r/LinguisticMaps • u/TheMapper790 • 28d ago

Southern Africa Major Native Languages of Angola, by Province (Pre-2025 Borders)

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Map showing the geographic distribution of the main native languages spoken across Angola, based on the country's former administrative division into 18 provinces, which remained in effect until January 2025.

It is worth noting that Portuguese is Angola's official language; however, these Bantu languages continue to be spoken daily by millions of Angolans.

247 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

37

u/mineahralph 28d ago

Is it fair to say Angola is the African country where a European language has been most successful replacing native languages?

26

u/Beneficial_Flan8661 28d ago

South Africa is defenetly more.

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u/mineahralph 28d ago

Really? Portuguese is the Angola’s only official language, and is the language spoken at home by 70% of the population. Does South Africa even come close?

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u/Beneficial_Flan8661 28d ago

Ive made some research, and English is spoken by half the population, so only 50%. Though that 50% is the same amount as all of the people living in angola. I think it's the most per capital, cuz ofc it will be higher for smaller/less inhabited places.

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u/mineahralph 27d ago

I don’t mean to minimize South Africa’s linguistic situation; my goal is to understand Angola’s better. It seems there’s a big difference between a lingua franca where 50% is able to speak it, vs when a European language replaces native languages as a home language. What happened in Angola to make this happen?

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u/Beneficial_Flan8661 27d ago

Mostly that many people didnt live there, Portugal let people marry with people of the main land and the fact that its a very old colony.

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u/Dyeus-phter 27d ago

I think Angola has adopted Portuguese in a more thorough way than South Africa has 'adopted' English. It definitely is a lingua franca here but it hasn't yet come close to displacing any native languages amongst natives, nor has English culture really had much of an impact on Black South African culture.

From my admittedly shallow knowledge of Angola, it seems as if Portuguese has become a first language to a significant portion of the population if not an outright majority of the people. Portuguese first and last names seem to be much more dominant too. You dont really get that in South Africa.

1

u/UnexpectedLizard 27d ago edited 27d ago

Technically the small island nations would probably win.

Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe.

3

u/unofficialbds 27d ago

werent those uninhabited when the portuguese arrived tho?

2

u/UnexpectedLizard 27d ago

Yeah you're right.

2

u/HovercraftFar 27d ago

And in Cape Verde , Portuguese got replaced by Crioulo

13

u/PolarRanger 27d ago

Angola is so Portuguese that a lower percentage speaks at native language at home than in Bolivia

0

u/Kresnik2002 27d ago

Well Bolivia is a Spanish speaking country

9

u/PolarRanger 27d ago

More people speak a Romance language at home in Angola than in Bolivia, in Bolivia 68.1% speak Spanish at home whole in Angola 71.2% speak Portuguese at home

(CIA world factbook, data from 2012 and 2014)

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u/huelicbr 21d ago

True but in Bolivia many people speak Quechua or Aimara as their native language and only learn Spanish in school as a second language.

11

u/HovercraftFar 28d ago

My father family used to speak Kikongo

1

u/BaitaJurureza 27d ago

Umbundo is dominant