Romance-speaking Africa
Romance-speaking Africa or Latin Africa consists of the countries and territories in Africa whose official or main languages are Romance ones, and countries which have significant populations that speak Romance languages: French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.
Official languages | French, Portuguese and Spanish |
Member states | 27 |
Many of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF; International Organization of La Francophonie) or the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa), and seven are members of the Latin Union.[1]
North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, was part of the Roman Empire. As a result, the African Romance language evolved in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. It was spoken until the 13th century.
French language
The following is a list of the Sub-Saharan African countries where French or African French is spoken.[2][3]
Benin, French language in Benin Burundi, French language in Burundi Burkina Faso, French language in Burkina Faso Central African Republic, French language in the Central African Republic Chad, French language in Chad Cameroon, French language in Cameroon Comoros, French language in Comorosi Ivory Coast, French language in Cote d'Ivoire Democratic Republic of the Congo, French language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo, French language in the Republic of the Congo Djibouti, French language in Djibouti Gabon, French language in Gabon Guinea, French language in Guinea Madagascar, French language in Madagascar Mali, French language in Mali Mauritania, French language in Mauritania Mauritius, French language in Mauritius Niger, French language in Niger Rwanda, French language in Rwanda Senegal, French language in Senegal Seychelles, French language in Seychelles Togo, French language in Togo
The French Language is also spoken in two French Overseas Departments:
Portuguese language
African countries where Portuguese ( African Portuguese varieties) is spoken:[2]
Angola, Angolan Portuguese Cape Verde, Cape Verdean Portuguese Guinea-Bissau, Guinean Portuguese Mozambique, Mozambican Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe, São Tomean Portuguese
Portuguese territory, geographically located in Africa, where Portuguese is spoken
Spanish language
Sub-Saharan African countries where Spanish is spoken:[2]
Equatorial Guinea, Spanish language in Equatorial Guinea (French is also official. Portuguese may or may not be in the process of becoming the third official language)
Spain territories in Africa (official language):
Spain : the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla
Romance languages in North Africa
In North Africa there are countries where French, Spanish or Italian are spoken, but they are neither the main nor the official languages:
Algeria, Maghreb French Morocco, Spanish is often spoken as a second language in the former Spanish protectorate, but the French language is the national second language since the French protectorate was much larger. Haketia (or Western Judaeo-Spanish) is spoken by a few hundreds of Moroccan Jews and is endangered. Another variant, the Spanish language that was spoken by moriscos, is extinct. Tunisia, Maghreb French is widely spoken. A little part of the popupation speaks also Italian. Western Sahara, Spanish language in Western Sahara.
Italian language
In all of these countries, the only one that preserves Italian is Eritrea, which has only one Italian-language school remaining, with 470 pupils yearly. The name of the only Italian-language school in Eritrea is Scuola Italiana di Asmara.[4] Somalia once decreed that the republic's official languages would be the (Maay and Maxaatiri) registers of Somali as well as Arabic, deleting Italian's official status.[5]
Italian islands geographically in Africa(official language):
Italy : Lampedusa and Pantelleria.
References
- "Unión Latina". Retrieved 2010-02-10.
- "CIA - The World Factbook -- Field Listing - Languages". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
- Population Reference Bureau. "2007 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-08-16.
- (in Italian)Scuola Italiana di Asmara (in Italian)
- Diana Briton Putman, Mohamood Cabdi Noor, The Somalis: their history and culture, (Center for Applied Linguistics: 1993), p. 15.: "Somalis speak Somali. Swahili may also be spoken in coastal areas near Kenya."