Nigeria’s official languages, and a member of the Chadic branch of
Afro-Asiatic family of languages is spoken by more than 50 million Africans as
their first language. Other than Nigeria, Hausa is spoken in Niger, Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, and Chad.
Hausa
makes it to the list of most spoken languages in Africa due to its significance
in trade, commerce and business across Nigeria and the West African region.
Besides that, it is one of the few African languages that are taught in International
Universities due to the huge amount of literature that it possesses.
5.
Yoruba:
Yoruba
is one of the cardinal languages of Nigeria, accounting for over 30 million
speakers in Benin, Nigeria, and Togo. Other populations speaking Yoruba as an everyday
language are found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
6.
Oromo:
Oromo,
a descendant of Cushitic language, is widely spoken across Africa by 30 million
people/ Spoken mainly in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and
Egypt, Oromo has significant speakers to its name.
The
people of Oromo account for more than 40% of the Ethiopian population and are
the largest ethnic group in the country.
7.
Igbo:
A
native language of the Igbo people and one of Nigeria’s official language, Igbo
is spoken by over 24 million people, with the greater portion of speakers
residing in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
Igbo
has more than 20 dialects and descends from the Volta-Niger branch of the
Niger-Congo family of language, with the Igbo people being the largest ethnic
group in Africa.
8.
Amharic:
The
fifth most widely spoken language in Africa (25 million native and 3 million
emigrants), Amharic is the second-largest Semitic dialect on the continent
after Arabic and mainly spoken in Ethiopia.
Being
a native language, Amharic is one of the very few languages having its
alphabet, while most others use Arabic or Latin letters. Perhaps this is the
reason that it is host to a growing body of Ethiopian literature such as
poetry, novels, and journals.
9.
Zulu:
IsiZulu,
also known as Zulu, is one of South Africa’s official languages. Branching out
from the Bantu/Nguni family of languages, Zulu has more than 10 million
speakers and is the second most widely spoken Bantu language (after Shona).
Zulu
is written using the Latin alphabet and is influenced by the Khoisan language
which accounts for the unique “clicking” sounds within the dialect.
10.
Shona:
Shona
originates from the Bantu family of languages; Shona is the most spoken
language in Zimbabwe, with over 10 million speakers. Shona is an official
language in Zimbabwe, but also have English and Ndebele as the principal
languages.
Final Words
As evident from the wide
list of languages mentioned above, Africa is a mixture of many languages fused
into it, with each language apart and distinct from the other. The growing
influx of migrants, changing political situation, and effervescent law and
order situation in Africa has not been able to influence the number of most
spoken languages in Africa. To date, this region remains one of the largest
continents of the world with a wide number of languages to boast
of—which will, undoubtedly, continue to retain themselves in the future.
HOW
TO LEARN A LANGUAGE FAST – PART 3
6. Study pronunciation
very early on
With languages, you can
always learn vocabulary and grammar as you go along. But it’s essential to
avoid building bad habits at the beginning of your language learning journey.
“I’m a big believer that one of the first things you should do with a new language
is really study pronunciation,” says Richards. “It’s much easier to get it
right at the beginning than it is to try and fix it later on.” How can you
practice pronunciation? The best way is to learn by listening to audio
recordings or watching videos of native speakers so you can hear how they
pronounce things. Then copy them by repeating the same sounds over and over
until they begin to feel natural in your mouth. You can also use pronunciation
apps like Glossika, where you listen to a native speaker, record yourself
repeating what they said, and then compare your version to the native
speaker’s. To improve your pronunciation even faster, you can work with a private
tutor who’s a native speaker of your target language. They’ll notice
exactly what words you’re mispronouncing, demonstrate how they say them, and
help you practice until you get it right.
7. Classes Suck and Are
an Inefficient Use of Time and Money
All things considered,
you get a really poor return for your time and effort in group classes. There
are two problems. The first is that the class moves at the pace of its slowest
student. The second is that learning a foreign language is a fairly personal
process—everyone naturally learns some words or topics easier than others,
therefore a class is not going to be able to address each student’s personal
needs as well or in a timely fashion.
For instance, when I
took Russian classes I found verb conjugations to be simple because I had
already learned Spanish. But an English classmate struggled quite a bit with
them. As a result, I spent a lot of my class time waiting around for him to
catch up.
8. Understand how you
learn best
Different people have different ways of learning. Some people need to watch others explain something and others need to do it themselves. In either case, taking classes from a platform for Lingoda was designed to be flexible for individual learning needs. No matter whether you take individual classes or group classes, classes are based on a particular topic and come with set learning materials. All teachers are native speakers and take the time to explain the topic and any related goals for that lesson. During the lesson, you’ll have a chance to listen to those explanations and take notes, speak directly with the teacher, and also speak with other classmates, giving you a well-rounded opportunity to learn how it suits you best.
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