Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 bem
Bemba (Zambia) Language Chibemba
Bemba (Zambia) is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 5.4 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Bemba (Zambia) is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Bemba (Zambia)
About the Bemba (Zambia) language
Bemba (Zambia) (Chibemba) is spoken by about 5.4 million people, which makes it the 175th most spoken language in the world — just behind Finnish (5.4 million) and ahead of Kituba (Democratic Republic of Congo) (5.4 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Bemba (M.40) group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Bemba (Zambia) spoken?
Bemba (Zambia) is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Zambia (7.1 million).
Bemba (Zambia) is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bemba (Zambia) 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 Swahili, Zulu, Chichewa, Tsonga, Kinyarwanda, Shona and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bem.
Frequently asked questions about Bemba (Zambia)
How many people speak Bemba (Zambia)?
Where is Bemba (Zambia) spoken?
What language family does Bemba (Zambia) belong to?
What is Bemba (Zambia) called in Bemba (Zambia)?
Is Bemba (Zambia) 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.