Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 tsn · tn
Tswana Language Setswana
Tswana is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 6.0 million people in 4 countries. It is an official language of Botswana. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tswana is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tswana
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
- Tswana
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Tswana language
Tswana (Setswana) is spoken by about 6.0 million people, which makes it the 166th most spoken language in the world — just behind Slovak (6.0 million) and ahead of Wolaytta (5.8 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Central Sotho-Tswana group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Tswana spoken?
Tswana is used in 4 countries. The largest communities live in South Africa (5.0 million), Botswana (1.5 million), Zimbabwe (37,730) and Namibia (15,700). More than half of the population speaks it in Botswana — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Tswana: South Africa 8.2% (5.0 million), Botswana 62% (1.5 million), Zimbabwe 0.2% (37,730) and Namibia 0.6% (15,700).
Tswana is an official language in 1 country: Botswana. It also has regional official status in South Africa.
Writing system and status
Tswana 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 Southern Sotho, Lozi, Pedi, Zulu, Tsonga, Xhosa and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 tn, ISO 639-3 tsn.
Frequently asked questions about Tswana
How many people speak Tswana?
Where is Tswana spoken?
In which countries is Tswana an official language?
What language family does Tswana belong to?
What is Tswana called in Tswana?
Is Tswana 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.