Languages of Lesotho
See language map.Kingdom of Lesotho. Formerly Basutoland. 1,981,000. National or official languages: Southern Sotho, English. Literacy rate: 59%–74%. Immigrant languages: Afrikaans. Also includes languages of France, India, Pakistan. Information mainly from J. Bendor-Samuel and Hartell 1989. Blind population: 3,000 (1982 WCE). Deaf institutions: 1. The number of individual languages listed for Lesotho is 5. Of those, all are living languages.
| English | [eng]
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
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| Phuthi | [ssw]
43,000 in Lesotho (2002).
Classification: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Nguni (S.40)
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| Sotho, Southern | [sot]
1,770,000 in Lesotho (Johnstone and Mandryk 2001). Population total all countries: 6,024,000. Also in Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland.
Alternate names: Sesotho, Sisutho, Souto, Suthu, Suto.
Dialects: Northern Sotho, [nso] and Tswana [tsn] are inherently intelligible but have generally been considered separate languages.
Classification: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Sotho-Tswana (S.30), Sotho, Southern
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| Xhosa | [xho]
18,000 in Lesotho (Johnstone 1993). Sebapala Valley, villages near Tosing; Tele Valley, Sinxondo.
Classification: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Nguni (S.40)
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| Zulu | [zul]
248,000 in Lesotho (1993). Butha-Buthe District, Caledonspoort Border Post.
Classification: Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, S, Nguni (S.40)
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