3 Reasons to Learn an African Language Today
Learn an African language today to connect with millions of speakers throughout the world, engage with literature, music, art, and film and expand your worldview.
1. To Connect!
⅔ of the world’s languages originate on the African continent-- with approximately 2,140 unique languages spoken in Africa today. African languages are among the most widely spoken languages worldwide. Learning an African language can allow you to make deeper connections with your neighbors, make new friends or impress your crush.
The top 4 most spoken Africa languages by number of speakers include Swahili (100 million), Hausa (72 million), Yoruba (50 million), and Igbo (40 million).
Moreover, African languages such as Swahili, Igbo, Twi and Yoruba are among the top-ten fastest growing languages in the US and in Europe.
The US Census Bureau recently published data showing that Yoruba, Twi, Igbo are the fifth fastest growing growing languages in the US, whereas East African languages, including Amharic and Swahili are the sixth fastest growing languages.
2. Unique, Beautiful and Challenging!
African languages have distinctive phonological and grammatical features that offer a fun and interesting challenge to learners. African languages pose an especially fun challenge for English-speakers who have not had much exposure to non-Indo-European languages.
Distinctive features of African languages include:
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Reduplication!
Reduplication is the process of creating new words by repeating a word or part of a word. Reduplication is uncommon in English but does occur occasionally.
Examples of Reduplication in English include:
- hocus-pocus
- fancy-schmancy
- riff-raff
- twa - to cut
- twitwa - to cut twice
- twitwatwitwa - to cut into many pieces (to cut several times)
- Twa kwadu no- Cut the banana.
- Twitwa kwadu no- Cut the banana into many parts.
Reduplication is a key word-creation strategy in many African languages. For example, in the Twi language, reduplication is used to form new words to convey: repittion, pluralty and intensity.
Examples of reduplication in the Twi language include:
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Tones!
The tonal systems of African languages present an especially fun challenge for learners who are native-speakers of English, Spanish and other Indo-European languages that do not feature tones.
- papa (low tone - high tone) means father
- papa ( high tone - high tone) means good
Tones are a linguistic feature of language where pitch (high or lowness of the sound) is used to differentiate meaning.
The majority of African Languages - including languages in the Gur, Atlantic, Dogon, Nilo-Saharan, Chadic and Cushitic language families have two-level tone systems.
In two tone systems- the tones are usually “high tone” and “low tone.”
For Example in the Twi langauge (of the Akan people of Ghana)
3. To Engage with music, film, literatue, fashion, and philosophy
Many African nations boast vibrant and prolific music, film, and fashion industries. Learning an African language will allow you to engage more deeply with African movies and tv shows and music.
Learning an African language will allow you to engage more deeply with the music by dissecting the lyrics- opening a whole world of cultural, socio-political critique and storytelling.
Did you Know?
Dialogue-Africa is a free online application for learning African languages. Our lessons are created from an African Point of View. Learn in a way that is culturally specific and immediately relevant. Beta access for Twi, Yoruba, Swahili & Ga are now available.
Start Learning Now!