by Hammed Sonny | Jan 14, 2026 | Multilingualism
Birmingham is one of the UK’s largest cities, and has a total population of 1.1 million people. Unsurprisingly, the most widely spoken language in the city is English, which is spoken by 866,833 people or 84.7% of the city’s total population. However, according to the 2011 census, there are also many foreign languages spoken in Birmingham, such as Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, and Pakistani Pahari to name a few.
Urdu
The Urdu language is the most widely spoken foreign language in Birmingham. Urdu is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family and is spoken globally by 170 million speakers.
In total, Urdu is spoken by 29,403 people in the city and is also the fourth most widely spoken foreign language in the UK, spoken by an estimated 269,000 people. After the partition of India in 1947, Urdu speakers migrated to the UK from India and Pakistan, with many people settling in the West Midlands in areas such as Birmingham. There are several radio stations and TV stations in the UK which broadcast in Urdu, one of which, Radio XL, is based in Birmingham.
Punjabi
The Punjabi language, part of the Indo-Aryan language family, is spoken by 21,166 people in Birmingham, comprising 2.07% of the population in the city. In addition to the many speakers of the Punjabi language in Birmingham, 68,525 people speak Punjabi in London 273,000 people in total speak the language in the UK, making it the second most widely spoken foreign language in the country. A significant number of Punjabi speakers immigrated to the West Midlands, primarily Birmingham, in the late 1940s and 1950s after the expansion of the UK citizenship laws in the Commonwealth. Many also came to Birmingham in the 1970s after the expulsion of all Asian people in Uganda by Idi Amin.
Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya)
Bengali, also known as Bangla, is a member of the Indo-Aryan language family. The language, as well as the dialects of Sylheti and Chatgaya, are spoken by 14,718 people in Birmingham, comprising 1.44% of the city’s population. Two Bengali dialects, known as Sylheti and Chatgaya, are also spoken by people in Birmingham who have been classified in the 2011 census as Bengali speakers. Sylheti and Chatgaya are distinct from the Bengali language as both dialects use a writing system called the Bengal-Assamese script, whereas Bengali utilises the Bengali script. Whilst Sylheti is regarded as a mutually intelligible dialect of Bengali, Chatgaya is not considered to be mutually intelligible with Bengali. Outside of Birmingham, the Bengali language is spoken by 114,267 people in London and by 221,403 people in the UK.
Pakistani Pahari
Pakistani Pahari, also known as Pahari-Pothwari, is an Indo-Aryan language that is spoken by 10,827 people in Birmingham, or around 1.06% of the city’s total population. The language is written using the Naskh Arabic script and is primarily spoken by people who practise the Islamic faith. In the context of the wider UK, Pahari-Pothwari is classified in the 2011 census as part of the Punjabi language, which is spoken by 273,000 people in the UK.
Polish
Polish is a Slavic language that is part of the Indo-European language family and is spoken by an estimated total of 8,952 people in Birmingham, which accounts for 0.87% of the city’s total population. There are also 147,816 speakers of the Polish language in London, and the language is also the second most widely spoken foreign language in the UK, spoken by a total of 546,000 people. The use of the Polish language in Birmingham, as well as the rest of the UK, increased when Poland became part of the EU in 2004, and more Polish people migrated to live and work in the country.
Somali
Somali is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family and is the native language of Somalia, East Africa. Within large cities such as Birmingham, the Somali community is considerably large, with an estimated 35,000 people of Somali heritage living within the West Midlands city. An exact number of speakers cannot be pinpointed but the 2011 census tells us that Somali accounts for around 0.7% of Birmingham’s population.
The UK is home to the largest Somali population in Europe, with many of the east African natives migrating to the UK, in particular around times of war in search of comfortable living and stable employment. An increase in migrants was also prevalent during the civil war with the arrival of people seeking refuge from their country.
Arabic
Arabic is an incredibly versatile language, being the official language of over 20 different countries, this makes the total number of native speakers around 375 million. The Arabic community is vast within Birmingham, with a high concentration of people coming from middle eastern countries. Large numbers of Arabic speakers in Birmingham have been here since birth, having adopted their native tongue as a first language. Similarly, many are bilingual and speak it fluently alongside English. The Arabic community are very keen to gel with society, as they continually strive to promote their culture. Birmingham plays a huge part in the involvement of the Arab British Centre, with an array of insightful and exciting events celebrating the Arab culture and community.
Pashto
The Pashto language makes up part of the Indo-Iranian language family, posing as the official language of Afghanistan. British Afghans within the United Kingdom, account for around 79,000 people with a large proportion of these living and working in Birmingham. This means that the Pashto language is rife in the city, with the census telling us that 0.6% of Birmingham’s population being native Pashto speakers.
Gujarati
Gujarati is a native Indian language, also part of the Indo-Aryan web of dialects. The Indian community is large and continues to grow within Birmingham, although present throughout most of the city, a large proportion of the community live in areas to the west. Gujarati is perhaps less common than languages like Urdu and Bengali, but many native speakers still live and work around Birmingham. In fact, a lot of Gujarati speakers are non-proficient in English, meaning the requirement for Gujarati interpreters is high.
Persian
Persian, also known as Farsi, is an official language of many countries. Its prevalence within the UK has evolved over the years, with the arrival of migrants looking for employment and safe living. Whilst we can’t be sure of exacting numbers, the Persian community in Birmingham makes up a considerable amount of the population. A lot of Persian speakers are also fluent in English, with many being born into the UK. As the growth of the Persian community continues, Birmingham continues to house an extensively large diversity of citizens.
Final Thoughts
Birmingham is perhaps one of the most linguistically diverse cities in the UK, with a population of well over 1 million citizens. The varying array of dialects around the city provides an assortment of cultural statuses. Whilst a lot of foreign language speakers also know English to a certain degree, some do not. This means that certain communication barriers exist, meaning the need for interpreters is high. Should you require an interpreter for any of the languages above, visit Crystal Clear Translation for a quote.
by Hammed Sonny | Jul 19, 2025 | Languages
By Phoebe Harrison
The study of our languages’ origins and histories is one that has been ongoing for hundreds of years, though in recent times modern anthropological evidence and new ways of thinking have made it easier to define and categorise individual languages. Part of this categorisation is understanding to which language ‘family’ a specific tongue belongs – though there are an estimated 142 different families, the most widely spoken languages (in terms of geographical reach and speakers) belong to six ‘main’ families – though, staggeringly, these six groups only account for two thirds of the world’s languages. These are the major language families, as of 2021.
Indo-European
With over 445 ‘members’ and 3.29 billion speakers worldwide, the Indo-European language family is one of the most prominent. Indo-European refers to the languages spoken across most of Europe together with those spoken in parts of India and the Iranian plateau. What ‘relates’ these different languages is the common ancestor language known by linguists as Proto-Indo-European (‘PIE’). The accepted hypothesis is that PIE existed as a single language between 4000 and 2500 BC, with its speakers theorized to have been located mostly around the Pontic-Caspian steppe, gradually becoming isolated from each other through Indo-European migration, going on to form their own separate individual language ‘branches’ of the family tree. There are ten main branches of Indo European:
- Anatolian – Now extinct, Anatolian languages were spoken across Turkey and Syria between 1000 and 2000BC. The best-known member of this group is Hittite (the language of the empire of the same name), a language that has been important to many linguistic scholars in the development of Indo-European studies.
- Indo–Iranian – Comprising of two main ‘sub-branches’ – Indo-Aryan and Iranian – ‘Indo-Iranian’ refers to the languages spoken across southwestern and southern Asia by around 1 billion people. The most well-known languages in this group are Persian (Farsi and Dari), Pashto, Kurdish, Hindi, and Bengali.
- Greek – Despite many changes in dialect, Greek is fairly unique as it has existed as a single language throughout history, spoken in Greece from around 1600BC onwards, though probably even earlier.
- Italic – The most significant language of the Italic branch is Latin, originally the speech of Ancient Rome and the father of the Romance languages; namely, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, amongst others.
- Germanic – Italic’s northern ‘neighbours’, the Germanic languages originated amongst the Germanic tribes populating southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany around 1000 BC. Tribal migration across Europe would eventually spawn German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and (of course), English.
- Armenian – Much like Greek, Armenian has existed as one single language. The earliest speakers of Armenian resided in what is now modern-day Armenia and Turkey as early as 600 BC.
- Albanian – Though its origins and place in the Indo-European family are slightly unclear, Albanian (the language of modern-day Albania) is thought to be a continuation of a lesser-known language of the Balkan Peninsula. Albanian as we know it became known around the 15th
- Tocharian – Also now extinct, the Tocharian languages were spoken in north-western China during the 1st millennium BC. Existing as an eastern and western dialect, scholars have studied the few surviving documents in the language and linked it to Celtic and Italic languages.
- Celtic – Celtic languages were widely spoken across Europe by numerous tribes prior to the ‘Common Era’ and Christianisation of Europe. Most of our knowledge of the Celtic branch comes from its surviving members, the insular languages of Irish and Welsh.
- Balto-Slavic – Last but not least, the grouping of ‘Baltic’ and ‘Slavic’ languages together is controversial, yet the similarities between the two groups ultimately outweigh the differences. Baltic and Slavic tribes inhabited large swathes of Eastern Europe from the beginning of the Common Era, and following Slavic migration in the fifth century, languages like Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, the ‘Serbo-Croatian’ languages, Czech, Lithuanian, Latvian, Slovenian, and Macedonian appeared.
Sino-Tibetan
The other ‘dominant’ language family of the main six in terms of speakers, ‘Sino-Tibetan’ comprises over 400 languages, spoken across South and East Asia, with approximately 1.4 billion speakers in total. Because of its distribution over such a wide area, the location of Sino-Tibetan’s ‘homeland’ is disputed, though there several theories on the subject. The most widely accepted is that the family originated amongst the Yangshao culture and its peoples who resided near the Yellow River basin around 7000BC in what is modern-day China. As is always the case, later migration caused the ancestor language to split into different branches. These modern-day branches are:
- Sinitic – The Sinitic language branch of the Sino-Tibetan family refers to the languages spoken in China and the island of Taiwan, as well as in certain other areas of Southeast Asia. The Sinitic branch can be divided into several main languages, the most prominent being Mandarin, Wu, Xiang, and Yue (also known as Cantonese).
- Tibeto-Burman – The Tibeto-Burman branch languages are those spoken primarily in Tibet, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), across the Himalayas and the regions of Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, with other speakers dispersed across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The main Tibeto-Burman languages are Burmese, Tibetan, and Dzongkha.
Afro-Asiatic
Also known as Afrasian or Hamito-Semitic, Afro-Asiatic is a language family with around 300 members and 583 million speakers. Languages in this family are spoken in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with additional speakers scattered across Western Asia. The origins of Afro-Asiatic are generally presumed to date back to 15,000-10,000 BC, making it one of the more ancient language families. Though there is much debate over the specific geographical origins of the family, it has been hypothesised to have been spoken by those living around the Sahara in around 5000BC, with gradual migration causing the originator language to split into several branches. These branches are:
- Semitic – The Semitic languages are spoken across North Africa and Southwest Asia. The most prominent languages in this branch are Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Tigrinya.
- Berber – Also known as the Amazigh languages, Berber is spoken by the people of the same name who are considered to be the indigenous peoples of North Africa, with large populations in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. The main Berber languages are Tachelit, Tamazight, Kabyle, Tarifit, and Tachawit.
- Egyptian – Now extinct (yet heavily documented), Egyptian was spoken by the peoples of Ancient Egypt, with the country’s modern population speaking mostly Arabic. It is one of the oldest recorded languages.
- Cushitic – Languages belonging to the Cushitic family are spoken primarily within the Horn of Africa. In terms of speakers, the largest Cushitic languages are Oromo, Somali, Beja, Sidamo, and Afar.
- Omotic – Omotic languages are those spoken in southwestern Ethiopia, divided into North and South Omotic. Some of the languages within this subdivision are Aari, Hamer-Banna, Karo, and Dime.
- Chadic – The languages known as ‘Chadic’ are spoken across the Sahel region of Africa (the area stretching from the northern Sahara to the Sudanian savannah), predominately in Niger, Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, and parts of Cameroon. This branch includes Hausa, Ngas, and Kamwe.
Niger-Congo
Staying in Africa, the Niger-Congo language family comprises over 1,535 languages spoken by 571 million people, primarily across the sub-Saharan region of the continent. Approximately 85% of the African population (around 600 million people) are thought to speak a language belonging to the Niger-Congo family. Linguists speculate that the Niger-Congo languages originate from the area where the Niger and Benue rivers convene. Following Bantu expansion across West and Central Africa, Niger-Congo, like the other language families, began to split into smaller language branches. Some of the principal branches are:
- Mande – Mande languages are those spoken in West Africa by the Mandé people, and include Mandinka, Maninka, Soninke, Bambara, and Kepelle.
- Kordofanian – Referring to the languages spoken in the Nuba mountains of the Kurdufan, Sudan, the Kordofanian languages are Heiban, Talodi, Rashad, and Katla.
- Atlantic – Also known as ‘West Atlantic’, members of this language branch are spoken along the Atlantic Coast of Africa, and include languages such as Fula, Wolof, and Diola.
- Ijoid – The smallest branch of the Niger-Congo family, Ijoid languages can be found across the Niger river delta region of Nigeria. They include Kalabari, Okrika, and Ibani
- Kru – Spoken across the forest regions of the Ivory Coast and in southern Liberia, the Kru languages include Kuwaa and Grebo.
- Gur – Spoken by around 20 million people across the savanna regions of Africa, the Gur languages include Moore, Gurma, Gurenne, and Dagbani.
- Adamawa-Ubangi – Another branch of the ‘savanna’ languages, this language branch includes Mumuye and Tupuri.
- Kwa – Spoken across the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Togo, the Kwa languages include Ga–Dangme and Na-Togo
- Benue-Congo – The largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family, the Benue-Congo languages cover most of Sub-Saharan Africa and have over 500 million speakers. The branch includes Nupe, Gbagyi, Ebira, Zula, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Igbo.
Austronesian
Austronesian is a language family whose members are spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). There are over 1,225 languages within this family , spread across approximately 327 million speakers. The Urheimat (place of origin) of the Austronesian family is thought to be the main island of Taiwan, known also as ‘Formosa’, with general migration outwards happening around 6,000 years ago, causing Proto-Austronesian to divide into smaller branches. The main branches in the Austronesian language family are:
- Malayo-Polynesian – separated into a western and eastern branch, the ‘Malayo- Polynesian’ languages are those spoken predominately across the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. They include Javanese, Malay, Tagalog, Samoan, and Hawaiian.
- Formosan – The Formosan languages refer to those spoken by the indigenous people of Taiwan. Some of these languages include Amis, Atayal, and Bunun.
Trans-New Guinea
The smallest of the major language families in terms of speakers, the Trans-New Guinea family is made up of the languages spoken in New Guinea and its neighbouring islands, with around 4 million speakers of 477 languages. Though its status and classification are still somewhat contested, there are some generally widely-agreed upon hypotheses regarding the family and its origins. One general theory is that Proto-Trans New Guinea originated in the northern parts of Papua New Guinea and spread as a result of migration around 4,000 years ago. Most TNG languages are only spoken by a few thousand people, with only seven of these spoken by over 10,000. The main languages in the TNG family (in terms of speakers) are Melpa, Kuman, Enga, Huli, Western Dani, Makasae, and Ekari.
Concluding Thoughts
Though they may seem to cover most of the known world, the six main language families in this list only scratch the surface of our linguistic geography and history, with over 136 more families out there. In short, as a species we are more linguistically diverse than most people will ever realise.
If you or someone you know requires translation or interpretation services in any language, visit us here at Crystal Clear Translation for a quote.
by Hammed Sonny | Feb 25, 2025 | Multilingualism, Uncategorised
Written By Phoebe Harrison
Though everyone has a different reason for learning another language, many people choose to do so for job purposes. This is not unsensible, as it is a universally acknowledged truth that having more than one language under the belt makes any CV ten times more attractive to potential employers, giving multilingual people that much-needed edge in a crowded job-hunting market. If you fall into the category of ‘bilingual people considering their job options’, then this list will hopefully enlighten you as to what choices you have, career-wise.
Translator
Perhaps the most obvious job on the list, working as a translator involves translating one written language into the other while retaining the meaning and tone of the original text. A diverse career, translation work can be found in across many sectors, such as marketing, science, and entertainment. Though a great deal of translation work is freelance, there are many positions that require more long-term contract-based roles, especially if working in localisation or legal circles.
Qualifications
Though officially a degree or equivalent certificate is not always required to be a translator (fluency and the ability to write in the target language is enough), having certain qualifications will increase your chances of finding work. Some common qualifications/degrees include:
- Modern Languages Degree
- Translation Studies or a Postgraduate Degree in Translation
- Business, Law, or Science Degrees alongside Languages
- CIOL Level 7 Diploma of Translation
If you have none of the above, it is still possible to gain relevant experience through volunteering translation services with organisations like Translators Without Borders, or simply providing a portfolio of any relevant past translation work.
Salary and Working Hours
If working as a freelance translator, your hours will be flexible and will largely suit you and your schedule, but it is necessary to be able to keep up with deadlines. Working as an in-house translator will normally entail a standard 9-5 workday.
Because of the nature of the job, translator salaries vary massively. Freelance rates are usually determined based on the word count of the translations provided as well as document type – more experienced freelancers will be able to set higher rates. Depending on your experience and what material you are translating as an ‘in house’ translator, you could be paid very well or a very basic fee – dealing with important documents (such as medical and legal items) or translating from ‘rarer’ languages will usually warrant higher rates of pay.
Interpreter
The ‘spoken’ side of translation, interpretation is the process of listening to, understanding, and memorising content in one language and then reproducing it in another. There are different types of interpreting jobs: conference, business, and public service. Though more consistent than written translation, the majority of interpreting roles are usually also freelance in nature.
Qualifications
Though having any proven experience of interpreting work is a bonus, most employers will prefer candidates with formal qualifications, as interpretation jobs often require industry specific knowledge – instruction in interpreting will often cover different areas, such as medical and legal translation. Some of the main interpreting degrees and diplomas include:
- Modern Languages Degree
- Postgraduate Interpreting/Translation Studies
- Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI)
Salary and Working Hours
As with translation, interpretation salaries and working hours vary depending on the content you are interpreting, the company you are working for, and your level of experience. Freelance hours are flexible and most ‘in house’ jobs will usually adhere to standard business hours, However, interpreting positions related to medical care or police procedures will often require the translator to be available on demand regardless of the hour.
Salary also changes depending on your status and experience – experienced freelancers can set higher rates that correspond with minutes spent interpreting. Working environments like large-scale conferences will often pay better, and the higher paying interpreting jobs are more readily available in the private sector and abroad.
Teacher (MFL or EFL)
A popular (and very stable) job choice amongst language graduates, teaching a foreign language from a secondary level onwards is a very rewarding job that pays comparatively well. Alternatively, you may also choose to teach English as a foreign language (EFL) while abroad in a country where your other language is spoken – there are many schemes that allow this, such as British Council and TEFL.
Qualifications
To work as a secondary school teacher in England and Wales, it is necessary to acquire Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) by completing Teacher Training – it is uncommon that a school will accept anyone without QTS. It is also obligatory to have a degree in Modern Languages or at least fluency, in some cases. The two main ways of acquiring teacher status are:
- Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE)
- Salaried Teacher Training (Teach First, School Direct etc.)
Qualifications for working as a teacher abroad will vary depending on country but working via a British-led scheme will require either a degree in your chosen language or a certificate of different levels of fluency.
Salary and Working Hours
Newly qualified teachers will earn around £25, 714, which will rise in increments. Experienced teachers can move up in the role and increase their pay, with principal teacher and head teacher roles paying up to £100,000 per year.
Most teachers work 39 weeks a year with paid holidays. The average workday may vary slightly depending on the school, but general teaching hours range from 8:30am to 3:30/4:00 pm. It is worth noting that most teachers stay behind after teaching is finished to complete other duties such as marking work or syllabus preparation.
Consultant
A role taking many different forms, consultants are required to offer advice and expertise to organisations to help them improve their overall performance in terms of management, profitability, strategy, and operations. As most large businesses operate with the international market in mind, potential employees with a knowledge of foreign languages and cultures are seen as an important asset to have.
Qualifications
Most consultancy careers are only open to graduates (of any subject), but school leavers with proven prior experience in business may also often be eligible. Though many types of work experience are attractive, having prior involvement in internships or business courses is a bonus for anyone considering a career in consultancy – for linguists, any occasion of having worked abroad in any company will look particularly promising.
Salary and Working Hours
Depending on your position of seniority, consultants can end up earning more than £120,000 annually with high-end roles, but an average junior salary is between £25-30,000.
Consultant working hours can often be long and demanding, regularly moving outside of the standard 9-5 rota – these hours will often change depending on which project you are working on.
Humanitarian/Aid Worker
A challenging but rewarding endeavour, having knowledge of a foreign language may make you an ideal candidate for humanitarian work. Because many humanitarian organisations work on an international scale, recruiters actively seek out those with the ability to speak the languages of countries that are in need.
Qualifications
Degrees are not obligatory, but are preferred, particularly in anything relating to international development. Employers in international aid and development also value prior relevant work experience which can include volunteering with charities, fundraising, and marketing. From a language viewpoint, there are many organisations, such as Translators Without Borders, who are ideal for language-related volunteer work in this sector.
Salary and Working Hours
Typical starter salaries with UK-based NGOs start around £18-25,000 per year depending on location and experience. Overseas positions will pay slightly higher, ranging from £21-37,000 a year, with salary dependent on specific responsibilities and base country.
Working hours for overseas positions are impossible to predict, especially when working in response to emergencies. More business-related roles based in the UK will most likely adhere to general 9-5 working hours.
Marketing/PR
A hugely diverse industry, working in marketing or public relations means co-ordinating promotional campaigns and strategies to help sell company products and services, as well as engaging with the public to improve the company’s image and reputation. Because multilingual people and language graduates in general are likely to have an interest or at least, an awareness, of foreign markets and cultures, many organisations actively seek these groups out in order to help orchestrate business on an international scale in helping to organise foreign business campaigns.
Qualifications
As with most large corporations, employment opportunities are open to anyone with a degree or prior relevant experience, in some cases. However, it is useful to have some knowledge or involvement in advertising, communications, or design.
Salary and Working Hours
The starting salary for most marketing related jobs is around £18-25,000 per year depending on experience. After gaining more experience it is possible to move to a more senior role, with pay ranging from anywhere between £40 – 100,000 per year, the latter figure being common amongst those in director roles.
Typical working hours are 9-5 from Monday to Friday, though it is highly likely that employees will be required to work some evenings or weekends when organising events or high-scale marketing campaigns.
Concluding Thoughts
This list provides a general glimpse at the opportunities available to anyone with knowledge of a foreign language, but there is a plethora of other roles out there that will benefit from the skills gained by learning another language, such as cultural sensitivity, communication skills, and an eye for accuracy and detail.
If you or anyone you know requires translation or interpretation services in any language, visit us here at Crystal Clear Translation for a quote.
by Hammed Sonny | Dec 17, 2024 | Africa
Swahili is an extremely extensive language, in order to understand it further, we have put together a guide to aid your understanding.
Swahili is a language native to the Swahili people and part of the Bantu language family.
Where is Swahili spoken?
Spanning across a vast string of regions, Swahili has official language status within Kenya and Tanzania. In addition, it is widely spoken within Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and serves as a national language. The influence of this language extends even further with Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Northern Zambia and Malawi having speakers in smaller proportions.
How many people speak Swahili?
It is estimated that between 50-150 million people speak the language either as a native tongue or a second language. The exact number is not known, it varies greatly and is a matter of debate.
People who speak Swahili as their soul language are known as Waswahili people.
Swahili Origins
Research has found that approximately 20% of the Swahili language consists of loan words. Many these are taken from Arabic, and interestingly enough the name ‘Swahili’ is in fact Arabic in itself. It first came about as a language used by Bantu tribes and from then on it spread and evolved throughout many east African regions.
It’s not just Arabic that Swahili is influenced by it has been discovered that dialects such as Malay, Portuguese and Persian also have influence.
The main Swahili dialects
There are 15 dialects within the language, however only 3 of these are considered main dialects. They vary based upon region. Standard Swahili is based upon Kiunguja .
Kiunguja- Spoken in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
Kimvita- Spoken in Kenya and Mombasa.
Kiamu- Spoken on the island of Lamu and surrounding areas.
Day to day uses
Dependent on where you find yourself, the uses of Swahili differ. For instance, places such as Kenya, Tanzania and Congo use the language for business and administration purposes- meaning that it is considered a working language. It is important to note that many of these regions also used Swahili along with English and French in educational settings.
Some interesting facts about the Swahili language
- It is thought that Swahili is the easiest African language for English speakers to learn- this is because like English, Swahili is a language without lexical tone.
- There is a hybrid English/Swahili dialect called ‘Sheng’- it originated within Nairobi amongst youths.
- The first Swahili script dates back to the 17th
Final Thoughts
We have discovered that Swahili has a rich cultural history, which spans across multiple regions. It was first introduced as a trade language and later evolved into an extremely widely spoken language throughout many regions of Africa. Although, we cannot be sure of the exact number of speakers, we can be certain that it will continue to evolve, and it will be kept rife by its ample speakers.
Do you require our services?
Should you require a translation or interpretation services, visit Crystal Clear Translation for a quote.
by Hammed Sonny | Dec 11, 2024 | Africa
Do You Know the Top 7 Languages Spoken in Guinea-Bissau?
Laying near the coast of West Africa, Guinea-Bissau is a country of rich cultural history. From the Portuguese colonisation in the 15th century to gaining their independent status in the early 1970’s, the country is home to a rich tapestry of historical events, which have aided in the development of the region.
With a population of around 1.9 million, Guinea-Bissau natives speak an assortment of languages and varying dialects, but what if the official language? What other languages are spoken? We will look at the linguistic diversity present in Guinea-Bissau and the top 7 spoken languages throughout the West African country.
Portuguese
The official language of Guinea-Bissau is Portuguese. The Portuguese language was dominant in the country during Portugal’s occupation of Guinea-Bissau, which ended in 1973 when the country unilaterally declared its independence, and after the 1974 Carnation Revolution which overthrew the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. Despite these events, the Portuguese language has remained the official language of Guinea-Bissau, although it is spoken by 167,000 people, a much smaller proportion of speakers than other languages in the country.
As well as Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique are two other African countries within which Portuguese is an official language. These countries are known as Lusophone countries and are part of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), an international organisation of countries, made up of nine member states, where Portuguese is the official language. The organisation also includes Brazil. Portugal, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
Guinea-Bissau Creole
Guinea-Bissau Creole is a Creole language based on Portuguese. Despite not being an official language, it is in fact the most spoken language- making it the lingua franca of the country. Sometimes known as Crioulo or Kiriol, the highly popular language is spoken as a first language by 15% of the Guinea-Bissau population. Increasingly more people are known to have adopted it as a second language, with statistics showing us that approximately 50% of the entire population are fluent in the tongue.
Guinea-Bissau Creole is known to be used widely throughout many official settings, including political and business sectors. As well, the strong social status of the language means it is utilised heavily in the media and more informal settings like shops.
Balanta-Kentohe
Balanta-Kentohe is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Guinea-Bissau. In total, the language is spoken by 354,000 people, who account for 26% of the country’s population. Balanta-Kentohe is one of two languages that constitute the Balanta language, the other being Balanta-Ganja, which is spoken primarily in Gambia and Senegal.The Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken by the Balanta people, who make up 30% of Guinea-Bissau’s population.
There are two dialects of Balanta-Kentohe: Nhacra (also known as Fora) and Kantohe (also known as Kentohe, Queuthoe). The Nhacra dialect of the Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken in the Oio region, located in northern Guinea-Bissau, whereas the Kantohe dialect is spoken in south-eastern and southern Guinea-Bissau, such as in the Tombali region.
Manjak
Manjak, also known as Mandjak, Manjaco or Njak, is one of the Bak languages, which are spoken primarily in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. It is part of the West Atlantic language group, a West African subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family, which, for instance, also features the Wolof and Fula languages. In Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, there are 215,000 Manjak speakers, and an estimated 356,800 Manjak speakers globally. In Guinea-Bissau, the Manjak language is spoken by 12% of the country’s population. Most of the speakers of Manjak in the country are part of the Manjak people. This ethnic group lives mainly in Guinea-Bissau, but also in Senegal, Gambia, as well as Portugal. The Manjak comprise 14% of the country’s total population. There are several dialects of the Manjak language such as Bok, Likes-Utsia, Cur, Lund, and Yu.
Fula
Making up part of the Niger-Congo web of languages, Fula is classified as the native tongue of the Fulani people in Africa. The language is not exclusive to Guinea-Bissau, with its widespread use across western and central Africa- it is prevalent within about 20 different countries. Fula is often used in more informal settings as a pose to official settings. There is no official status for the language in the country, but it is still richly spoken within the Fulani community. Within Guinea-Bissau, approximately 16% of the total population speak Fula as their first language- this accounts for an estimated 516,000 people.
Mandinka
Mandinka (also known as Mandingo) is a language spoken by the Mandinka (or Malinke) people; an ethnic group spread across West Africa who are descended from the Mali Empire. Mandinka is one of the Mande languages, which are spoken on the west coast. In Guinea-Bissau, Mandinka is spoken primarily in the north of the country and by around 154,000 people (approximately 7% the overall population), also being widely used in the Casamance region of Senegal and The Gambia, with some variants in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and Mali, numbering 1.3 million speakers worldwide as of 2016. Mandinka is a tonal language, meaning that shifts in spoken pitch indicate and distinguish grammatical and lexical meaning. Mandinka has two of these tones – either ‘high’ or ‘low’ – and uses no ‘nasal’ vowels. In terms of a writing system, the Mandinka language has three; Latin, Arabic, and N’ko. Whilst the Latin writing system and alphabet are ‘official’, the Arabic alphabet is also very widely used. In the former system, the letters v, x, z, and q are not used (the letter g is also rare) and any long vowels are written as doubled; aa, oo, ii, ee, uu. The third writing system, N’Ko, was developed by Solomana Kante in 1949 to serve as a script for all Manding languages (languages within the Mande family) in West Africa. N’Ko means I say in all Manding languages and shares some similarities with Arabic in that it is written from right to left, with letters joined at the base. In Guinea-Bissau, it is mostly used in the north-east of the country and the bordering regions in the Ivory Coast and Mali. For those curious, here are some everyday expressions in Mandinka:
I ni ke / I ni wale – Hello
Abaraka – Thank you/Blessings
Fowati koten – Goodbye
Ibe Nyaadi – How are you?
Mbe karaito – I am fine
Ntomu (name) leti – My name is…
Dasamo – breakfast
Kontongo – lunch
Simango – dinner
Papel
Also known as Pepel, Papei, Oium, or Moium, Papel is spoken by the people of the same name who live mostly in the central coastal regions of Guinea-Bissau. Papel belongs to the Bak language family, a group of languages spoken mostly in the Guinea-Bissau – Senegal region and is linguistically similar to Mankanya and Mandjak. Having 140,000 speakers globally (as of 2006), Papel is used by around 3% of Guinea-Bissau’s population. 79,000 of these speakers live in the Bissau Island region – the country’s capital – with the country’s former president João Bernardo Vieira as a member of this group. In the Bissau area, the use of Papel can be separated into two separate dialects – Biombo in the southwest of the area, and Safim in the northeast. Papel is a non-tonal language and uses a Latin – based script.
In conclusion
Despite its relatively small size, Guinea-Bissau is home to a diverse group of languages of various origins, representing multiple ethnic groups and demonstrating the (often overlooked) rich cultural and linguistic history and reality of Africa. If you require interpretation or translation of any of these languages (particularly Portuguese) or any other language-based services, visit Crystal Clear Translation for a quote to find out more.
English
Arabic
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish