Language · Atlantic-Congo
Tswana
Setswana – its own name
Official or co-official in 3 countries. Listed in 4 countries.
Endangerment: not endangered according to Glottolog (AES, CC BY 4.0)
- Speakers (estimate)
- c. 6.5 million
- sum over countries per CLDR, including second-language users
- Script
- Latin
Place in the family tree
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Bantu
- East Bantu
- Southern Bantu
- Nuclear Southern Bantu
- Dimsuffix Southern Bantu
- Sotho-Tswana (S.30)
- Western Sotho-Tswana
- Central Sotho-Tswana
- Tswana
Nodes of the Glottolog tree (Glottolog, CC BY 4.0).
Where it is spoken
- Co-official 3
- Minority 1
Co-official
-
South Africa
8.2%
5.0 million
The most common home language in North West.
Legal basis: Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Act, 2023 (Act No. 3 of 2023) – Government Gazette No. 49041, 27 July 2023, s. 1
- Botswana 62% 1.5 million
-
Zimbabwe
0.2%
38 thousand
Legal basis: Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013), s. 6(1) – Constitute Project, English translation
Minority
- Namibia 0.6% 16 thousand