Four ancient African languages – older than English – but spoken till this day

By some counts, there are more than 3,000 African languages although most linguists on the continent and other places believe the number goes just a little beyond 2,000.

All the same, linguistic evolution on the continent has been taking place for over 5,000 years. Some of the languages that were used by the ancestors of old are no more spoken.

Extinct languages aside, the continent can still boast of some of the oldest spoken languages in the world. Of course, this is connected to the fact that Africa is the cradle of humanity.

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This list identifies some of the oldest spoken languages (that may also be written) on the continent. Although some specialists or a select few are capable of using some largely extinct languages, we will not count those since the usage of those languages are not popular.