Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 ngl
Lomwe Language Elomwe
Lomwe is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 2.0 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Lomwe is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Lomwe
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- North Mozambique Bantu
- Makua-Lomwe
- Lomweic
- Lomwe
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Lomwe language
Lomwe (Elomwe) is spoken by about 2.0 million people, which makes it the 307th most spoken language in the world — just behind Macedonian (2.0 million) and ahead of Occitan (post 1500) (2.0 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Lomweic group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Lomwe spoken?
Lomwe is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Mozambique (2.3 million).
Lomwe is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Lomwe 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 Makhuwa, Makhuwa-Shirima, Makhuwa-Meetto, Takwane, Chuwabu, Swahili and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 ngl.
Frequently asked questions about Lomwe
How many people speak Lomwe?
Where is Lomwe spoken?
What language family does Lomwe belong to?
What is Lomwe called in Lomwe?
Is Lomwe 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.