Cross-border languages in Africa: A list
This is one of 5 lists of major African languages reviewed in 2006
for revising the list of Major Languages on this wiki.
This list of cross-border languages is copied (via a scan) from: Elugbe, Ben. 1998. "Cross-border and Major Languages of Africa." In K. Legère, ed. Cross-border languages : reports and studies, Regional Workshop on Cross-Border Languages, National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), Okahandja, 23-27 September 1996. Windhoek : Gamsberg Macmillan. The text below is from pp. 29-30. Links have been added to relevant sections of this wiki.
In the list below, an asterisk (*) is prefixed to those that are acceptable, two asterisks (**) to those of unquestionable membership and three asterisks (***) to those that qualify to be called regional languages. Each language has its countries of occurrence shown against it.
- *Afrikaans - South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland
- Akan - Ghana, C/lvoire
- Bariba - Benin, Nigeria
- Beja - Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt
- *Bemba - Zambia, Zaire
- *Beti-Fang - Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo
- *Cokwe-Lunda - Zaire, Angola, Zambia
- *Creole (French) - Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, British Indian Ocean Territories
- *Crioulo (Portuguese) - Principe/Sao Tome, Guinea, Cape Verde
- *Dagaari (Dagara) - Ghana, Burkina Faso
- *Ewe - Ghana, Togo (closely related to Fon of the Republic of Benin)
- *Fula (Pulaar, Fulfulde, etc..) - from Senegal to Sudan along the Sahelian and Savanna belts
- *Gbaya - Cameroon, CAR
- *Gurma (Gulmancema) - Burkina Faso, Togo
- *Hassaniya - Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Niger
- ***Hausa - Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Ghana, Sudan
- Herero? - Namibia, Botswana, presence in Angola apparently negligible
- *Kanuri - Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad
- Kasem - Burkina Faso, Ghana
- *Kikongo - Zaire, Angola, Congo, Gabon
- *KiNyarwaanda-kiRuundi (Rwanda-Rundi) - Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda
- (Kissi-)Temne - Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia (the hyphenated form is doubtful)
- ***KiSwahili - All of East Africa
- Kpelle - Liberia, Guinea
- Kru - C/lvoire, Liberia
- **LiNgala - Zaire, Congo, CAR
- *Luo (Lwo) - Kenya, Tanzania (Grimes 1988 claims this is different from Lwo of Uganda or Sudan, though the classification offered is the same!)
- Masai - Kenya, Tanzania
- *Manding (Malinke, Bambara, Jula [Dyula]) - Senegal to Ghana
- *Moore - Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, C/lvoire
- Nama - Namibia, Botswana, South Africa
- ***Nguni (Ndebele-Swati-Zulu-Xhosa) - South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho
- **Nyanja-Cewa - Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi
- **Oromo - Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt
- **Pidgin (English) (Pijin, Krio, Creole) - Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Ghana
- **Sango - CAR, Zaire, Chad, Cameroon
- Senufo (Cebaara?) - C/lvoire, Burkina Faso
- *Shona - Zimbabwe, Mozambique
- *Somali - Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia
- *Songhai-Zarma - Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso
- *Soninke - Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Gambia
- Sotho-Tswana - South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho
- *Tamasheq - Niger, Mali, Algeria
- *Teda-Daza (Tubu) - Chad, Niger, Libya
- *Tonga-Tsonga- Mozambique, South Africa (different from Tonga in Malawi or the one in Zambia/Zimbabwe)
- Tswana-Sotho - Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia
- *Venda - South Africa, Zimbabwe
- **Wolof - Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania
- **Yoruba - Nigeria, Benin, Togo
- *Zande - Zaire, CAR, Sudan
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