Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 nya · ny
Chichewa Language
Chichewa is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 13 million people in 4 countries. It is an official language of Malawi. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Chichewa is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Chichewa
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- Tumbuka-Sena-Nyanja
- Sena-Nyanja
- Nyanjaic
- Chichewa
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Chichewa language
Chichewa is spoken by about 13 million people, which makes it the 98th most spoken language in the world — just behind Deccan (13 million) and ahead of Tsonga (13 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Nyanjaic group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Chichewa spoken?
Chichewa is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in Malawi (14 million), Zambia (4.0 million), Mozambique (867,126) and Zimbabwe (325,857). More than half of the population speaks it in Malawi — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Chichewa: Malawi 63% (14 million), Zambia 19% (4.0 million), Mozambique 2.6% (867,126) and Zimbabwe 1.9% (325,857).
Chichewa is an official language in 1 country: Malawi.
Writing system and status
Chichewa 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 Malawi Sena, Sena, Tumbuka, Swahili, Zulu, Tsonga and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ny, ISO 639-3 nya.
Frequently asked questions about Chichewa
How many people speak Chichewa?
Where is Chichewa spoken?
In which countries is Chichewa an official language?
What language family does Chichewa belong to?
Is Chichewa 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.