Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 sot · st
Southern Sotho Language Sesotho
Southern Sotho is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 6.4 million people in 3 countries. It is an official language of Lesotho. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Southern Sotho is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Southern Sotho
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)
- Western Sotho-Tswana
- Central Sotho-Tswana
- Sesotho-Lozi
- Southern Sotho
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Southern Sotho language
Southern Sotho (Sesotho) is spoken by about 6.4 million people, which makes it the 160th most spoken language in the world — just behind Central Pashto (6.5 million) and ahead of Krio (6.3 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Sesotho-Lozi group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Southern Sotho spoken?
Southern Sotho is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in South Africa (4.8 million), Lesotho (2.2 million) and Zimbabwe (50,000). More than half of the population speaks it in Lesotho — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Southern Sotho: South Africa 7.9% (4.8 million), Lesotho 98% (2.2 million) and Zimbabwe 0.3% (50,000).
Southern Sotho is an official language in 1 country: Lesotho. It also has regional official status in South Africa.
Writing system and status
Southern Sotho 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 Lozi, Tswana, Pedi, Zulu, Tsonga, Xhosa and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 st, ISO 639-3 sot.
Frequently asked questions about Southern Sotho
How many people speak Southern Sotho?
Where is Southern Sotho spoken?
In which countries is Southern Sotho an official language?
What language family does Southern Sotho belong to?
What is Southern Sotho called in Southern Sotho?
Is Southern Sotho 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.