When did Africa have written language?
‘2 Yet writing – in the form of Egyptian hieroglyphs – emerged in Africa from the 4th century BCE. In Ethiopia, the Ethiopic script was developed in the 4th century CE, and in Sudan the Meroïtic script was created about 180 BCE. The Tifinagh script is of particular importance for West Africa.
How many written languages are in Africa?
With anywhere between 1000 and 2000 languages, Africa is home to approximately one-third of the world’s languages. The diversity of Africa’s languages is evidenced by their populations. In total, there are at least 75 languages in Africa which have more than one million speakers.
What is Africa first language?
Top 10 Most Popular African Languages
- SWAHILI. The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers.
- AMHARIC. Amharic is one of the main languages spoken in Ethiopia by over 20 million speakers.
- YORUBA.
- OROMO.
- Hausa.
- IGBO.
- ZULU.
- SHONA.
What is an example of written language?
The Iliad by Homer is an example of how written language allowed people to record stories. Acronyms, such as LOL which stands for laughing out loud, is part of written language.
What languages were spoken in ancient Africa?
Swahili is the most spoken language in Africa, with over 100 million speakers. It is a Bantu language believed to have originated from other languages, mainly Arabic, due to historical interactions between Arabs from the Middle East and East Africans .
What is the oldest language ever discovered?
5 Answers. Greek has a documented history of 3,400 years, the longest of any single natural language in the Indo-European language family. It is also one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages, with fragmentary records in Mycenaean dating back to the 15th or 14th century BC, making it the world’s oldest recorded living language.