Languages of Chad
| Part of a series on the |
| Culture of Chad |
|---|
 |
| History |
| People |
| Languages |
| Cuisine |
| Religion |
| Art |
| Literature |
| Music |
| Sport |
Chad has two official languages, French and Modern Standard Arabic, and over 120 indigenous languages. A vernacular version of Arabic, Chadian Arabic, is a lingua franca and the language of commerce, spoken by 40-60% of the population.[1] The two official languages have fewer speakers than Chadian Arabic.[citation needed] Standard Arabic is spoken by around 615,000 speakers.[2] French is widely spoken in the main cities such as N'Djamena and by most men in the south of the country. Most schooling is in French.[3] The language with the most first-language speakers is probably Ngambay, with around one million speakers.[4]
Chad submitted an application to join the Arab League as a member state on 25 March 2014, which is still pending.[5]
Chadian Sign Language is actually Nigerian Sign Language, a dialect of American Sign Language; Andrew Foster introduced ASL in the 1960s, and Chadian teachers for the deaf train in Nigeria.
Niger–Congo languages
Nilo-Saharan languages
- Maban languages
- Fur languages
- Saharan languages
- Bongo–Bagirmi languages (Central Sudanic)
- Sinyar
- Eastern Sudanic languages
Afro-Asiatic languages
(Ethnologue lists 54 Chadic languages in Chad altogether, many of them small.)
Creole languages
Unclassified languages
- Laal (749, SIL 2000)
References
- ^ https://www.graphicmaps.com/chad/languages
- ^ https://www.graphicmaps.com/chad/languages
- ^ "International Schools in Chad".
- ^ Keegan, John M. (2017). "Sara Bagirmi Languages Project".
- ^ Middle East Monitor: South Sudan and Chad apply to join the Arab League, 12 April 2014, retrieved 6 May 2017