Tswana language
Setswana | |
---|---|
Setswana | |
Native to | Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia |
Ethnicity | Batswana |
Native speakers | (4.1 million in South Africa (2011) 1.1 million in Botswana cited 1993)[1] unknown number in Zimbabwe 7.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)[2] |
Niger–Congo
| |
Latin (Tswana alphabet) Tswana Braille | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Botswana South Africa Zimbabwe |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | tn |
ISO 639-2 | tsn |
ISO 639-3 | tsn |
Glottolog | tswa1253 |
Linguasphere | 99- |
The Tswana language (or Setswana) is a language spoken in southern Africa. About five million people speak it. It is a Bantu language. It belongs to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages. It is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages.
Tswana is an official language of Botswana. Most Tswana speakers are in South Africa, where four million people speak the language.
References
Tswana edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- ↑ Setswana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78