Languages of Nigeria
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language and most widely spoken lingua franca is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Pidgin – an English-based creole – is spoken by over 60 million people.
| Languages of Nigeria | |
|---|---|
A map of languages in Nigeria and neighbouring countries | |
| Official | English |
| National | Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba |
| Regional | Efik-Ibibio, Isoko, Edo, Tiv, Fulani, Idoma, Ijaw, Kamwe, Kanuri, Ukwuani, Urhobo, Nupe, Gbagyi |
| Vernacular | Nigerian Pidgin |
| Foreign | Arabic, French |
| Signed |
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| Keyboard layout | QWERTY |
| This article is part of a series in |
| Culture of Nigeria |
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The major native languages, in terms of population, are Hausa (over 80 million when including second-language, or L2, speakers), Yoruba (over 54 million, including L2 speakers), Igbo (over 42 million, including L2 speakers), Efik-Ibibio cluster (over 15 million), Fulfulde (13 million), Kanuri (5 million), Tiv (5 million), Nupe (3 million) and approximately 2 to 3 million each of Karai-Karai Kupa, Kakanda, Edo, Igala, Idoma and Izon. Nigeria's linguistic diversity is a microcosm of much of Africa as a whole, and the country contains languages from the three major African language families: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger–Congo. Nigeria also has several as-yet unclassified languages, such as Centúúm, which may represent a relic of an even greater diversity prior to the spread of the current language families.