Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 aar · aa
Afar Language Qafaraf
Afar is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 1.6 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Afar is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Cushitic
- East Cushitic
- Lowland East Cushitic
- Saho-Afar
- Afar
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Afar language
Afar (Qafaraf) is spoken by about 1.6 million people, which makes it the 349th most spoken language in the world — just behind Teso (1.7 million) and ahead of Acoli (1.6 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Saho-Afar group within the East Cushitic branch.
Where is Afar spoken?
Afar is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in Ethiopia (1.7 million), Djibouti (417,889) and Eritrea (228,382).
Share of the population that speaks Afar: Ethiopia 1.4% (1.7 million), Djibouti 42% (417,889) and Eritrea 3.6% (228,382).
Afar is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Afar is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Somali, Eastern Oromo, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Maay, Oromo and Sidamo.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 aa, ISO 639-3 aar.
Frequently asked questions about Afar
How many people speak Afar?
Where is Afar spoken?
What language family does Afar belong to?
What is Afar called in Afar?
Is Afar an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.