Romance-speaking Africa

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Romance-speaking African countries
Official languages French, Portuguese and Spanish
Member states 27
Romance languages in Africa

Romance-speaking 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.

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.

Contents

[edit] French language

Main article: Francophonie
See also: French language in Africa

The following is a list of the Sub-Saharan African countries where French or African French is spoken.[2][3]

[edit] Portuguese language

Main articles: Lusophone and Community of Portuguese Language Countries

African countries where Portuguese ( African Portuguese varieties) is spoken:[2]

Portuguese territories, geographically located in Africa, where Portuguese is spoken

[edit] Spanish language

Sub-Saharan African countries where Spanish or African Spanish is spoken:[2]

Spain territories in Africa (official language):

[edit] French and Spanish in North Africa

In North Africa there are countries where French or Spanish are spoken, but they are neither the main nor the official languages:

[edit] Italian language

 Eritrea,  Ethiopia,  Libya, and  Somalia conserve Italian as a colonial legacy; Somalia had Italian as its cultural language in universities up to 1991; however, the Italian language remains unknown to over 95% of the population. In Libya, Italians were forced to leave the country after its independence.

In all of these countries, the only one that most preserves Italian is Eritrea, that 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] Other countries that also preserve Italian are Libya and Somalia; Italian remains an important language in the education and economic sectors in Libya, although Arabic becomes the sole official language of the country when dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi ruled; Italian remains spoken as a second language by the elderly and educated in Somalia and is also used as one of second languages in the new Federal Government of Somalia.[5][6]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Unión Latina". Retrieved 2010-02-10. 
  2. ^ a b c "CIA - The World Factbook -- Field Listing - Languages". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2008-11-14. 
  3. ^ Population Reference Bureau. "2007 World Population Data Sheet" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-08-16. 
  4. ^ (Italian)Scuola Italiana di Asmara (in Italian)
  5. ^ According to article 7 of The Transitional Federal Charter of the Somali Republic: The official languages of the Somali Republic shall be Somali (Maay and Maxaatiri) and Arabic. The second languages of the Transitional Federal Government shall be English and Italian.
  6. ^ Diana Briton Putman, Mohamood Cabdi Noor, The Somalis: their history and culture, (Center for Applied Linguistics: 1993), p. 15.: "Somalis speak Somali. Many people also speak Arabic, and educated Somalis usually speak either English or Italian as well. Swahili may also be spoken in coastal areas near Kenya."
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