Language Diversity

On some continents several different languages are spoken. In Africa over 2,000 languages are spoken. Language varieties are still being used although some of these are threatened by extinction.

The only country in the world that speaks just one language is Somalia, located in Africa. All the residents speak Somali.

Individual languages such as Arabic, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Amharic, and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of which are language isolates. Several African languages are whistled to communicate over long distances.