Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 seh
Sena Language Cisena
Sena is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 1.4 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Sena is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Sena
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- Tumbuka-Sena-Nyanja
- Sena-Nyanja
- Senaic
- Sena
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Sena language
Sena (Cisena) is spoken by about 1.4 million people, which makes it the 399th most spoken language in the world — just behind Nyakyusa-Ngonde (1.4 million) and ahead of Vlaams (1.4 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Senaic group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Sena spoken?
Sena is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Mozambique (1.5 million).
Sena is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Sena 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, Chichewa, Tumbuka, Swahili, Zulu, Tsonga and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 seh.
Frequently asked questions about Sena
How many people speak Sena?
Where is Sena spoken?
What language family does Sena belong to?
What is Sena called in Sena?
Is Sena 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.