This website contains information about African Languages, and other African Language related resources. Currently mostly only the South African languages are covered, as well as Kiswahili and Cilubà.

It is estimated that there are between 2000 and 3000 languages spoken on the African continent, with possibly as many as 8000 dialects. African languages are divided into four major language families, as well as Austronesian. These are shown in the image below (image © Mark Dingemanse of vormdicht).

• Afro-Asiatic • Nilo-Saharan • Niger-Kordofanian • Khoi-San • Austronesian

Languages

Swahili

Kiswahili (Swahili)
   Swahili - English Dictionary | Kamusi ya Kiswahili - Kiingereza
   Sheng - English Lexicon | Msamiati wa Sheng - Kiingereza

South African languages

During Apartheid, South Africa had 2 official languages, English and Afrikaans. After Apartheid officially ended in 1994, the new constitution gave official status to 11 languages; English, Afrikaans, and 9 indigenous African languages. English is the only one of the official South African languages which is not indigenous.

Sotho:
   Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho; Sepedi)
        Northern Sotho - English Dictionary | Pukuntšu ya Sesotho sa Leboa - Seisimane
        Explanatory Sesotho sa Leboa Dictionary | Pukuntšutlhaloši ya Sesotho sa Leboa
   Sesotho (Southern Sotho)
   Setswana
Nguni:
   isiZulu (Zulu)
   isiXhosa (Xhosa)
   isiNdebele (Ndebele)
   SiSwati (Swati)
Tshivenḓa (Venda)
Xitsonga (Tsonga)
Afrikaans
South African English

Tshivenḓa short story and two poems, published with permission from the author, Mbodi Khorombi:
        Lushaka lwo senwaho
        Zwanda zwi a tanzwana
        Tshilamba u vhudzwa ndi tshilila u vhona
South African Language Statistics.
Overall statistics of South African languages (Census 2001 results).
Meanings of place names in South Africa.
Wondering where some of those strange new difficult to pronounce place names come from, or what some of the other African place names mean? Look here for explanations.
Meanings of commonly used phrases/expressions, such as "Batho Pele", "Ya Mampela" etc.

Cilubà

Cilubà A beautiful tone language with a rich and complex verbal morphology, spoken in the heart of Africa.

Kalenjin

Kalenjin - English Dictionary

TLex (TshwaneLex) Dictionary Writing System
TshwaneLex is a professional commercial software application for the compilation of dictionaries. TshwaneLex supports Unicode throughout, allowing it to handle virtually all of the world's languages, and includes features such as immediate article preview, customisable DTD, automatic cross-reference tracking, automated lemma reversal, online and electronic dictionary modules, export to MS Word format, integrated Corpus Query System, and teamwork (network) support. TshwaneLex contains many features designed to optimize the process of compiling dictionaries for both lexicography teams and individual compilers, and to assist dictionary compilers in producing more consistent, quality dictionaries. TshwaneLex includes customizations for African languages.