Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 toi
Tonga (Zambia) Language isiTonga
Tonga (Zambia) is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 3.0 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tonga (Zambia) is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Tonga (Zambia) language
Tonga (Zambia) (isiTonga) is spoken by about 3.0 million people, which makes it the 256th most spoken language in the world — just behind Sabah Malay (3.0 million) and ahead of Tày (3.0 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Kafue group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Tonga (Zambia) spoken?
Tonga (Zambia) is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Zambia (2.3 million) and Zimbabwe (1.5 million).
Share of the population that speaks Tonga (Zambia): Zambia 11% (2.3 million) and Zimbabwe 8.7% (1.5 million).
Tonga (Zambia) is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Tonga (Zambia) 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 Dombe, Swahili, Zulu, Chichewa, Tsonga, Kinyarwanda and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 toi.
Frequently asked questions about Tonga (Zambia)
How many people speak Tonga (Zambia)?
Where is Tonga (Zambia) spoken?
What language family does Tonga (Zambia) belong to?
What is Tonga (Zambia) called in Tonga (Zambia)?
Is Tonga (Zambia) 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.