Tswana language

The Tswana language (or Setswana) is a language spoken in southern Africa. About five million people speak it. It is a Bantu language. It belongs to the Niger–Congo language family within the Sotho languages. It is closely related to the Northern- and Southern Sotho languages.

Setswana
Setswana
Native to	Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia
Ethnicity	Batswana
Native speakers	(4.1 million in South Africa (2011) 1.1 million in Botswana cited 1993)e18 unknown number in Zimbabwe 7.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho–Tswana Setswana
Writing system	Latin (Tswana alphabet) Tswana Braille
Official status
Official language in	Botswana South Africa Zimbabwe
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tn
ISO 639-2	tsn
ISO 639-3	tsn
Linguasphere	99-

Tswana is an official language of Botswana. Most Tswana speakers are in South Africa, where four million people speak the language.

Tswana Language Media

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  Distribution of Setswana (in yellow) in Botswana

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  Geographical distribution of Setswana in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Setswana at home.*

  •      0–20%*     20–40%*     40–60%*     60–80%*     80–100%*