What Is The Most Common Language Spoken In Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara Desert spans thousands of miles across Africa and the Middle East. Consequently, various regional groups and tribes use different languages and dialects in their day-to-day lives.
Therefore, if you’ve never been there, you might wonder how to identify which language people are speaking.

In this article, we will examine the most common languages spoken in the Sahara and explore how you can use this knowledge to learn more about the region.

Arabic

The Arabic language is the one of the most common languages spoken in the Sahara.

It was brought over by colonial Europeans, and has since become the unifying language of the region.

The Arabic word for Sahara means desert in English, which shows how much of a major part this language plays in this vast desert.

There are many other languages spoken in sub-Saharan Africa, but Arabic is one of the most dominant ones because it holds so much power and influence.

Berber

Another common language spoken in North Africa and West Africa is Berber. It falls under the larger language group of Nilo-Saharan and has over 20 million speakers. Moreover, the Daju Language Group, which includes Berber, has been identified as an ancestral language by UNESCO.

This group of languages is mainly found within Sub-Saharan African countries such as Cape Verde, Niger, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan and Mali.

There are many different indigenous languages that fall under this category including Mande languages that come from Upper Guinea like Songhai and Senufo.

Tamashek

Tamashek, also known as Tuareg, Tamajeq and Tamachen, is a language from the Nilo-Saharan family. It is spoken mostly in Mali and Niger.

The number of Tamashek speakers varies depending on who you ask. For instance, estimates range between 1 million and 2 million fluent speakers.

Some linguists believe that it could rank among the most spoken African languages if they counted all speakers, although only an estimated 10% speak it fluently. It serves as one of the national languages in Mali and Niger and belongs to the Niger-Congo language group.

French

French is also spoken in the Sahara. It serves as the official language of Côte d’Ivoire and Algeria and functions as a major second language in the Sahara.

There are a number of countries that use this language as their national language, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa (DRC), Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The people in the Sahara often speak more than one language.  Colonization by France since the late 1800s in many parts of Africa and its former colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands led to significant cultural exchange, resulting in the adoption of new words from European languages into French.

English

The common languages spoken in the sahara are Arabic, with a little French and English thrown in for good measure.

The English spoken in the sahara is a lot different than the typical American or British dialect.

You’ll find that many words are spelled and pronounced differently from what you’re used to. Additionally, one of the most difficult aspects of speaking English in the Sahara is understanding idiomatic expressions and proverbs, which can vary wildly from region to region. Consequently, you will often need to ask for clarification about an expression or proverb to understand its meaning.

For example, if someone says The lion has left its cave, don’t worry – this doesn’t mean that lions are typically found in caves.

In this case, the person might be talking about a lazy person who has finally decided to get up and start doing something instead of laying around all day.

Other  Native Languages Spoken in the Sahara

Many native languages are spoken in the area, and the Nilo-Saharan language family also appears in the region.

The linguistic diversity of Saharan countries and their close proximity often lead to individuals speaking three or four different languages. Moreover, the most common native language spoken in the Sahara region is Hausa, which is prevalent in Nigeria, Niger, and Chad.

It closely relates to Fulani, spoken throughout West Africa. Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya use Arabic as their official languages and also have widely used indigenous Berber dialects among both rural and urban populations. Are you in search of the best Arabic translator?

The number of languages and dialects spoken in the Sahara is staggering. For instance, the range includes the Indo-European language Wolof, mainly spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. Additionally, people widely use Darija across North Africa, including Morocco. Furthermore, the region features various dialects of Arabic.

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