Atlantic-Congo · ISO 639-3 xho · xh
Xhosa Language isiXhosa
Xhosa is an Atlantic-Congo language spoken by about 10 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Xhosa is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Xhosa
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
- Nguni (S.40)
- Nuclear Nguni
- Southern Ndebele-Lowland
- Xhosa
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Xhosa language
Xhosa (isiXhosa) is spoken by about 10 million people, which makes it the 123rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Nande (10 million) and ahead of Luba-Lulua (9.8 million). It belongs to the Atlantic-Congo language family and, more precisely, to the Southern Ndebele-Lowland group within the Benue-Congo branch.
Where is Xhosa spoken?
Xhosa is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in South Africa (11 million), Zimbabwe (200,000) and Lesotho (22,052).
Share of the population that speaks Xhosa: South Africa 18% (11 million), Zimbabwe 1.2% (200,000) and Lesotho 1% (22,052).
Xhosa is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in South Africa.
Writing system and status
Xhosa 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 Zulu, Swati, North Ndebele, Tsonga, Tswa, Ronga and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 xh, ISO 639-3 xho.
Frequently asked questions about Xhosa
How many people speak Xhosa?
Where is Xhosa spoken?
What language family does Xhosa belong to?
What is Xhosa called in Xhosa?
Is Xhosa 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.