World Language Map

Languages spoken in Botswana

39 living languages are mapped in Botswana. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is English (81% of the population). They belong to 5 language families, the largest being Atlantic-Congo (22 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Botswana at a glance

  • 39living languages
  • 5language families
  • 2.5 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 3with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Botswana. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Botswana

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
EnglishIndo-European81%1,985,043Not endangered
TswanaAtlantic-Congo62%1,519,415Not endangered
AfrikaansIndo-European0.2%5,882Not endangered
//AniKhoe-KwadiShifting
//GanaKhoe-KwadiShifting
/GwiKhoe-KwadiShifting
AmkoeKxaMoribund
Bemba (Zambia)Atlantic-CongoNot endangered
BirwaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Diriku-ShambyuAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
East TaaTuuShifting
FweAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
Hai//om-AkhoeKhoe-KwadiNot endangered
HereroAtlantic-CongoThreatened
HoloholoAtlantic-CongoThreatened
KalangaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
KgalagadiAtlantic-CongoThreatened
KwangaliAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
KxoeKhoe-KwadiShifting
LoziAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
MbukushuAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
Nama (Namibia)Khoe-KwadiThreatened
NambyaAtlantic-CongoShifting
NaroKhoe-KwadiThreatened
Northern TshwaKhoe-KwadiShifting
PediAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
ShonaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
ShuaKhoe-KwadiShifting
South-Eastern JuKxaThreatened
Southern TshwaKhoe-KwadiShifting
SubiyaAtlantic-CongoThreatened
Ts'ixaKhoe-KwadiShifting
TswapongAtlantic-CongoShifting
VendaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
West !XoonTuuThreatened
XhosaAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
YeyiAtlantic-CongoMoribund
Zimbabwean NdebeleAtlantic-CongoNot endangered
ZuluAtlantic-CongoNot endangered

Read more: where is English spoken?

Language families in Botswana

About these numbers

The list of languages in Botswana comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Botswana

How many languages are spoken in Botswana?

39 living languages are mapped in Botswana, from 5 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Botswana?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 81% of the population, about 1,985,043 people, followed by Tswana (62%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Botswana?

Atlantic-Congo (22 languages), Khoe-Kwadi (11 languages), Indo-European (2 languages), Kxa (2 languages) and Tuu (2 languages).

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