Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 tso · ts
Tsonga Language Xitsonga
Tsonga is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 13 million people in 4 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tsonga is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tsonga
Language family
- Atlantic-Congo
- Volta-Congo
- Benue-Congo
- Bantoid
- Southern Bantoid
- Narrow Bantu
- East Bantu
- Southern Bantu
- Nuclear Southern Bantu
- Dimsuffix Southern Bantu
- Nguni-Tsonga-Copi
- Tsonga-Copi
- Tswa-Ronga (S.50)
- Tsongan
- Tsonga
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Tsonga language
Tsonga (Xitsonga) is spoken by about 13 million people, which makes it the 99th most spoken language in the world — just behind Chichewa (13 million) and ahead of Hungarian (13 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Tsongan group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Tsonga spoken?
Tsonga is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in South Africa (2.7 million), Mozambique (2.6 million) and Eswatini (19,347).
Share of the population that speaks Tsonga: South Africa 4.4% (2.7 million), Mozambique 7.9% (2.6 million) and Eswatini 1.7% (19,347).
Tsonga is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in South Africa.
Writing system and status
Tsonga 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 Ronga, Tswa, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, North Ndebele and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ts, ISO 639-3 tso.
Frequently asked questions about Tsonga
How many people speak Tsonga?
Where is Tsonga spoken?
What language family does Tsonga belong to?
What is Tsonga called in Tsonga?
Is Tsonga 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.