The official language of

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

is English, while

Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...

is considered to be a national language. English, which was inherited from

colonial rule Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...

, is the language of official business and most written communication. Most of the population speak Tswana, but over 20 smaller languages are also spoken. Some of the country's languages are in danger of becoming

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Official and national languages

The official

written language A written language is the representation of a spoken or gestural language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will pick up spoken language or sign language by exposure even i ...

of Botswana is English. Most

written communication Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

and official business texts are written in English. The language of the

Tswana people The Tswana ( tn, Batswana, singular ''Motswana'') are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa. The Tswana language is a principal member of the Sotho-Tswana language group. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the pop ...

—''

Setswana Tswana, also known by its native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zon ...

''—is the country's national language, and is spoken by most of the population.

Other languages

Aside from English and Setswana, other languages are spoken in the country. Over 90% of the population speak a

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

as their

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

. According to the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

's ''

World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

'', the most common Bantu languages spoken are Setswana (77.3% of the population),

Kalanga Kalanga may refer to: * BaKalanga people * Kalanga language Kalanga, or ''TjiKalanga'' (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga people in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalise ...

(7.4%), Kgalagadi (3.4%),

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

(2%),

Mbukushu Mbukushu is a traditional Kavango kingdom in what is today Namibia. Its people speak the Mbukushu language Mbukushu or Thimbukushu is a Bantu language spoken by 45,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, ...

(1.6%) and

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages * Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language Northern ...

(1%). 1.7% speak Tshwa (a

Khoe Maharishi International University (MIU), formerly Maharishi University of Management, is a private university in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded in 1973 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and features a "consciousness-based education" system that include ...

language) and 0.1% speak !Xóõ, a Tuu language (both non-Bantu). English is spoken by 2.8% as their first language, and a small number speak

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. The number of individual languages listed for Botswana is 31. All are living languages. Of these, 26 are indigenous and 5 are non-indigenous. Furthermore, 4 are institutional, 9 are developing, 8 are vigorous, 9 are in trouble, and 1 is dying.

Languages spoken

The distribution of the three major language families in the Kalahari Basin area

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

# Birwa # Chichewa #

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Gana The word (; Sanskrit: गण) in Sanskrit and Pali means "flock, troop, multitude, number, tribe, category, series, or class". It can also be used to refer to a "body of attendants" and can refer to "a company, any assemblage or association of ...

Gciriku Gciriku is a traditional Kavango kingdom in what is today Namibia. Its people speak the Gciriku language. The Gciriku (Rugciriku: ''vaGciriku'') are one of the many ethnic groups in Namibia with an estimated population of 20 000. The Gciriku main ...

# Gwi # Hai, , om # Herero # ‡Hua
Ju, ’hoansi
#

# Kgalagadi #

Khoekhoe Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...

# Khwedam # Kua # Kuhane # Kung-Ekoka # Lozi #

Nambya The Nambya people are an ethnic group of about 100,000 people, based in the north-western parts of Zimbabwe and in the north-eastern parts of Botswana . They are found around the coal mining town of Hwange, surrounding areas of the Victoria Falls a ...

Naro Naro ( scn, Naru ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, on the island of Sicily, Italy. It is bounded by the comuni of Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Camastra, Campobello di Licata, Canicattì, Castrofilippo, Delia, Italy, Delia, Favara, Ag ...

# Shua # Tshuwau # Tswapong # !Xóõ #

Yeyi Yeyi may refer to: *Ye County, Henan, China, formerly known as Yeyi * Yeyi people *Yeyi language Yeyi (autoethnonym ''Shiyɛyi'') is a Bantu languages, Bantu language spoken by many of the approximately 50,000 Yeyi people along the Okavango Rive ...

Zezuru Shona (; sn, chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to ''Ethnologue'', Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7 ...

isiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...

References

Sources

External links

Ethnologue listing of Botswana languages
*
list of endangered languages in Botswana
from the

Endangered Languages Project The Endangered Languages Project (ELP) is a worldwide collaboration between indigenous language organizations, linguists, institutions of higher education, and key industry partners to strengthen endangered languages. The foundation of the proj ...

(ELP)
The Kalahari Basin area: a 'Sprachbund' on the verge of extinction
from the Kalahari Basin area project (KBA) {{Languages of Africa