Romance-speaking African countries - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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**Romance-speaking African countries**
Official languages Official language An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...	French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... , Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... and Spanish Spanish language Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
Member states	27

Romance-speaking Africa consists of the countries and territories in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

whose official or main languages are Romance

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

ones, and countries which have significant populations that speak Romance languages. French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, and Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

are the languages which meet these criteria.

Many of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF; International Organization of La Francophonie) or the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa), and seven are members of the Latin Union

Latin Union

The Latin Union is an international organization of nations that use Romance languages, with the aim of protecting, projecting, and promoting the common cultural heritage and unifying identities of the Latin, and Latin-influenced, world. It was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain, and has existed as a...

.

North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

, from Morocco

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, was part of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. As a result, the African Romance

African Romance

African Romance or African Latin is an extinct Romance language that is supposed to have been spoken in the Roman province of Africa during the later Roman and early Byzantine Empires, prior to the annexation of the region by the Umayyad Caliphate in 696...

language evolved in Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

, Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

and Morocco

Morocco

. It was spoken until the 17th century.

French language

The following is a list of the Sub-Saharan African countries where French

French language

or African French

African French

African French is the generic name of the varieties of French spoken by an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries...

is spoken., French language in Benin, French language in Burundi, French language in Burkina-Faso, French language in Central Africa, French language in Chad, French language in Cameroon, French language in Cote de Ivoire, French language in Democratic Congo, French language in the Republic of Congo, French language in Djibouti, French language in Gabon, French language in Guinea, French language in Madagascar, French language in Mali, French language in Mauritania, French language in Niger, French language in Rwanda, French language in Senegal, French language in Seychelles, French language in Togo

Portuguese language

African countries where Portuguese

Portuguese language

( African Portuguese

African Portuguese

Portuguese is spoken in five African states: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, and Mozambique. Like English and French, Portuguese has become a post-colonial language in Africa and one of the working languages of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community...

varieties) is spoken:, Angolan Portuguese

Angolan Portuguese

Angolan Portuguese is a variety of Portuguese used mostly in Angola where it is an official language. It is generally used in Angola by 80% of all residents, of which 60% of the inhabitants of Luanda, with around 7.5 million first-language speakers....

, Cape Verdean Portuguese

Cape Verdean Portuguese

Cape Verdean Portuguese is the variety of Portuguese spoken in Cape Verde.- Status :While Cape Verdean Creole is the mother tongue of nearly all the population in Cape Verde, Portuguese is the official language. Creole is, therefore, used colloquially, in everyday usage, while Portuguese is used...

, Guinean Portuguese

Guinean Portuguese

Guinean Portuguese is the variety of Portuguese spoken in Guinea-Bissau, where it is the official language.-Prevalence:...

, Mozambican Portuguese

Mozambican Portuguese

Mozambican Portuguese refers to the varieties of Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. It is the official language and, according to the most recent census, is spoken by approximately 40% of the population, mostly as a lingua franca, with only 6.5% speaking it natively...

, São Tomean Portuguese

São Tomean Portuguese

São Tomean Portuguese is a dialect of Portuguese spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe....

Spanish language

Sub-Saharan African countries where Spanish

Spanish language

or African Spanish is spoken:, Spanish language in Equatorial Guinea (French and Portuguese are also official)

Spain territories in Africa

Africa

(official language): : the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, Ceuta

Ceuta

Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...

and Melilla

Melilla

Melilla is a autonomous city of Spain and an exclave on the north coast of Morocco. Melilla, along with the Spanish exclave Ceuta, is one of the two Spanish territories located in mainland Africa...

French and Spanish in North Africa

In North Africa

North Africa

there are countries where French or Spanish are spoken, but they are neither the main nor the official languages:, Maghreb French

Maghreb French

French is an administrative language and commonly used, though not on an official basis, in the Maghreb states of Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The language was introduced to the region during French colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries...

(this is the only North African nation where French is spoekn by majority)., Spanish is often spoken as a second language in the former Spanish protectorate

Spanish Morocco

The Spanish protectorate of Morocco was the area of Morocco under colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.-Territorial borders:...

, but the French protectorate

French Morocco

French Protectorate of Morocco was a French protectorate in Morocco, established by the Treaty of Fez. French Morocco did not include the north of the country, which was a Spanish protectorate...

was larger

Maghreb French

. Haketia

Haketia

Haketia is an endangered Jewish-Moroccan Romance language, also known as Djudeo Spañol or Ladino Occidental , that was spoken and spread throughout the North of Morocco such as in Tetuan, Tangiers and the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla, in the latter of which it has achieved partial...

(or Western Judaeo-Spanish

Judaeo-Spanish

Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...

) is spoken by a few hundreds of Moroccan Jews and is endangered

Endangered language

An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....

. Another variant, the Spanish language that was spoken by moriscos, is extinct., Maghreb French

Maghreb French

., Spanish language in Western Sahara.

Italian language

Ethiopia, , and conserve Italian

Italian language

as a colonial legacy

Italian Empire

The Italian Empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved...

; Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

had Italian as its cultural language in universities up to 1991; however, the Italian language remains unknown to over 95% of the population. In Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

, Italians were forced to leave the country after its independence.

In all of these countries, the only one that most preserves Italian is Eritrea, that has only one Italian-language school remaining, with 470 pupils yearly. The name of the only Italian-language school in Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

is Scuola Italiana di Asmara

French language

Portuguese language

Spanish language

French and Spanish in North Africa

Italian language

See also