Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 bej
Beja Language bijā
Beja is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 2.5 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Beja is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Beja
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Cushitic
- Beja
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Beja language
Beja (bijā) is spoken by about 2.5 million people, which makes it the 278th most spoken language in the world — just behind Central Bikol (2.5 million) and ahead of Bini (2.5 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family.
Where is Beja spoken?
Beja is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Sudan (2.7 million).
Beja is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Beja 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 Oromo, Somali, Eastern Oromo, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Sidamo, Maay and 1 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bej.
Frequently asked questions about Beja
How many people speak Beja?
Where is Beja spoken?
What language family does Beja belong to?
What is Beja called in Beja?
Is Beja 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.