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From: "Gerda Pieterse" <>
Subject: Re: [ZA] Language Groups: Numbers
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 14:50:23 +0200
References: <Sea1-F119L6eWZHvVTs0001a949@hotmail.com>


Hi John,

Thank you, this was the list I was looking for.

I think the English numbers are also boosted by speakers in the Asian
community who use it as a first language at home. Only the African languages
can really be seen as ethnic languages. I would agree that most South
Africans have a second language they know quite well, and that many are
multilingual.

From a sweltering and windy Richards Bay,

Gerda Pieterse


----- Original Message -----
From: "John Hunt" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:04 AM
Subject: [ZA] Language Groups: Numbers


> Hi Listers,
> I hope this e-mail works better than my last. Hotmail is a problem to
> get to know.
> The small fact-book SA 2003-4, by Editors Inc on P 31 gives the
> following:
>
> Zulu: 22.9 million
> Xhosa: 17.9
> Afrikaans: 14.4*
> Pedi: 9.2
> English: 8.6
> Tswana: 8.2
> Sotho: 7.7
> Tsonga: 4.4
> Swati: 2.5
> Venda: 2.2
> Ndebele: 1.5
>
> *I presume the high number of Afrikaans-speakers includes the Coloured
> people. So these are language groups and not purely ethnic groups.
> Regards to all.
> John Hunt from snowbound West Virginia. 2/3 of our schools closed
> today!
>

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