The
official language
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
s of the
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...
are
French and
Sango. In total there are about 72 languages in the country.
In the CAR, French is the language of writing and formal situations. In 2018 it was estimated that 28.36% of the population could speak French.
Sango has about 350,000 native speakers. It has become the lingua franca of the country. It became a national language in 1963 and an official language (alongside French) in 1991. It is estimated that 92% of the CAR's population is able to speak Sango. The language has become the mother tongue of almost all children in Bangui.
Nearly all of the native languages of the CAR belong to the
Ubangian languages. There are a few
Bantu languages in the extreme south, along the border with
Congo-Brazzaville, and several
Bongo–Bagirmi languages
The Bongo–Bagirmi or Sara–Bongo–Bagirmi languages are the major branch of the Central Sudanic language family with about forty languages. Principal groups include Bagirmi languages such as Naba and the Sara languages. They are spoken ac ...
in the north, near the border with
Chad. In addition, there is a
Maban
Maban, mabain or mabanba is a material that is held to be magical in Australian Aboriginal mythology. It is the material from which the shamans and elders of indigenous Australia supposedly derive their magical powers.
Among the Ngaanyatjarra pe ...
language,
Runga
''Runga'' is a genus of Polynesian araneomorph spiders in the family Physoglenidae that was first described by Raymond Robert Forster in 1990.
Species
it contains five species, found on the Polynesian Islands:
*'' Runga akaroa'' Forster, 1990 � ...
.
Education for the deaf in CAR uses
American Sign Language, introduced by the deaf American missionary
Andrew Foster.
See also
*
Demographics of the Central African Republic
This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Central African Republic, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the ...
*
African French
African French (french: français africain) is the generic name of the varieties of the French language spoken by an estimated 141 million people in Africa in 2018, spread across 34 countries and territories.29 full members of the Organisa ...
References
External links
Linguistic situation in the Central African RepublicEthnologue listing of CAR languages
{{Africa in topic, Languages of