Africa's Linguistic Diversity

Africa speaks over 2,000 different languages, making it the most linguistically diverse

continent on the planet. That's more languages than Europe, Asia,

and the Americas combined. Nigeria alone has over 500 languages within its borders.

South Africa officially recognizes 11 languages, but hundreds more are spoken throughout the country.

Some African languages have clicking sounds that don't exist anywhere else in the world.

What's wild is that many of these languages have never been written down. They're passed from

generation to generation purely through oral tradition. The Khoisan languages of southern Africa

use up to five different types of clicks as consonants. Meanwhile, Ethiopia has about