Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 nso
Pedi Language Sepedi
Pedi is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 5.3 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Pedi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Pedi
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- Southern Bantu
- Nuclear Southern Bantu
- Dimsuffix Southern Bantu
- Sotho-Tswana (S.30)
- Northern Sotho
- Sepedic
- Pedi
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Pedi language
Pedi (Sepedi) is spoken by about 5.3 million people, which makes it the 178th most spoken language in the world — just behind Northeastern Dinka (5.3 million) and ahead of Lao (5.2 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Sepedic group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Pedi spoken?
Pedi is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in South Africa (5.7 million).
Pedi is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in South Africa.
Writing system and status
Pedi 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 Southern Sotho, Tswana, Lozi, Zulu, Tsonga, Xhosa and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 nso.
Frequently asked questions about Pedi
How many people speak Pedi?
Where is Pedi spoken?
What language family does Pedi belong to?
What is Pedi called in Pedi?
Is Pedi 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.