The Languages of Africa

My animation about the many languages, language families and language areas of Africa.
Links to African & diaspora language/linguistic history creators: docs.google.com/document/d/1g...
Subscribe for more: kzbin.info_...
Become my patron: / nativlang
~ Briefly ~
At first, the map of Africa's many languages seems complicated. However, in just a few minutes we'll learn how linguists classified them into just five families. Once we meet Africa's language areas, the five families begin to fall apart.
We'll leave with a complicated picture of families, hypothetical groups and many isolates and debated classifications. Along the way, come to appreciate Africa's diverse peoples and languages.
~ Credits ~
Art, narration, animation and some of the music by Josh from NativLang
Sources for claims made, and full credits for music, fonts, sfx:
docs.google.com/document/d/1H...
Music:
Please see my doc above. I created the opening piece, the outro and one reprise from Thoth's Pill in the middle. The rest of the credit goes to:
Silver Flame by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Infados by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Thinking Music by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license

[@Cruxador]

"This is the largest area I've ever covered" "turns out it's really complicated" Who could have predicted this?

[@nakenmil]

Surprised Pikachu Face dot jaypeg.

[@OkyanusKarSen]

Colonialist world view could have certainly not

[@BlargleRagequit]

i saw the video length and was pretty worried

[@trollinape2697]

shouldve put it into parts

[@AccidentalNinja]

Certain I couldn't have predicted that the cradle of humanity would have a complicated linguistic situation...

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Chad speaks more than 100 languages? What a hyper polyglot, he's quite the Chad alright

[@mateuslguilherme]

The chad Chad vs the virgin Europe

[@kabalofthebloodyspoon]

Virginia is a little jealous

[@crustyfroonchfroo8542]

How are you literally every where?!?!

[@poke-champ4256]

@@mateuslguilherme shoudve taken virginia

[@mahatmaniggandhi2898]

it even looks like the chad meme ...wait a minute is the chad face based on the country shape???

[@TheMotlias]

This is a great example of why the term "African" should be used carefully, its a huge continent with thousands of cultures and just lumping them all together is dangerous, in the same way grouping everyone who lives in Asia isn't good or putting the Portuguese and Polish together because they're both in Europe.

[@samyrandome425]

Technically the Korean, the French and the Pakistanis are all part of the same landmass... actually so are the Morrocan, the Congolese and the South Africans technically... well until the Suez canal that is but that hardly means anything.

[@samyrandome425]

Continents are mostly man made and arbitrary divisions of landmass.

[@samyrandome425]

Heck one could even argue there's only 3 continents : Antarctica, the Americas, and Afro-Eurasia with Australia bieng one of many islands off it's shores.

[@Iknowknow112]

@Hernando Malinche In my experience the African immigrants I've met do only know the difference between a Pole vs.a Portuguese many have lived in these places and have a least a modest ability to speak the languages! Africans are the original cosmopolitans in the original Stoic/Cynic sense, namely *world citizens*. As the short youtube shows Africans are no strangers to interacting with different cultures. Until recently the same was true of African Americans and others of the diaspora. I'm well aware that I'm generalizing but by a large I think my assertions hold true.

[@samyrandome425]

@Hernando Malinche arbitrary =/= useless

[@zyaicob]

I already knew we were going to dismantle that 5 family system because the areas some of them covered are MASSIVE

[@xtrct7303]

Some languages family are just that massive. Austronesian languages family spans from Madagascar to Hawaii. That’s like the half of the world is covered with one languages family!

[@senormoll]

Is that a reason to doubt PIE? Seems like geographic size wouldn't have all that much to do with it.

[@the-chillian]

@@senormoll PIE was spoken relatively recently as such things go, and we have written IE languages starting only about 900 years after the last date PIE is hypothesized to have been spoken. (Hittite, attested from the 17th century BCE, with PIE possibly spoken as late as the 26th century BCE.) Even though IE has become extremely diverse and widespread, this makes it relatively easy to trace back. The situation is much different in Africa. Human language originated here. Just as we find more genetic diversity within Africa than we do in the rest of the world combined, we can also expect to find more linguistic diversity than anywhere else on Earth too. And although one of them is one of the two oldest written languages on Earth, others were only committed to writing relatively late, making historical tracing of linguistic change next to hopeless.

[@senormoll]

@@the-chillian Yes, that's exactly my point: that there are a bunch of other, more important factors than geographic distribution.

[@RedHair651]

Indo-European: « hold my beer »

[@Junior-zf7yy]

As a Nigerian almost all of us speak three languages. English, our native language (eg. Igbo) and pidgin English/Nigerian creole.

[@SaxandRelax]

In Kenya it’s similar. They speak a tribal/regional language, my family’s is Luo. Then they usually speak Swahili and English on top of that.

[@Tu51ndBl4d3]

Pidgin is not a creole. It's a pidgin

[@pleasetf7214]

Is pidgin a real language? I always thought of it as slang

[@Junior-zf7yy]

@@Tu51ndBl4d3 please just google, Nigerian Pidgin is a type of creole.

[@Junior-zf7yy]

@@pleasetf7214 yes, it was formerly seen has broken English, but it is now getting recognition as it’s own language and a type of English creole.

[@charliecastillo2011]

As a Deaf person, thank you for mentioning Sign Language!

[@trollinape2697]

@@new-lviv there should be a world sign language

[@kaon9101]

@@new-lviv signs language sounds good, but damn A Piece of paper with a pen or Whiteboard and a marker sounds better

[@mrpedrobraga]

@@trollinape2697 Hmm, I never thought to search if there is a Sign Conlang

[@lbgamer24]

@@trollinape2697 wouldn't work for the same reason Esperanto doesn't work

[@trollinape2697]

@@lbgamer24 True, massive differences between grammar pronunciation and such. However unlike languages the far majority of the people cant do sign language

[@NativLang]

Do you speak or are you learning a language of Africa? Did I miss yours? Tell us what makes it special...

[@Prostopyotr]

No...

[@octobixer]

I tried Afrikaans but it was way too boring.

[@johnlastname8752]

I have a dream of one day learning Coptic, but I have to focus on the language I'm currently learning first.

[@zyaicob]

I'm trying to learn Amharic, which you just mentioned, and I know about an iota of Ge'ez. This is fascinating and demands more study.

[@Prostopyotr]

@@octobixer Ouch... 😂 I assume you find Dutch pretty boring too.

[@imfeelingx2363]

I knew a woman who visited Malawi one summer, and she made a book of Chichewa. Since i was a language nerd of course she gave me her Chichewa language book she was a very nice

[@littleolliebenjy]

Woah would love to give that book a read! Any chance you could share the title?

[@ingwerschorle_]

@@littleolliebenjy I second that!

[@imfeelingx2363]

i wish i could but its a small hand written journal

[@heywingliu9085]

Mwaswela bwanji! I had been to Malawi for 1 summer too, find out that 9 languages are used there. The language sounds fun, but seems like really hard to learn.

[@whoreofdragonstone1031]

random

[@ja4162]

I hold a master in African Linguistics and this video sums it all up quite nicely!

[@SJ-ym4yt]

Wow! After seeing this video, I realize that’s a super broad subject to study. Did you specialize in any families or languages?

[@amadeusmalonje8263]

What languages did you look into?

[@haraldv2383]

I agree with you . Joseph Greenberg RIP would be happy ;-)

[@Dablooner]

Cool

[@valhalla-tupiniquim]

Great!

[@bijoudelouest2507]

Wish I could send this vid to the looonnngg list of people who have asked me if I speak "African"

[@gonzalo_rosae]

🤦

[@solar0wind]

What country do you live in? The US? Because I'd expect this question from an obese American who has a USA flag on their t-shirt and holds a coke in one hand and a hot dog in the other one. On the other hand, that might just be my stereotypes coming through😅

[@dyllanfreiheit6330]

@@solar0wind Well it may came from an obese Chinese middle-aged man who is half bald, have a beer belly, and enjoy bragging nonsense while drunk😂 Don't troll me I'm Chinese myself

[@dyllanfreiheit6330]

@@solar0wind I literally got asked if I speak "African"(“非洲语”in Chinese) by my uncles once

[@Marcotonio]

Well... do you? I'm a proud speaker of Brazilian myself. :)

[@modalmixture]

I really appreciate that this channel embraces complexity and avoids overly simplistic stories about (in this case) discrete language families. Also I started learning Xhosa recently and it’s been fun learning the different clicks, which I now know are actually borrowed!

[@benjaminlamptey1867]

underrated comment. That 1st sentence is exactly why I love this channel.

[@AaronAnaya]

I definitely agree, being overly simplistic is big pitfall for educational channels like this one.

[@sjappiyah4071]

well said

[@listenup2882]

Not exactly borrowed, more like assimilated as the xhosa people are the result of admixture between Bantu and San.

[@h.m.5724]

@@listenup2882 They don't acknowledge that fact and get extremely angry when it's mentioned.

[@jcon5698]

Nativlang video now, Tom Scott just a bit ago and Biblaridion in an hour 👀

[@Elm0xz]

Subscribing all of them, hah

[@tomrogue13]

Langfocus was yesterday

[@marcasdebarun6879]

And a Simon Roper vid yesterday

[@celticconlanger6401]

A Sacred day for nerds of all places. We are lucky to have experienced it!

[@AssaultDragoon]

Tis a good day

[@HolyKoolaid]

Just as I was feeling I had a broad depth of knowledge, this video gave me a rude awakening as to just how little I know!

[@nerysghemor5781]

Africa has had humans the longest, hence these massive numbers of languages. Africa also has the most genetic diversity for the same reason.

[@gnatdagnat]

@@nerysghemor5781 Also why the genealogical method isn't as applicable, so many points of contact in such a continuously populated region.

[@nerysghemor5781]

@@gnatdagnat Yep. Very different from tracking, say, the Polynesian or even Indo-European migration. Depending on when we as a species invented language we could be talking about a history pre-dating anatomically modern humanity as we know it. Even if we look at ONLY anatomically modern humanity, fossil evidence puts that as far back as 300,000 years, minimum. That is an insane amount of linguistic and cultural development. And remember again that we can’t even manage to figure out if freaking PIE belongs to a bigger language group due to language change. Or the Afro-Asiatic family, despite how well attested the Semitic branch is.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Good to see you here :) (I'm a long-term sub of yours under a different name). I definitely recommend that anyone reading this goes sub too! It's an eye-opener!

[@bobthabuilda1525]

Holy Koolaid! Love your channel!

[@Aleksandr68351]

I’m from Russia but I lived in south Africa for a few years so I came to learn Xhosa, Zulu Afrikaans Arabic and Amharic I traveled throughout Africa and I spent 6 months in Ethiopia 🇪🇹 i absolutely loved it there now I currently live in Switzerland and I speak German and am learning Italian!

[@yakuzzi35]

lekker man!

[@paulinodaniel3366]

What about UGANDA, SOUTH SUDAN Populations and Their Languages or African on both sides of the Nile River

[@jytvreal]

Ethiopia has high aids rates

[@Impiloiscam]

Once you know Zulu in SA you good to go 🤭

[@Aleksandr68351]

@@Impiloiscam Kunjalo

[@diogosaraiva9547]

Now it's time to go waaaay more in depth into these proposed families! I'd love to have at least 5-10 videos on languages of Africa coming from NativLang!

[@sofitocyn100]

Read Wikipedia. KZbinrs generally just summarize what they read online

[@misiek_xp4886]

@@sofitocyn100 but they add nice pics

[@Artur_M.]

I don't think I've ever been this early. It's certainly a fascinating and rich topic. A bit intimidating even. Great to see you covering it.

[@takashi.mizuiro]

same

[@putinsmuglyanki6603]

I found an intimidating subject aswell, not implying this should take away interest. I like how comparitively to most other content i come across this content is much more elaborate, its encouraging as a starting point to learn

[@idkwhybut...]

It's weird to be monolingual in W. Africa. People either assume you're too proud, or just dumb. Or very remote. Most people speak (at least in Senegal and The Gambia) about 2 to 5 local languages. Add that to English or French as official languages, and the average Senegambian speaks 3 languages. I had to learn six because my parents are from two different ethic groups, my niegbourhood didn't speak our language, English in school, and Arabic cause I'm Muslim. ...

[@Otome_chan311]

How are you counting languages? In the same way that people consider AAVE to be distinct from regular english? Or as different as english is from something like chinese? I hear "they speak 5 languages" or "there's 100 languages" and just think "okay they're lying and exaggerating to fluff up the number". Like if I were to fluff up how many languages I "speak" I could easily say something like 4-6 languages. But in reality I just speak english. But sure, I can understand AAVE, british english, southern dialects, part of scots, and ofc my knowledge of actual foreign languages like japanese. But no, I just speak english.

[@idkwhybut...]

@@Otome_chan311 No. These languages are very different. If added the English Dialects I could speak, I would have to add four extra languages since I can speak Aku (Gambian-English Creole, post slavery), Sierra Leonian Creole, Patwa (Jamaican Creole), and Pidgin (Nigerian Dialectical English). Even if those languages have unique words, they still sound very much like English. African languages also have multiple dialects and accents, those aren't counted as languages. I speak Mandinka (Mende Family), Wolof (Senegambian branch of Niger-Congo Family), and Jola (Bak branch of Niger-Congo Family), English, French, and Arabic. The three local languages have very different grammar and rarely any shared words. Which is why NativLang said it was very simplified. Wolof and Jola are worlds apart. Either ways, tribal intermarriages and urban diversity, plus the pressure for westernization leaves most of us multilingual. The older generation often are either monolingual or bilingual. Later Boomers, Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha are often trilingual and so on... Monolingualism is weird af in Senegambia. Especially for the younger generation...

[@Otome_chan311]

@@idkwhybut... Cool, but ultimately anyone hyping up africa tends to be pretty dishonest and untrustworthy when it comes to this stuff so sorry if I don't really believe you. I have a hard time believing that there's genuinely 100+ languages. I could see maybe 5 for the entirety of africa. I'm guessing those "language families" are just languages.

[@idkwhybut...]

@@Otome_chan311 Ever been in Africa? Lol. I'm not sure why you think most hyping is untrue. A lot of the time, you need to argue with people who have never set foot in your continent about what your continent is really like. You can have people in South-Eastern Gambia who cannot understand Western Gambians. Are you American? Note that the Gambia is smaller than the smallest state in the US. It's the smallest country in Mainland Africa, 1.8 million people. We have 12+ ethic groups and about 20 languages, most are on the brink of extinction and only have about 2000 national speakers (Bambara is one of those). People often think of Africa as monolith and do not understand the gravity of the statement, "Africa is diverse". This is no understatement. We are VERY VERY different. Ask different Aficans about their cultures and histories and you might be surprised.

[@idkwhybut...]

@@Otome_chan311 German and English are from the same language family. Norwegian, Swedish and Danish are from the same family. French, Italian and Spanish are from the same family. These languages are different from each other, yet they share some words. Wolof, Jola, Yuroba and Igbo, all from the same family are still more different Swedish and Norwegian, and English and German. Spanish, English, French and Italian share very similar words. Something very rare for African Languages.

[@ZeRasseru]

Didn't know Bantu was that big! Yeah, in my language (Myênê), prefixes are very important. The intonation isn't primordial, but knowing what tone belong to your idea is a pretty good sign that you learned it well. I hope my language won't die...

[@roselyskarres9363]

Myênê are you from gabon ?

[@ZeRasseru]

@@roselyskarres9363 I absolutely am yeah

[@aaronmarks9366]

As long as you and other speakers love and use your language, it will keep on living ❤

[@afckajjansi]

It's the largest ethnic group in the world, not even an ethnic group but more like a collection of ethnic groups, so an ethnicity I guess

[@NethDugan]

I love that you mentioned sign language. It'd be interesting to see a video entirely on sign languages of the world, including those of indigenous peoples and how they don't always follow the same family trees as the spoken languages of the places etc.

[@helenamcginty4920]

One of my fellow Spanish for foreigners students from Nigeria not only speaks 6 local languages, pidgin, and English but now also Spanish. Asian children back in the UK also are also often multilingual. After school they go to the madrassa where they learn the Quoran in Arabic but also how to write in Hindi, speak Punjabi and or Urdu.

[@andyhunjan]

I want to be them

[@zephire2628]

The world is so incredibly linguistically diverse and beautiful. And then there are countries like the US that think “Eh, why should I bother learning another language? Everyone speaks English anyway” It’s rather unfortunate :/

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@zephire2628 uP

[@juch3]

The proper spelling is Quran, Quoran denotes the people who frequent the QnA forum Quora.

[@randomplebian461]

In India, we learn 4 languages by the time we graduate from highschool. There're obviously English and Hindi in the curriculum. In addition, there's Sanskrit for min. 3 years, so most of us are at least familiar with the basics. And we normally speak a different language at home, only few people have Hindi as their mother tongue. Mine is Gujarati. So I can read and write in Gujarati fairly well. Again, while my family speaks Gujarati, living in Kachchh (district) means one generally knows Kachchhi too (it's recognised as a dialect atm but it has a script, much of which has been lost). If you know any immigrants from other states (they're pretty common where I live), you likely can understand their language too, even if you aren't especially inclined towards learning it. Eg- I can understand Rajasthani, Tamil and Punjabi pretty well. And I am not really boasting here, though it may seem like that, lol. Knowing 5 languages isn't all that surprising here. Taking a foreign language class in highschool would add an extra in your repertoire. Such a diversity must be very rewarding for those who pick up languages better.

[@kala_asi]

I am a simple man. I see Khoesan, I click.

[@gavinwarner3480]

underrated comment

[@alessandro.calzavara]

One of the best joke-y comments I ever saw

[@szecr]

Nice lmao

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Heh. That's clever.

[@theblackryvius6613]

I likes

[@subtleartofdisappointment5867]

I am from South Africa. In South Africa, most people speak multiple languages. I speak English, Afrikaans and Sesotho. There are many other languages and I am even able to speak a little bit of other languages like Xhosa and Zulu (though not too commonly spoken in my area).

[@KateeAngel]

Free State?

[@subtleartofdisappointment5867]

@@KateeAngel Free State is the name of the province. A long time ago, when the boers moved up to the interior, they formed an independent republic from the rest of South Africa and called it the Orange Free State, to establish that they were freely independent state from the British. The small “country” became apart of South Africa again, but the name Free State remained. It’s still a province of South Africa, it’s name is just different.

[@ChoonMa]

I am so happy to see you including signed languages in this video. It's such an overlooked part of the linguistic landscape

[@dsf8497]

Please do an episode on sign languages! They’re so often misunderstood as even being languages and they’re so interesting!

[@Moran.A]

In Uganda,we also speak different and many languages like lunyankole,luganda,lukiga, Lugissu,lutorro,lugubala, Japadoro,Acholi,langi,lunyolo,etc I can't finish all of them but yes,Africa has many languages.

[@charmaine7700]

Proud Xhosa speaker. Molweni noke! (Hello everyone)❤️

[@littleolliebenjy]

Woohoo! So excited to watch this! Thank you so much Josh!

[@rodrigobarreto2477]

THANK YOOU. Once again, thank you! I am diving into this topic and you set a whole new light on it. Thank you for your dedication. The wonders of the world are not easy to grasp. So, I loved that you showed us that it is a complex matter, and that we should give a propper attention to each case.

[@ai-ml-ml]

Thank you for making this video, I've been looking more into African history lately and the absolute diversity of culture and language is fascinating and definitely under discussed. Would love to see more content on African languages and language families!

[@tolkiendil4806]

I'm always anxious to see your next video, they're so good and pleasant, really. Thanks for sharing well-informed linguistic knowledge to the wider public

[@kutlokenosi3116]

Really appreciating how concepts from my Setswana textbook were featured in such a wide view of African languages. Amazing stuff! Keep it up.

[@VeraDonna]

Absolutely in love with the content on that link you provided 😍

[@AllanLimosin]

Languages of the African continent are so beautiful, one day I saw an African woman walking down the street calling someone in her native language, they sing when they speak

[@SI-ln6tc]

Sounds similar to Cantonese. Maybe Cantonese descended from her language.

[@anthonyappleyard5688]

@@SI-ln6tc Cantonese is a Chinese dialect or language. No connection here.

[@that_orange_hat]

@@SI-ln6tc you are very incorrect

[@Kaltag2278]

I promise I'll be back to finish this video. I'm nodding off and your voice is far too soothing

[@KN-ck2kd]

Loved this. Thank you for making it!

[@crystalwolcott4744]

I'm always amazed by how much we can learn about history from language. Great video.

[@cecileemusic]

I found this fascinating! I work as a French-language interpreter. Most of the people I help are French speakers from Western Africa who speak French as either a first or second or even third language. When communication isn't going well in French for the folks who don't speak French as fluently, I've had to transfer them to another interpreter. Usually the language they feel more comfortable in is one of the Western African languages mentioned in the video. Most often, that first language is either Wolof or, going further south, Lingala. I even had to transfer to a Kinyarwanda interpreter once! I've been curious to know more about these other African languages that I only heard of when I took my job, so I found this video fascinating! Thank you!

[@FallouGN]

hey, how are you doing? I am intersested in the job you are talking about. I speak wolof, french and english, can you recommend me and talk to me about your job?

[@thato596]

I'm a South African i speak Sesotho some words are similar with other African languages e.g in Sesotho Motho-Batho means person-people in english , you change the prefix of the word and a singular becomes a plural. Other afro linguas Silozi mutu-batu, xhosa umntu-abantu , kikuyu mūndū-andū ikalanga nthu-bathu, tshiluba muntu-bantu . I can go on for long a time. Sesotho is very similar to silozi ,sepedi and setswana and others but it's the only one of those languages that has click sounds just like xhosa and zulu as you have mentioned. You can find same African languages in neighbouring countries also.

[@jinz0]

im glad you speak English

[@AToZed71]

Yeah the Nguni languages are all to some degree mutually intelligible

[@idkwhybut...]

@@jinz0 A lot of us do...?

[@jordydinga1167]

In Lingala (DRC) ; moto/mutu : person; bato/batu :people, In kikongo (DRC) : Muntu : person, human being; bantu : people Actually, in all bantu languages, the radical -tu/to/ndu/ndu means person, human being. As congolose leaving south africa, I can see many similarities between bantu languages of DRC (we got about 450 langauges there and 1/3 of all bantu languages) and those of South Africa. Zulu means heaven/sky in kikongo and in nguni lalnguages Mwana means child in kikongo, lingala, swahili but also in sesotho and setwana. yetu (swahili) and betu (kikongo) have (depending on the context) the meaning of "us, ours" almost the same with zulu/whosa Yethu. In lingala, water is Mayi. It is Masa/Maza in kikongo and amanzi in Isixhosa

[@jinz0]

@@idkwhybut... thats right

[@freetraveller_pt]

I love this video! I studied certain grammar and word-formation features of Hausa and Bantu languages at university for my Glottology exam, and the little I learned was fascinating. Your video is so well made and highlighted the complexity and richness of the African continent also from a linguistic viewpoint. And I loved the graphics and animation! Thank you ;)

[@GamelanSinarSurya]

Thank you for creating such a gentle, understandable and culturally aware introduction to the amazingly complex subject of African languages. Certainly makes me want to learn more!

[@paogevang8306]

Only ten minutes for all the languages of Africa job well done. WISH IT WAS LONGER THOUGH.

[@lorrainewilliams7896]

Fantastic video. I have an Algerian neighbor who keeps trying to clue me into how diverse Africa is. Dang, this goes even beyond that!

[@LuinTathren]

AMAZING! I loved this video, Paul! Great work.

[@penfelyn]

Missed you, NativLang Thanks for new video

[@littleolliebenjy]

Truly enjoyed the video on my first watch, and just wanted to say thank you again for the great video: the storytelling, the audio, the visuals - they're fantastic! And I'm in awe how you turn a complex topic into something manageable and that can be understood in 10 minutes! Thank you so much for constantly producing fascinating, fantastic, and incredible videos! You're awesome! Will we get to see more videos on African languages soon? Whatever the case, I'm excited to see what you create, share, and produce next! It's awesome and you're incredible!

[@NativLang]

Wow, thank you! And as a bonus double thanks for the patronage! This definitely took time and felt so slow going at times, but when I see a comment like yours it feels worth it. Yes, I am eager to animate more...

[@littleolliebenjy]

​@@NativLang Take your time Josh - we'll always be here for you! If you need a break, take it, we know you've earned it!

[@insidiatori9148]

@@NativLang Keep it going :)

[@morgankitchen4444]

Good to have you back papi

[@mitchconq]

That was so awesome i just want to dive in more! Would love more vids on this topic!

[@deadlyshizzno]

I just discovered your channel in the last couple days and I am immediately hooked! Will certainly be binging your content over the coming days and weeks

[@xandudicanda6303]

😍 So glad to see a mention of my language! Ami ê kriolu, and that's why I say thank you! 🙏 Keep on with those good videos.

[@lpereira300]

🇵🇹❤️🇨🇻

[@ceruchi2084]

I love your videos! If you're on an Africa kick, I would love to see a zoomed-in view of one or two of these languages, where you talk about their special features :)

[@DorySummers]

Thank you so much, I wanted to know more about this for so long!!

[@emilandersson4366]

YES! I haven’t even pressed play and I already love this and trust you’d done a great job

[@rubensneto9049]

can you do one about the native languages of australia?they deserve more appreciation.

[@SJ-ym4yt]

He mentions one of them in ”how fast can languages evolve?”, check it out :)

[@Alex_Plante]

I have a friend from the Congo, and normally we speak French. I once overheard him speaking an African language on the phone to his wife. He told me it was Swahili, which is apparently widely spoken in Southern and Eastern Congo. It seams that French is spoken mainly in the capital Kinshasa and the lower Congo. English is making inroads in north-western Congo, and in Rwanda and even increasingly in Burundi, English has displaced French, largely because of influence from Uganda and Kenya. I think, in the long run, Africa will be divided into language areas based on whatever language comes to predominate in its largest cities. Each major city will have an area that they will dominate culturally, economically and linguistically. To know what those languages will be, observe what the kids speak when they play together in Abidjan, Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Adis Ababa, etc.

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

Interesting. He must be from the Eastern region.

[@Alex_Plante]

@@mwanikimwaniki6801 Actually, he's from the south

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

@@Alex_Plante Makes sense. I'd be surprised if I understood him though.

[@francinabintu9486]

RDcongo we don't care about french. We speak ours languages. We have 490 languages! And 4 nationales languages and very prouds

[@emcarnahan]

Thank you so much for this!! A huge interest of mine :)

[@abcgirl2001]

Hello!! I found this channel last night and I absolutely love it!! It’s amazing!! Thank you for all the hard work. Also I think if you did a video o kwicha it would be cool 💫

[@soso-zz9qf]

I would absolutely love for you do do regions of Africa and their respective languages... amazing work

[@bungouyevsky]

8:26 I remember how I was disappointed when my French teacher described the Creoles of French colonies in the same way during the class... "BROKEN FRENCH"

[@Otome_chan311]

Easy way to see if it's french: 1. Can someone who *only* speaks french understand what's said? 2. Can someone who speaks that "creol" understand people who are speaking french? If you answered yes to both questions, then it's french. Similar to how AAVE is indeed just broken english. The people who "speak it" understand english, speak english, and are understood by people who know english. It's just english done poorly, not it's own language.

[@QueenOfCatsX3]

@@Otome_chan311 It's not broken english. It's a dialect. Which is in no way "broken english". Really there is no such thing as a "broken" version of a language because well, simply put it is the people who decide in what direction the language or dialect should go. There are general rules and vocabulary yes, but those things are decided by the people over time and are as moldable as wet clay. AAVE is a dialect of english all its own, just as quebecoise is a dialect of french. Neither are broken. It's just that for various reasons they evolved and developed differently from the "average" or (and i say this with contempt) "correct" dialect.

[@mixtapemania6769]

@@Otome_chan311 the answer to #1 is no. Believe me, I am Haitian and when people speak creole around french speakers they only pick up certain words, but usually not enough to get the general idea. On the other hand haitians who only speak creole have an easier time understanding french, but it would still be a challenge. Also, writing in Haitian creole would be even harder for a French person to understand. It really is it's own language. The same goes for the creoles of Martinique and Guadeloupe as they are very similar

[@mixtapemania6769]

@@Otome_chan311 its not at all comparable with AAVE, thats merely an accent, but still pure English. A foreigner would have a much easier time understanding that than a deep white Mississippi accent. Haitian creole even has its own dictionary, well, quite a few. To me the difference between the two is as grand as the difference between Spanish and Portuguese.

[@abc_cba]

Amazed !!! Such an awesome narration and the animations are just super cool too.

[@tunasayl2928]

We waited a lot but finally,that is a really good video.Thanks so much and we will see you next time (:

[@yugajumaonziga9186]

I have been researching and documenting Kakuwa (Kakwa) my mother tongue, and a member of the Nilo-Saharan languages, since the 1980s. I have enjoyed your video as it confirms some of the unique features of these languages which have been the least studied.

[@marco.nascimento]

Love this!! Please, more videos about the African languages

[@kellyzavandro456]

This is fantastic! So excited you included Madagascar!

[@draugami]

I love your presentation style. Also how you present a neat picture, then show how it is defective. Well done.

[@semaj_5022]

I would definitely love a deep dive from this channel on one or two underrepresented African languages. Especially those we think to be the "oldest."

[@sinemcelcius]

thanks for the video, as a Turkish person with an African great great grandparent, Bantu languages and African culture really amaze me!

[@annia3685]

Very interesting. Do you have any recommendations for learning more about the history of Africans in Turkey?

[@sinemcelcius]

@@annia3685 There are some African villages in the Southwest part in Turkey, in "Ege". You can search "Ege' nin Afro-Türkleri". (just copy paste what I wrote :) ) they are talking with a super cute Ege accent (accent from that part is really sympathetic for the entire Turkey and they have it perfect). Also in English there are some articles about the slave trade but as far as I know, the mother of my grandpa was not a slave (but a servant) and the Ottoman Empire forbid slavery earliest in Europe-but the English resources are a little biased atm. Talking of my own great great grandfather (African mom Turkish dad), who was an apparently black looking, handsome man, he was working in the Palace, seeing the Sultan (king) and working in the Palace Environment as a highly respected person. He was also very well educated. Treated the way he deserved.

[@duchesstyra]

@@sinemcelcius glad you’re embrace your African heritage ❤

[@raeroa7982]

New to your channel and am absolutely fascinated - amazing and informative work. Bravo.

[@-beee-]

Thank you so much for this video! I learned so much

[@Paula-133]

Thank You for helping to educate people about the deep African languages. I also would like to know about the Sign Languages of Africa.

[@aliathuman2078]

I feel sooooooooo happy whenever I come across any content regarding Afrika I love Afrika like as if created it😍

[@Dai_Abdurrahman]

Just amazing to see you back Brother you inspired me alot✌🤞

[@carloslandaverry4413]

Beautiful work as usual!

[@valyriantime910]

Yeeess! That's the stuff! Thanks mate. Gabonese guy here! 🇬🇦

[@EowynCwper]

I've been neglecting to look into African languages for so long… Thanks for helping me fix that! :D

[@abduugas]

This was a great video. You earned a new sub!

[@airshipswashbuckler6420]

Wow I had no idea there were so many languages, or how complicated it is! Neat!

[@abiehle]

Clicked so fast to see this!! Excited to learn more in-depth things about African languages.

[@uzKantHarrison]

I haven't watched the video yet, but thanks for making this right when I'm considering whether to apply to a bunch of language and linguistics courses on African languages

[@carloseduardojimenez7656]

Where can I find those courses? I'm a linguistics student as well

[@uzKantHarrison]

@@carloseduardojimenez7656 The University of Göteborg, the Swedish city I live in, has plenty of them. I don't know if they're any good though, so far I've been studying Computer Science and some Language Technology here.

[@carloseduardojimenez7656]

Thanks a lot, will look into them

[@ciarancube6018]

why

[@uzKantHarrison]

@@ciarancube6018 why what?

[@robertschlesinger1342]

Excellent video. Very interesting, informative and worthwhile video. A must see video for everyone to see.

[@bbr6667]

Interesting as always 👍

[@impishDullahan]

Really love how the brush stroke style looks for the language family maps.

[@neocleouscomposer]

aw yiss new nativlang video

[@mother3man]

I really love the painted aesthetic on the map of Africa!

[@fyabun]

Fantastic delivery!

[@SaxandRelax]

I’m American but my family from Kenya speaks Luo and Swahili. After I started Swahili I thought Luo would be just as easy. I was mistaken.

[@SaxandRelax]

There’s tones, but nobody will tell you what the tones are, and they’re not written. Just as well, they’re hard to hear, so you have to listen closely to every word. And to add more, the tones can be contextual.

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

@@SaxandRelax 😂😂😂😂Luo is world's apart. Some luos also struggle with Swahili. Simply because it isn't the same language family

[@hk4fun595]

Luo is Nilotic and Swahili is Bantu, totally unrelated. I’m Kenyan

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

@@hk4fun595 Manze.

[@Kousha]

First of all, thanks a lot for taking the time to teach us more about Africa's so so many languages

[@stephenmcnally8583]

Can I just say you are one of the highlights of KZbin. I cannot imagine the amount of time and effort it takes to make a single video. My interests lay in history and languages so if you run out of ideas let us know. I have billions 🤣

[@justhereforcats9183]

Great video! Truly shows how complex human diversity is and how things we learn are never set in stone. Do you think you could expand on areal linguistics and ''click'' languages?

[@gmsteele44]

I love these videos. I’d love to see some of the African language groups in depth.

[@frigginjerk]

I started a bit of Swahili recently. It's very different in vocabulary, the thing about noun classes takes some getting used to, and verb conjugations are prefixes instead of suffixes, but the syntax seems really Englishy to me. Like, even more than German's does. If you did a word-for-word translation, it would work 90 percent of the time (big caveat here being "...with the super-beginner-level stuff I've done so far, at least.")

[@mwanikimwaniki6801]

Well. It is really Englishy all the way through. You won't struggle with sentence structure as you move forward

[@suqmadiq6653]

I love your channel because I can use the things you teach us to sound smarter than I actually am

[@Hubert-zx7sq]

What a great editing

[@hanleylopezescano5977]

African languages also have helped in the development of different languages accent in the Americas.

[@tymanung6382]

Also, some people still speak a few 1) Congo maroon village, Jamaica 2) Coromanti, Trinidad 3) Rote memory of modified Yoruba song lyrics, Cuba, Brazil, etc. 4) Still speaking, or now, learning, Yoruba in some places around S + N America 5) Yoruba, Congo (what sort?), Congo Mayombe, Ejagham (Abakwa), etc. from rote songs to speaking. 6) Early 1960s, a Yoruba background Afro Brazilian social scientist visited Yoruba part of Nigeria--- he + others could speak to each other + his 100 year old accent, + showed him his total.family shrine. 7) US African Americans who speak Gullah can speak to Sierra Leonians who speak local Krio. 8) etc., etc.!

[@ayleena5148]

And in some countries you see people asking Africans if they speak African 🙄🙄🙄. What the heck is that language 😳😳😳. When 2 neighbouring villages can't even understand each other since they don't speak the same language. Tchouoooo

[@annia3685]

People really don't get how diverse Africa is.

[@Kampamba]

Man, you nailed the pronunciation. Well done!!

[@mivuyonkabi5780]

It's always such a pleasure to hear someone nail the clicks🤟🏿

[@rabidtangerine]

I worked on the election here in Canada and one of the guys working with me was from Eritrea. He knows like 5 languages and told me a whole bunch about Ge'ez, Tigrinya, and Amharic, and about education and culture in that region. Super interesting stuff.

[@ruedigernassauer]

You know what: He is so lucky to live in Canada and so proud of his country of origine. -- The usual stuff also here in Germany.

[@jmp9035]

@@ruedigernassauer Cant be that proud if he decided to up sticks and thrown in the towel to live and work in a more well of country. How about he stayed and built up the economy of Eritrea to have aspirations of one day being as successful as a country as Canada? If the English thought like that there would be no Canada to begin with the Brits would be just wallowing in their own self pity in a poverty stricken UK.

[@AB-im6de]

@@jmp9035 Well atleast research what’s going on in Eritrea before you ask that. Literally one of the worst and longest running dictatorships in the world.

[@dennisjohnson4228]

@@jmp9035 let's say the cruel and greedy downpressers (to borrow a word from Peter tosh) ,read Europeans had something to do with that

[@michiga5220]

@@jmp9035 well what made you even think Canada is home of anyone there? Everyone is an immigrant unless there eskimo/native American type

[@emilebeguin8404]

NativLang: * goes to Africa * Africa: We brought you some clicks!

[@lesegomasithela3595]

The best channel I’ve came across

[@vinayakgupta2008]

👍👍👍keep it up... Your videos on language help me a lot with my world building...