What Languages Are Spoken In Ethiopia? (Answered!)

Ethiopia is a highly linguistically diverse country and there are a great many different languages spoken there. The official languages include Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya. Other recognized languages include Sidamo, Gurage, Gamo, Kafa and Wolaytta. There are around 92 languages spoken or recognized in Ethiopia by its population of 120 million.

African nations are often extremely ethnically diverse, with lots of different groups having been established there for as long as anyone can remember.

This means they are rich with language variety, with some extremely old and storied languages still clinging on in Ethiopia in particular.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

How many languages are spoken in Ethiopia?

In total, there are roughly 92 languages spoken in Ethiopia, give or take a few.

These languages come in all different varieties in terms of how they are distributed, whether the language is developing, institutional, in danger of extinction or even outright extinct as an actual spoken vernacular.

Ethiopia has five official languages.

These are Afar, which is an Afro-Asiatic language of the Cushitic branch.

Then you have Amharic, a Semitic language though still in the Afro-Asiatic family.

Oromo is next, and this is among the most widely spoken languages in the nation, another from the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages.

Somali, in the same category, is next and widely spoken in Ethiopia.

The final official language is Tigrinya, and Ethio-Seimitc language spoken in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

There are also a great many other recognized languages: Sidamo, another Cushitic language; Wolyatta, a North Omotic language; Gurage, another Semitic language; then you have Hadiyya, Gamo, Gedeo, Silt’e, Kafa, and Harari.

These two groups of languages represent the vast majority of the population of Ethiopia.

Naturally, some are spoken a great deal more than others, and the official languages tend to be the most highly represented.

Naturally, though, this does not make 92 languages, so what are all the others?

There are a great many highly localized languages only spoken today by either a very small minority of the population or even languages that are on the brink of dying out.

There are many reasons this happens, usually because the younger generations of a particular group have begun learning a different language as their first.

Languages other than the ones we have mentioned make up around 8.1% of the population, so there are still a great many others.

Many other Omotic languages are spoken, like Bench, Boro, Chara and Hozo.

The point is there are far more than can be listed here!

What are the top five languages in Ethiopia?

With that in mind, then, which are the most widely spoken languages in Ethiopia?

Well, there are a couple of ways of looking at it. Let’s start with the most obvious: which language is spoken by the largest number of people.

This is the Oromo language, spoken by around 35% of the population, or around 36 million speakers.

Where previously Amharic was used in schools and other institutions, in many places this has been replaced by Oromo.

Amharic is next, spoken by around 30% of the population, or around 31 million people.

Amharic is and has been the official language of Ethiopian institutions like the courts, as well as the armed forces, trade and other communications since around the 12^th Century.

Indeed, until 2020, Amharic was the only working language of Ethiopia.

It is the most widely spoken as it is spread further geographically.

These are, by a long way, the most widely spoken languages in Ethiopia. Somali is next, spoken by around 6% of the population—or about 6 million people.

Tigrinya is close at just under 6% of the population, and finally Sidamo, around 4% of the population at about 4 million speakers.

It’s more than a little complicated, then!

What about English?

Is English widely spoken in Ethiopia?

English is indeed widely spoken in Ethiopia, and it is the most widely spoken foreign language in the country.

It is also used as a medium of instruction, being the language in which lessons are taught in high school and in universities.

So, you will often meet Ethiopians who can speak English, but it’s also not necessarily something you should count on.

English is just one of many possible second languages spoken in Ethiopia, and there is nowhere it is spoken as a first language.

What is Ethiopia’s oldest language?

Amharic is likely to be Ethiopia’s oldest language in terms of its unbroken use.

Any of the other indigenous languages may be of a similar age, though.

It depends on how you continue to define a language as it goes through many changes.

English is well over a thousand years old, of course, but Old English would hardly be recognizable to the ears of a modern English speaker.

As mentioned, Amharic has been in continuous use in Ethiopia since the 12^th Century, and due to its special status it has gone largely unchanged at least in its written and official forms.

Ethiopia is home to dozens and dozens of languages, then.

The country is a melting pot linguistically speaking, and with over 90 languages spoken, it can be hard to know how to prepare when visiting the country.

African nations are often a surprise to Westerners in this way—while Europe and the United States are by no means linguistic monoliths, they are typically dominated almost universally by a single language—this is not the case whatsoever in Ethiopia.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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