The Languages of Africa

[@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

[@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???

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@flavio-viana-gomide]

Great!

[@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 »

[@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

[@OliverBenson2024]

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

[@ingwerschorle_]

@@OliverBenson2024 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

[@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.

[@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

[@joy_gantic]

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

[@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. :)

[@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!

[@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

[@AfricanLanguageLessons]

Africa is diverse indeed and our languages are beautiful. I share simple language lessons and similarities between our local African languages over in my space . It's amazing how they are all interconnected. Thank you for this wonderful lesson.

[@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

[@АлексейК-678]

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

[@Iqandatheegg]

Once you know Zulu in SA you good to go 🤭

[@АлексейК-678]

@@Iqandatheegg Kunjalo

[@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.

[@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

[@josuensiama1777]

Bro if you don't want your language to die , please write it even on the Wiktionary it will help any diaspora kid to learn it

[@dsf8497]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@ChoonMa]

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

[@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.

[@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?

[@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.

[@paogevang8306]

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

[@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

[@charmaine7700]

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

[@OliverBenson2024]

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...

[@OliverBenson2024]

​@@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 :)

[@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!

[@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 :)

[@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

[@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 ❤

[@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

[@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.!

[@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.

[@OliverBenson2024]

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

[@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."

[@gmsteele44]

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

[@trulyAmatulHaqq]

Learning a bit of Moroccan Darija while studying abroad hooked me so much more that standardized Arabic. The dialect was challenging me, confident in my ع & غ but hesitant on the French syllables. I loved becoming familiar with Amazigh script, which in recent years has been included on government signage due to a long Indigenous activist fight. I only learned a couple of Tamazight words but want to study the language further...

[@Your__mama]

The amazigh and somalis and ethopians are afro asaitic languages

[@bobsurovikin4305]

​@@Your__mama no

[@panniguin862]

@@Your__mama that term is waaaay too broad, Amazigh might as well be counted as apart of a European language group, both due to its proximity & influence from that proximity (alongside Coptic) with its origins likely predating the Islamic conquest of the then-Roman North Africa. Whereas Somalian is a lot more Arabic influenced given its proximity to the Arabian peninsula & Ethiopia was historically a strong enough presence to avoid being influenced by outsiders for the most part.

[@keshi5541]

​@@panniguin862 Nah amazigh is afro-asiatic. It's more related to semetic than european languages. Though obviously french has made an impact.. Also Somali is a cushitic language. It's closer related to proto Arab south west semetic languages not really Arabic aside from some loan words. Ethiopia has more Arabic loan words in the northern regions like with Tigrayans. I know because I'm North-East African from the region.

[@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?

[@morgankitchen4444]

Good to have you back papi

[@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.

[@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]

🇵🇹❤️🇨🇻

[@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.

[@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

[@dudeof2436]

@@francinabintu9486no … French is still highly popular and mainstream . Kinshasa is the most francophone city in the world.

[@Kaltag2278]

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

[@ml-squared]

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!

[@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!

[@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.

[@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.

[@valyriantime910]

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

[@k4yd33yeah]

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

[@user-uf3qr9lx6u]

Mwen pale kreyòl ayisyen 🇭🇹 I mi por papia papiamentu 🇨🇼 tambe. Thanks for mentioning those languages too! I'm currently learning Swahili 🇹🇿, Afrikaans 🇿🇦 and Amharic 🇪🇹. I love African languages! 🌍

[@AndrewKundya]

Safi sana, Kiswahili kitukuzwe....karibu sana Tanzania 🇹🇿

[@crystalwolcott4744]

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

[@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

[@the_linguist_ll]

Would you cover Nivaclé? It breaks the color universals, has a unique phoneme /k͡l/, and doesn't mark tense on verbs at all, instead hinting at tense by putting demonstrative pronoun clitics onto the object of a sentence!

[@aguarameiryo]

I had classmates that speak Nivaclé. Never learned their language because I was shy to ask when I was younger, but the language sounds fun.

[@aliathuman2078]

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

[@anaslotfi4025]

I'm an amazigh and I would LOVE it if you dedicate a video to amazigh language or as we pronounce it "tamazight".

[@soso-zz9qf]

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

[@Pastor24u]

As a polyglot I must say im impressed with your pronounciation. Well done! And a very nice video!

[@afialele]

One of the fascinating things about languages that appeal to me is dialects. I'm from Togo, and part of the majority ethnic group there, the Eʋe people. We're split into different tribes and clans but we speak the same language in different dialects. I would say the most modern one is mina or gengbe, which is kinda like pidgin but with ewe and french. I was born in the Agome-kpele area and the dialect we speak there is more sing-song than that of say the southern agoe area of the country. There's more of a roll on the letter R. Then you have the aŋlɔ people (mostly in ghana) and their dialect seems to press on the letter "i". My parents are from two different regions but they both speak gengbe. It's always fascinating to hear the different dialects of my own language, and honestly any language for that matter. Eʋegbe itself also changes when it comes to songs and music.We don't really have the concept of pronouns (as in "she/her/hers, he/him/his". It's the same for everyone. Togo in general has many ethnic languages but the ones you'll hear the most is Eʋe and Kabye (in the northern region) and Fon (i think)

[@NaturallyTek]

I am Ewe/Fon on my dad’s side. But I only speak French and Minan (gengbe). I understand a very small amount of Fon. I also understand Yoruba (more than I understand Fon).

[@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 ;)

[@echannel6162]

Thank you for making this From, a Ghanaian 🇬🇭

[@melodiousapollo7307]

This was the best surprise for today. I love learning about African linguistics but haven't had a good point to dive into for stuff, apart from Afro-Asiatic. I never knew about the Areal Linguistic families of Africa even. I dearly hope that these languages get more resources and effort put into them linguistically.

[@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

[@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 :)

[@marco.nascimento]

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

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

Amazigh. It would be cool to have misinformed Americans pronounce my language as "Amazing".

[@DhmEl]

I’m an Amazigh. Not everyone can pronounce the “Ɣ” sound. Especially English speakers.

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

@@DhmEl Of this i have no doubt! I just heard the man say it in the video and I'm still screwing it up!

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

@@DhmEl. Also that's totally cool! I love meeting folks from different backgrounds. The internet is wonderful for that. That and the porn. Not much else.😅 Anyway do you still live in the area or did you ever or were you born elsewhere? I tell you I've been all over my country, America, but not many other places. So I always love hearing about other folks experiences.

[@DhmEl]

@@MetaSynForYourSoul My parents are immigrants too America, so I was born in America, but I’m originally a Kabyle from Tizi Ouzou. I go there every summer to see the rest of my family since they all live there.

[@MetaSynForYourSoul]

@@DhmEl Cool! Man I would love to take a trip over there, see the entire continent. I grew up as a military kid but I'm the weirdest one of all time cuz I never moved! I was born on a base and my mom retired from the same base 14 years later. No other kid in the military grew up like I did, not that I've ever met. They're never someplace more than a few years, most go all over the globe. Did you move allot here in the states or were you pretty settled since you were born?

[@impishDullahan]

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

[@abiehle]

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

[@jarodh-m6099]

Would love to see what you had planned to stay about West African languages.

[@penfelyn]

Missed you, NativLang Thanks for new video

[@johnlastname8752]

Always a good day when I get them notifications.

[@justfrankjustdank2538]

this comment does nothing but notify you :)

[@johnlastname8752]

@@justfrankjustdank2538 Thanks! I appreciate it!

[@NewageEggnog]

Ta 'ndaya maka pe'owa pa'ňgti

[@NewageEggnog]

@@johnlastname8752 Ta 'ndaya maka pe'owa pa'ňgti

[@NewageEggnog]

@@johnlastname8752 ta'owama ketoctai

[@EowynCwper]

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

[@alisalman5917]

2:45 i love how unique my country’s languages are. We got languages varying from Semitic, Nilo-Saharan, Cushitic and even Niger-Congo 💯🇸🇩

[@krystal4378]

Lived in the Gambia for ~4 years. The fact that it was rare to meet someone who didn't fluently speak at least 2 languages, and then can try a little and 1 or 2 more, speaks volumes. (My one host dad spoke 6 plus tried in several others, and then I met so many people that could switch between several languages with such ease and grace was amazing to listen to.) Also that even as an outsider I was able to get around in 1 and then be able to at least great in several others. Being there helped me learn and understand and appreciate language ;and why keeping the diversity of them is good and how having that native language (s) "mother tongue " plays a huge part in your culture and your connectedness to it. Ugh I could go on with my praise and appreciation of these languages and no matter what I say it will never be enough.

[@deyesed]

The history of power in the world really shows when a video about the most diverse continent for languages is only 10 minutes long.

[@amauritaniannomad6533]

Great video I hope with it people will see how big and varying Africa is. Maybe it will help stop them from always painting Africa as one country and generalizing one aspect in one part of it to the entire continent. We have hundreds of languages, hundreds of ethnicities, cultures, and dozens of religions. We're by no means just one lump that is similar all throughout

[@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.

[@everettduncan7543]

If African Romance still existed it would probably be called African, as it was by Arabs. It was reportedly intermediate between Spanish and Sardinian

[@aaro7822]

I speak Pulaar(Fulfulde) and Wolof🤗🤗🤗🤗 From Senegal🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳🇸🇳

[@gianfrancobenetti-longhini8192]

A most interesting presentation, especially for me that grew up in East Africa for 15 years, and then 16 years in South Africa Swahili, a Bantu language that I learned and love ,has become the lingua franca of East Africa, and has some 30% of Arabic words, some Portuguese ones as well. If you want, check the Bantu migrations around 1000 AD down the Atlantic coast, and the one around 1500 AD going east and then south along the Indian ocean costal countries, until Transkei. Since the migrants often copulated with locals, and children usually speak the "mother" tongue, is it not likely that this is how the southern Bantus acquired the clicks. Also the clicks in Tanzania could be that being hunters, were not touched by the migrant Bantus that passed , and also settled in "their" land?

[@VeraDonna]

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

[@mivuyonkabi5780]

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

[@samuelrobinson5842]

One of the hard things about knowing what African languages there are is that there is little standardization. Here in America most people are monolingual so it is easy, but even in Europe there is so much standardization that it is easier to classify languages

[@العقيدمعمرالقذافي-ح4ف]

true, even the standarizations are so different from spoken language

[@adge5182]

I am a simple man. I see a nativlang notification and I click.

[@emcarnahan]

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

[@kellyzavandro456]

This is fantastic! So excited you included Madagascar!

[@hannahooo]

Nelson Mandela’s autobiography teaches so much about this in a historic/sociopolitical context. Highly recommend. Thanks for the great video.

[@izzykraemer5020]

It would be amazing if you could cover the languages of Togo-Kabye, Kotokoli (Tem) and Ewe!

[@richardanyah2439]

Being Nigerian, the Hausa joke was doubly hilarious. I think you should do a video on West African pidgin English

[@owusufrancis1796]

Lef there 😂

[@afinoxi]

Man I can't unhear the bgm after I noticed it , it honestly sounds kinda like one of Oversimplified's bgms

[@Zestrayswede]

_Unsure if background music or Bideo gēmu myūjikku (Video game music)_

[@blazerlazer55]

​@@Zestrayswede that term definitely stands for "background music" in japanese also, i've seen it used for music from like disney rides

[@BonaparteBardithion]

@@blazerlazer55 You'll see notes in the corner of commercials too. BGM: [pop song]

[@makteko]

One of the best break down of African languages and how some of these groupings are not necessary accurate to represent the relationship between these languages. I love it.

[@RogerCello]

Your work is remarkable. I adore your videos not only because I am interested in language and culture, but also because your work is exceptionally creative. Thank you.

[@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?

[@theultimatefreak666]

This hard to call language/language-family thing isn't only in Africa. Despite us Europeans hiding it better Serbo-croatian vs Serbian and Croatian is a pretty well known relatively recent issue, but even close to the Benelux we have the issue of Limburgish Warning: below this I'll rant, might still be nice for those intrested in such issues Limburgish is considered a language of it's own by the Netherland. It is basically a mix between Dutch and German (which are already pretty similar) since Belgium gives political power to languages and them wanting to keep the balance of power between Dutch and French they exclaim that the language is a dutch dialect (yes the decision is heavily political) while also denouncing the existence of Limburgish inside Germany (which i can attest to since I'm Limburgish German) Germany on the other hand calls it a German dialect as to not have to give it any special rights, most german speakers call the language "platt(dütsch)" which is the same name as low-German (a language recognized as different enough to get special status) some Limburgish speakers even go as far as to exclaim that they speak a dialect of low-German and not "normal"-German. This is weird since they are descent of different subgroups in the interpretation of most linguists: Low-German is Ingvaeonic Standard German is Irminonic Limburgish is Istvaeonic Linguistic is a politicized topic making this definitely way harder than it needs to be, but still Limburgish can be used in the Netherlands just as well as Germany and no one knows what to do with it Also makes the answer to "how many languages do you speak?" a fucking nightmare 2 while in Germany, 3 in Netherlands and Belgium. Internationally this issue hasn't been addressed (my guess: it's since no one wants to piss off Germany but everyone sees this as the most ridiculous claim)

[@panniguin862]

Bavarian Swabian Prussian 'High German' Swiss (partially because I refuse to give the stupid pan-nationalist who say Switzerland should be apart of Germany because they speak 'German' any validity) Luxebourgish Limbergish Yiddish East Frisian (not spoken much afaik but still alive) Platt-deutsch Pomeranian Bohemian (Germanic people from what is now the Czech Republic) etc etc English, French, Russian, Spanish & several other 'languages' also have the same effect of 'three or more guys in a trenchcoat' imho.

[@theultimatefreak666]

@@panniguin862 you added Prussian but not (high-) Saxon? Prussian largely died while mixing into other dialects during the cold war. The Saxons on the other hand still sound like nobody told them about the unification of German states under Bismarck despite ironically being the most likely to wave an imperial flag 😬 Also east-frisian isn't really a thing. Saterland Frisian is. Saterland Frisian is the last surviving of the east'ern' Frisian languages. East-frisian on the other hand is more of a term for mix-breeds between saterland Frisian and low-saxon/low-german

[@GPrinceps]

Let us remember the link between biodiversity and linguistic diversity. Africa as a continent, but especially in the middle (West, Central, East) is extremely biodiverse, so it should be no surprise that its linguistic diversity is off the charts. :) When you move towards the poles, roughly speaking, linguistic diversity decreases, and when you move towards the Equator, it increases. That's not surprising, of course; it is really self-evident when you think about it. The plant diversity and the year-round variety of things that we can eat in the Amazon or in the Congo is truly something.

[@lesegomasithela3595]

The best channel I’ve came across

[@charlesbonares]

It is interesting to note that many words of Brazilian Portuguese come from Yoruba, which also had influence on some elements of syntax and morphology in that language.

[@lisatavares7189]

no... kimbundu from Angola