The 2,000 languages that Africa contains fall within a relatively small number of large families (15).
The family of Niger-Congo languages is spoken on most of the continent. It is the largest group of languages in the world (about 1,300 languages).
Among others, there is the Afro-Asiatic family (to which belong Hebrew, Arabic dialects, and the languages of ancient Egypt, for example), the Nilo-Saharan family (along the lower part of the Nile), the Mandé family (West Africa) etc.
Many of these languages are little studied, and the number of families and their distribution changes as science progresses, revealing a vast linguistic wealth, largely threatened.

• Afro-Asiatic Languages
• Austronesian language family
• English-based Creole languages
• French-based Creole languages
• Portuguese-based Creole languages
• Dogon languages
• Ijo-Defaka languages
• Juu-ǂHoan languages
• Kadu languages
• Khoe languages
• Koman languages
• Mande languages
• Niger-Congo languages
• Nilo-Saharian languages
• Ubangian languages
• Tuu languages
• Songhay languages

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• Language isolates and non-classified languages

NB: Only part of these Creoles are spoken on the African continent.
 
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