Countries and speech
What Languages Are Spoken in South Africa
Twelve official languages, which dominate where, and how English functions as a link language.
South Africa's 11 official languages are named in the 1996 Constitution, with a twelfth official language - South African Sign Language - added in 2023.
The constitutional list of 11
The original list of 11 came in 1993 with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200. A new section in the 1996 Constitution specified that South Africa's Official Languages had wide parity of esteem and equal treatment:
- Sepedi
- Sesotho
- Setswana
- siSwati
- Tshivenda
- Xitsonga
- Afrikaans
- English
- isiNdebele
- isiXhosa
- isiZulu
A 12th official language
The 1996 Constitution did not change the language list, but the South African Parliament changed it in 2023.
The Constitution says equal languages must be treated equally. So English, for example, must not just fill a left-hand box.
T12 language equals t12 rights
The equal-status constitutional principle goes back to 1993, when the 11 languages became official under Act 200 of 1993 in anticipation of the new Constitution. It does not end with constitutional set piece, though.
Section 6 of the 1996 Constitution says official languages are equal and must be given 'equal parity of esteem and are treated equitably'. The government is not there to turn the law into a hanging ornament.
[Trap1: I cannot find a primary statement that assigns "official language" rights.
[gap 2: We cannot differentiate "official languages" from "most spoken languages" without overclaiming the two are the same this point.]
What people actually speak
But many people who come to this article are trying to work out what people actually speak at home, or how much each official language is used in everyday life. So while all are equal in terms of the law and government refs, it does not mean they are used equally or frequently. On the contrary.
Zulu was the most spoken language in households by Census 2022, at 21.2%, followed by isiXhosa at 13.9%. Afrikaans was spoken in 8.1% of homes, and English in 5.9%.
I can't find them here.]
What language is actually spoken in the street?
There's a crucial point to drive home here: the equality of languages is a constitutional principle. It does not mean home-language use is equal.
Separately, Sign Language was reportedly spoken as a 'primary household language' by 0.1% of census respondents in 2022.
[Trap 2: The percentages refer to homes, so cannot be used to claim home-language dominance for specific places without overreaching.]
[Final point: Statistics SA's report for 2022 clearly shows how the major languages are used to talk and read in different domains of life. English is less spoken at home, for example, but English is more common in state affairs than daily storytelling.]
The census figures do make clear that majority and minority groups matter at national level. IsiZulu and isiXhosa were used in 2022 by 21.2% and 13.9% of South African households, respectively, making them the most common home languages. English was spoken in 5.9% of homes.
In conclusion, South Africa's official languages are 12 in number now. The language policy sets out how each language is treated as equal in law. But this does not alter the fact that certain languages are far more present in daily home life conversation than others. English is most used in government between its official status and it allows all eleven to link.
Where this sits in the Register
Written by the Linguasphere desk. Classification data referred to here comes from the Linguasphere Register — see sources and attribution.