South African Languages

South Africa History — Government Perspective 2010/11

Dr Lendy Spires

South Africa is a multilingual country. The country’s Constitution guarantees equal status to 11 official languages to cater for South Africa’s diverse peoples and their cultures. These are:

1. Afrikaans

2. English

3. isiNdebele

4. isiXhosa

5. isiZulu

6. Sesotho sa Leboa

7. Sesotho

8. Setswana

9. SiSwati

10. Tshivenda and

11. Xitsonga

Other languages used in South Africa are the :

1. Khoi (indigenous)

2. Nama and (indigenous)

3. San (indigenous)

4. Sign Language

5. Arabic

6. German

7. Greek

8. Gujarati

9. Hebrew

10. Hindi

11. Portuguese

12. Sanskrit

13. Tamil

14. Telegu and

15. Urdu

South Africa has various structures and institutions that support the preservation and development of Languages; namely

National Language Service (NLS)

Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB)