Africa EENI Global Business School

Afro-Asiatic Languages in Africa



Hausa, Oromo, Somali, Tigrinya, Kabyle, Tamazight (Afro-Asiatic Languages) Doctorate

EENI Commitment to the African Development: empowerment of the African Languages - African languages

Afro-Asiatic Languages (Camito-Semitic) in Africa

The Afro-Asian languages (Camito-Semitic) comprise more than 300 languages and dialects; more than 350 million people speak the Afro-Asian languages.

African Regions (Afro-Asiatic Languages):

  1. West Africa and the Sahel
  2. The Maghreb and North Africa
  3. The Horn of Africa

The main branches of the Afro-Asiatic Languages are:

  1. Berber (Kabyle, Tamazight)
  2. Cushitic (Oromo, Somali)
  3. Semitic (Amharic, Tigrinya)
  4. Egyptian
  5. Chadic (Hausa)
  6. Omotic

Arabic is the most spoken Afro-Asian language (290 million people).

Other Afro-Asiatic spoken languages in Africa are:

Hausa (Chadic branch) is a dominant language in the North of Nigeria, in Ghana and in the south of Niger (56% of the Nigerien population), Hausa is spoken as the first language by more than 27 million people and is used as a lingua franca for 20 million people in West Africa and the Sahel

Oromo (Cushitic branch), spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya by 33 million people.

Amharic (Semitic branch), spoken in Ethiopia, with more than 25 million native speakers as well as many Ethiopians who speak it as a second language.

Somali (Cushitic branch), spoken by 15 million people in Somalia, Djibouti​, east of Ethiopia and the north-east of Kenya

Tigrinya (Semitic branch), spoken by 7 million people in Eritrea and Ethiopia

Kabyle (Berber branch), is spoken by 5 million people in Algeria.

Tamazight of the Central Atlas (Berber branch), spoken by 2,5 million people in Morocco

Business in Africa (Spanish) Lenguas afroasiáticas Trade and Business in Africa (French) Langues afro-asiatiques Business in Africa (Portuguese) Línguas afro-asiáticas

Abomey-Calavi (Benin) Trade Business

  1. Masters: Business in Africa
  2. Doctorate in African Business


(c) Africa - EENI Global Business School