Tswana language

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)[1] unknown number in Zimbabwe 7.7 million L2 speakers in South Africa (2002)[2]
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
Glottolog	tswa1253
Linguasphere	99-

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.

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

1. ↑ Setswana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. ↑ Webb, Vic. 2002. "Language in South Africa: the role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development." Impact: Studies in language and society, 14:78