Home›African Language Families›Parent Family (Classification Tree)Browse ByParent Family (Classification Tree)Parent family traces a language family back to the single reconstructed ancestor it descends from. Wikipedia notes "all Indo-European languages are descended from a single prehistoric language, linguistically reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European," spoken thousands of years before any written record. This dimension links a family back to the deeper ancestral family behind it.FactsParent Family (Classification Tree)SourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsComparisonEstimated Living LanguagesWell-attested2100 1Parent Family (Classification Tree)Filter Results13 entriesMacro-areaAllAfroasiatic: Chadic (2)Afroasiatic: Cushitic and Omotic (3)Afroasiatic: Semitic (1)Bantu Languages (3)Nilo-Saharan (1)Other Niger-Congo (6)Speaker Count BandAll24,600 to 795,000 (2)798,400 to 3,238,000,000 (5)RegionAllAfrica (8)Chad (2)Cote d'Ivoire (1)Democratic Republic of the Congo (1)East Africa (1)Liberia (1)South Sudan (1)Southern Africa (1)Sub-Saharan Africa (3)Sudan (1)The Horn of Africa (1)The Sahel (1)Uganda (1)West Africa (2)Zambia (1)Reconstructed AncestorAllReconstructed (6)Classification StatusAllEstablished (10)Number of LanguagesAll16 to 1,408 (8)3 to 5 (2)6 to 15 (2)In GroupAllAfroasiatic: Chadic (2)Afroasiatic: Cushitic and Omotic (3)Afroasiatic: Semitic (1)Bantu Languages (3)Nilo-Saharan (1)Other Niger-Congo (6)Number of LanguagesAll16 (1)46 (1)63 (1)75 (1)210 (1)381 (1)1001 (1)1343 (1)1408 (1)Reconstructed AncestorAllReconstructed (8)Speaker CountAll7,900,000 (1)15,000,000 (1)57,500,000 (1)60,000,000 (1)80,000,000 (1)85,000,000 (1)350,000,000 (2)499,000,000 (1)500,000,000 (1)Show ResultsBrowseCompareAfro-AsiaticParent Family (Classification Tree)3 entriesAtlantic-CongoParent Family (Classification Tree)1 entryBantuParent Family (Classification Tree)1 entryBenue-CongoParent Family (Classification Tree)4 entriesCentral SudanicParent Family (Classification Tree)2 entriesChadicParent Family (Classification Tree)3 entriesCushiticParent Family (Classification Tree)2 entriesEthio-SemiticParent Family (Classification Tree)1 entryMandeParent Family (Classification Tree)1 entryMbum-Day languagesParent Family (Classification Tree)1 entryNiger-CongoParent Family (Classification Tree)5 entriesOmoticParent Family (Classification Tree)2 entriesVolta-CongoParent Family (Classification Tree)2 entriesSources1. Wikipedia: Languages Of AfricaWikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead sectionThe number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated (depending on the delineation of language vs. dialect) at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000.View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.