Languages of Zambia Languages of Zambia Zambia has several major indigenous languages, all of them members of the Bantu family. English is the official language and the major language of business and education. Zambia is widely claimed to have over 72 languages and dialects. Most of these might be better regarded as dialects and some of them, have a long history within Zambia, while others, such as Silozi, arose as a result of 18th and 19th-century migrations. All of Zambia's vernacular languages are members of the Bantu family and are closely related to one another. Although there are several Languages spoken in Zambia,
Swahili language for those areas, and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted. Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three African Great Lakes countries (Tanzania, Kenya, and the DRC) where it is an official or national language. In 2016, Swahili was made a compulsory subject in all Kenyan schools. Swahili and closely related languages are spoken by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Comoros, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda. The language was still understood in the southern ports of the Red Sea in the 20th century. Some 80 percent of approximately 49 million Tanzanians