Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 suk
Sukuma Language Kisukuma
Sukuma is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 5.4 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Sukuma is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Sukuma
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- Northeast Savanna Bantu
- Sukuma-Nyamwezi (F.20)
- Nyamwezic
- Sukuma
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Sukuma language
Sukuma (Kisukuma) is spoken by about 5.4 million people, which makes it the 173rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Southern Thai (5.5 million) and ahead of Finnish (5.4 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Nyamwezic group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Sukuma spoken?
Sukuma is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Tanzania (5.9 million).
Sukuma is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Sukuma 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 Nyamwezi, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Rundi, Nande, Kikuyu and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 suk.
Frequently asked questions about Sukuma
How many people speak Sukuma?
Where is Sukuma spoken?
What language family does Sukuma belong to?
What is Sukuma called in Sukuma?
Is Sukuma 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.