Languages of Mozambique

Last updated

Languages of Mozambique
AIDS awareness in Machaze district, Mozambique (Ndau and English).jpg
AIDS awareness sign in the Machaze District in Ndau and Portuguese
Official Portuguese
Recognised Makhuwa, Sena, Tsonga, Lomwe, Shona
Indigenous Barwe, Chewa, Chichopi, Chitonga, Chuwabu, Dema, Gitonga, Kimwani, Koti, Kunda, Maindo, Makonde, Makwe, Manyika, Nathembo, Ndau, Ngoni, Nsenga, Nyungwe, Phimbi, Ronga, Sena, Swahili, Swati, Tawara, Tewe, Tswa, Yao
Vernacular Mozambican Portuguese
Immigrant English, Punjabi, Hindi
Foreign English
Signed Mozambican Sign Language
Keyboard layout
Portuguese QWERTY
KB Portuguese.svg
Local newspaper in Portuguese. 2010 reading newspaper Mozambique 4863034891.png
Local newspaper in Portuguese.

Mozambique is a multilingual country. A number of Bantu languages are indigenous to Mozambique. Portuguese, inherited from the colonial period (see: Portuguese Mozambique ), is the official language, and Mozambique is a full member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. [1] Ethnologue lists 43 languages spoken in the country.

Contents

According to INE, the National Institute of Statistics of Mozambique, Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in Mozambique: according to the 2007 national population and housing census, 50.4% of the national population aged 5 and older (80.8% of people living in urban areas and 36.3% in rural areas) are fluent in the language. The 2017 national population and housing census found out that Portuguese is spoken by 47.4% of all Mozambicans aged 5 and older, with native speakers making up 16.6% [2] of the population (38.3% in the cities and 5.1% in rural areas, respectively)

Portuguese is spoken as a native language by around 50% of the population in Maputo. [3]

Mozambique has 22 Bantu origin languages which are: Swahili, Makhuwa, Sena, Ndau, Tswa-Ronga (Tsonga), Lomwe, Ekoti, Nahara, Makonde, Chopi, Chuwabu, Ronga, Kimwani, Nhungwe, Chimanika, Shona, Chiyao, Chichewa, Bitonga, Ngoni, Tswa and Chitewe. [4] The language of the deaf community is Mozambican Sign Language. [4]

Small communities of Arabs, Chinese, and Indians (primarily the Gujarati language) speak their own languages (Indians from Portuguese India speak any of the Portuguese Creoles of their origin) aside from Portuguese as their second language. [4]

Article 9 of Mozambique's constitution provides for the recognition of national languages and that such languages be considered of "cultural and educational heritage" and that the state "shall promote their development and increasing use as languages that convey our identity". Portuguese is deemed the country's official language by article 10.

Sociolinguistics

Multilingualism

Ethnolinguistic map of Mozambique Mz etnies.PNG
Ethnolinguistic map of Mozambique

Most Mozambicans speak more than one language. According to the Mozambican MINEDH, primary education will become fully bilingual, starting in 2017, and include 16 Mozambican languages, followed by Portuguese as a foreign language. [5] [6] According to the 2007 census, about 50.4% of all people aged 5 and older speak Portuguese, and 10.7%, including people of Portuguese ancestry and mestiços, speak it as their first language. Use of the Portuguese language remains strongly concentrated to the urban population of Mozambique along the coast. [1]

Linguistic geography

The map shows the dominant language by region.

Additionally, the second map shows where Portuguese has become a native language of over 10% of the population.

Current 2024 Portuguese language distribution Portuguese - Native and Official.png
Current 2024 Portuguese language distribution

Influence among languages

Many indigenous languages of Mozambique have loan words of Portuguese origin.

Largest language groups

Languages of Mozambique (2017) [7]
Languagespercent
Emakhuwa
26.1%
Portuguese
16.6%
Xichangana
8.6%
Nyanja
8.1%
Cisena
7.1%
Elomwe
7.1%
Echuwabo
4.7%
Cindau
3.8%
Xitswa
3.8%
Other Mozambican
11.8%
Other
0.5%
Unspecified
1.8%
Largest language groups in Mozambique (2017) [8]
LanguageNumber of speakers (L1)Percentage of population
Emakhuwa 5,856,59026.3
Portuguese 3,737,72616.8
Xichangana 1,984,2998.9
Cinyanja 1,836,3238.3
Elomwe 1,581,2817.1
Cisena 1,541,7516.9
Echuwabo 984,9954.4
Cindau 813,5633.7
Xitswa 778,7813.5
Other Mozambican languages 2,636,97011.9
Other foreign languages89,4340.4
None2,8420.0
Unknown398,8181.8
Total22,243,373100

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozambique</span> Country in Southeastern Africa

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Mozambique</span>

The demographics of Mozambique describes the condition and overview of Mozambique's peoples. Demographic topics include basic education, health, and population statistics as well as identified racial and religious affiliations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Africa</span>

The number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages, one of the greatest concentrations of linguistic diversity in the world. The languages of Africa belong to many distinct language families, among which the largest are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Argentina</span>

This is a demography of Argentina including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsonga language</span> Bantu language of the Tsonga people of Southern Africa

Tsonga or, natively, Xitsonga, as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of South Africa. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, also sometimes referred to as Tswa-Ronga. The Xitsonga language has been standardised for both academic and home use. Tsonga is an official language of the Republic of South Africa, and under the name "Shangani" it is recognised as an official language in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. All Tswa-Ronga languages are recognised in Mozambique. It is not official in Eswatini.

Portuguese is the official language of Angola. Angolan Portuguese is a group of dialects and accents of Portuguese used in Angola. In 2005 it was used there by 60% of the population, including by 20% as their first language. The 2016 CIA World Fact Book reports that 12.3 million, or 47% of the population, speaks Portuguese as their first language. However, many parents raise their children to speak only Portuguese. The 2014 census found that 71% speak Portuguese at home, many of them alongside a Bantu language, breaking down to 85% in urban areas and 49% in rural areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsonga people</span> Bantu ethnic group in Africa

The Tsonga people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily native to Southern Mozambique and South Africa. They speak Xitsonga, a Southern Bantu language. A very small number of Tsonga people are also found in Zimbabwe and Northern Eswatini. The Tsonga people of South Africa share some history with the Tsonga people of Southern Mozambique, and have similar cultural practices, but differ in the dialects spoken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese language in Africa</span> Language official or recognized in several countries

Portuguese is spoken in a number of African countries and is the official language in six African countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. There are Portuguese-speaking communities in most countries of Southern Africa, a mixture of Portuguese settlers and Angolans and Mozambicans who left their countries during the civil wars. A rough estimate has it that there are about 14 million people who use Portuguese as their sole mother tongue across Africa, but depending on the criteria applied, the number might be considerably higher, since many Africans speak Portuguese as a second language, in countries like Angola and Mozambique, where Portuguese is an official language, but also in countries like South Africa and Senegal, thanks to migrants coming from Portuguese-speaking countries. Some statistics claim that there are over 60 million Portuguese speakers in the continent.

Kenya is a multilingual country. The two official languages of Kenya, Swahili and English, are widely spoken as lingua francas; however, including second-language speakers, Swahili is more widely spoken than English. Swahili is a Bantu language native to East Africa and English is inherited from British colonial rule.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Peru</span>

Peru has many languages in use, with its official languages being Spanish, Quechua and Aymara. Spanish has been in the country since it began being taught in the time of José Pardo instead of the country's Native languages, especially the languages in the Andes. In the beginning of the 21st century, it was estimated that in this multilingual country, about 50 very different and popular languages are spoken: which reduces to 44 languages if dialects are considered variants of the same language. The majority of these languages are Indigenous, but the most common language is Spanish, the main language that about 94.4% of the population speaks. Spanish is followed by the country's Indigenous languages, especially all types of Quechua and Aymara (1.7%), who also have co-official status according to Article 48 of the Constitution of Peru, as well as the languages of the Amazon and the Peruvian Sign Language. In urban areas of the country, especially the coastal region, most people are monolingual and only speak Spanish, while in many rural areas of the country, especially in the Amazon, multilingual populations are prevalent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Angola</span>

Portuguese is the only official language of Angola, but 46 other languages are spoken in the country, mostly Bantu languages.

The culture of Mozambique is in large part derived from its history of Bantu, Swahili, and Portuguese rule, and has expanded since independence in 1975. The majority of its inhabitants are black Africans. Its main language is Portuguese. Its median religion is Roman Catholicism, but only about 40% of the inhabitants are Christian. It has a rich history in the areas of arts, cuisine, and entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozambican Portuguese</span> Portuguese varieties spoken in Mozambique

Mozambican Portuguese refers to the varieties of Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Portuguese is the official language of the country.

Tswa (Xitswa) is a South-Eastern Bantu language in Southern Mozambique. Its closest relatives are Ronga and Tsonga, the three forming the Tswa–Ronga family of languages.

Ronga is a Bantu language of the Tswa–Ronga branch spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 in South Africa, with dialects including Konde, Putru and Kalanga.

The Tswa–Ronga languages are a group of closely related Southern Bantu languages spoken in Southern Africa chiefly in southern Mozambique, northeastern South Africa and southeastern Zimbabwe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Zimbabwe</span>

Many languages are spoken, or historically have been spoken, in Zimbabwe. Since the adoption of its 2013 Constitution, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, namely Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa. The country's main languages are Shona, spoken by over 70% of the population, and Ndebele, spoken by roughly 20%. English is the country's lingua franca, used in government and business and as the main medium of instruction in schools. English is the first language of most white Zimbabweans, and is the second language of a majority of black Zimbabweans. Historically, a minority of white Zimbabweans spoke Afrikaans, Greek, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese, among other languages, while Gujarati and Hindi could be found amongst the country's Indian population. Deaf Zimbabweans commonly use one of several varieties of Zimbabwean Sign Language, with some using American Sign Language. Zimbabwean language data is based on estimates, as Zimbabwe has never conducted a census that enumerated people by language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Eswatini</span>

Eswatini is home two official languages. The native language is Siswati. Recent immigrant languages include Chichewa, Tsonga, Zulu.

Nyungwe is a Bantu language of Mozambique. It is used as a trade language throughout Tete Province. It belongs in the Southeastern Bantu branch, particularly in Guthrie zone N. It is closely related to Sena, Chewa, Nsenga and Tumbuka.

Valdezia is a sprawling rural settlement situated at the foothills of the Soutpansberg mountain range in Louis Trichardt, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formerly known as Albasini before Swiss Missionaries renamed it Valdezia in 1875. The village itself was formally established in 1820 by Tsonga refugees who were fleeing despotic rule from Soshangane. It is roughly 10 km east of Elim Hospital in the Hlanganani district in the former Gazankulu homeland, South Africa. It was the site of a Swiss mission station, and it was named after the Swiss canton of Vaud. Valdezia's population, according to the official census of 2011, currently stands at between 7,600 and 8,000 people. It is considered the birthplace of the written Tsonga language in South Africa.

References

  1. 1 2 "Mozambique". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2015. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
  2. Censo 2017 Brochura dos Resultados Definitivos do IV RGPH - Nacional [2017 Census IV RGPH Definitive Results Brochure - National] (in Portuguese), Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Mozambique)
  3. Torun, Reite (February 2020). "Language and spatiality in urban Mozambique: Ex-colonial language spread "from below"" . Retrieved August 11, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 1 2 3 "Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Mozambique". Dallas, Texas: SIL International. 2015. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
  5. Republic of Mozambique Ministry of Education and Human Development (October 1, 2017). "Language Mapping Study in Mozambique" (PDF). Language Mapping Study in Mozambique Final Report: 11 via USAID.
  6. "Breaking educational language barriers in Mozambique". UNESCO. May 14, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  7. "Africa :: MOZAMBIQUE". CIA The World Factbook. April 19, 2022.
  8. "Censo 2017 Brochura dos Resultados Definitivos do IV RGPH - Nacional". Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved October 31, 2024.