Sotho language

Southern Bantu language

Southern Sotho (Sesotho in Southern Sotho) is an African language mainly spoken by people living in Lesotho and the Free State Province of South Africa.

Southern Sotho
Sesotho
Native toLesotho
South Africa
RegionSouthern Africa
Native speakers
6 024 000[1]
Latin
Official status
Official language in
 Lesotho
 South Africa
Regulated byPan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1st
ISO 639-2sot
ISO 639-3sot

Southern Sotho is one of the two official languages of Lesotho and one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by almost 6,024,000 people, or 7% of South Africans at home (2011 census). Southern Sotho is part of the Sotho language family.

Southern Sotho contains many loanwords from Zulu.

References

change
  1. "Sotho, Southern". Ethnologue. Retrieved 25 April 2015.