Zulu language

Zulu
isiZulu
Native to	South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland
Region	KwaZulu-Natal, eastern Gauteng, eastern Free State, southern Mpumalanga
Native speakers	12 million (2011 census)[1] L2 speakers: 16 million (2002)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Nguni Zunda Zulu
Writing system	Latin (Zulu alphabet) Zulu Braille
Signed forms	Signed Zulu
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Regulated by	Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1	zu
ISO 639-2	zul
ISO 639-3	zul
Glottolog	zulu1248
Guthrie code	S.42[3]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-fg incl. varieties 99-AUT-fga to 99-AUT-fge
Proportion of the South African population that speaks Zulu at home   0–20%   20–40%   40–60%   60–80%   80–100%
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Zulu or isiZulu (Zulu: isiZulu) is the language of the Zulu people. 10 million people speak Zulu, and most of them (95%) live in South Africa. It is the most common home language in South Africa, where 24% of people speak it at home.^[4] Over 50% of the population also speak and understand the language.^[4]

In 1994, it became one of South Africa's 11 official languages. Like other Bantu languages, Zulu is written using the Latin alphabet.

1. ↑ Zulu 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
3. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/. Accessed 2011-05-15.