what's the main language in Africa?

Answer 1

There is no one main language, but some of the most widely spoken ones are (and different people have mentioned most of them) are Arabic (spoken throughout the North of Africa), English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Hausa, Yoruba, Lingala. I know I am missing one or two others that should be in this list.

Answer 2

There really is no "main" language IMHO.
English and French are widely spoken.
In East Africa Swahili is a very important language.
In West Africa Hausa is also very important.
Of course, North Africa is mostly Arabic speaking.

Answer 3

English, French, Portuguese, then native languages, maybe a bit of Spanish, and in Namibia and Togo some people still speak German.

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People, you are soooo fast to give a thumbs down. Read the question, it asks for the MAIN language. The answer is then either English or French. The largest population in Africa is Nigeria, and the official language is English. Also English speaking is S. Africa, Egypt, Zimbabwe and a bunch of smaller countries. French is the main language in a lot of the countries with medium poulations. One of these two languages is the answer.

Answer 4

There are an estimated 2000 languages spoken in Africa.[1] African languages such as Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, are spoken by millions of people. Others, such as Laal, Shabo, and Dahalo, are spoken by a few hundred or fewer. In addition, Africa has a wide variety of sign languages, many of whose genetic classification has yet to be worked out. Several African languages are also whistled for special purposes

Answer 5

There really isn't a main language. True, there are areas where French is primarily spoken, but it's a small percentage. Because there are so many different tribes in Africa, there are various dialects of many different native language. The possibilites are endless.

Answer 6

Depends on which part of Africa.

But A LOT of Africa speaks French. Although they probably have more than one official language in many African countries, French is a top one.

Answer 7

In some parts of Africa it's French.

Answer 8

No such thing. Africa is a continent, like Europe. Just like Europe, each country has different languages. There are even different languages and dialects within the same country and between different tribes.

Answer 9

Due to the African slave trade the language was splintered into many different pieces there seems to be no one single dialect that serves as a main language there is only those tongues common to that region.

Answer 10

First I would like to say that I almost passed out when i read some of the answers. i told my self: 'oh god, is that possible!"
and because we are here to learn, i told myself that after all this is a good question and I'm glad that someone asked.

It's like asking what is the main language in:
Europe
Asia

Should i remind you that Africa have more than 57 countries.
Africa has been colonized several years ago. so there is the language left by the colons (and usually it's the official language of the country) but they have also their own dialect. so please for those who answered africaan or African please for god's sake educate yourself by checking this out:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr?doit=done&url=.http://www.populationdata.net/&lp=fr_en


have a good day everybody