Languages of Zambia franca is some areas. Local Zambian Languages plays an important role in different sectors of society. For instance, in the education sector, local languages allow pupils to express themselves freely. English, the former colonial language, serves as a common language among educated Zambians. At independence in 1964, English was declared the national language. English is the first language of only 2% of Zambians but is the most commonly used second language. The English spoken in Zambia has some distinctive features, such as the omission of certain object pronouns that would be obligatory in Western English ("Did you reach?"), the simplification
Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe) zone N15, is not particularly close to Zambian Tonga, which is classified as zone M64, and can be considered a separate language. The Tonga-speaking inhabitants are the oldest Bantu settlers, with the Tumbuka, a small ethnic group in the east, in what is now known as Zambia. There are two distinctive dialects of Tonga; Valley Tonga and Plateau Tonga. Valley Tonga is mostly spoken in the Zambezi valley and southern areas of the Batonga (Tonga people) while Plateau Tonga is spoken more around Monze District and the northern areas of the Batonga. Tonga (Chitonga or iciTonga) developed as a spoken