Editing Languages of Africa (section)

====Indo-European====
[[Afrikaans]] is [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], as is most of the vocabulary of most African [[creole language]]s. Afrikaans evolved from the [[Dutch language|Dutch vernacular]]<ref>{{cite book |isbn=9781433105012 |first1=Kathleen |last1=Pithouse |first2=Claudia |last2=Mitchell |first3=Relebohile |last3=Moletsane |title=Making Connections: Self-Study & Social Action |date=16 December 2023 |page=91|publisher=Peter Lang }}</ref><ref name="Heese1971">{{cite book |title=Die herkoms van die Afrikaner, 1657–1867 |publisher=A. A. Balkema |location=Cape Town |year=1971 |language=af |oclc=1821706 |ol=5361614M |first=J. A. |last=Heese |trans-title=The origin of the Afrikaner, 1657–1867}}</ref> of [[South Holland]] ([[Hollandic dialect]])<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/kloe004herk01_01/kloe004herk01_01.pdf |title=Herkomst en groei van het Afrikaans |first=G.G. |last=Kloeke |year=1950 |location=Leiden |publisher=Universitaire Pers Leiden}}</ref><ref>{{cite CiteSeerX |citeseerx=10.1.1.222.5044 |title=The origin of Afrikaans pronunciation: a comparison to west Germanic languages and Dutch dialects |first1=Wilbert |last1=Heeringa |first2=Febe |last2=de Wet |date=2007}}</ref> spoken by the mainly [[Afrikaners|Dutch settlers]] of what is now [[South Africa]], where it gradually began to develop distinguishing characteristics in the course of the 18th century, including the loss of verbal conjugation (save for 5 modal verbs), as well as grammatical case and gender.<ref name="coetzee">{{Cite book |url=http://www.dbnl.org/arch/coet003stan01_01/pag/coet003stan01_01.pdf |title=Standaard Afrikaans |first=Abel |last=Coetzee |publisher=Afrikaner Pers|year=1948 |access-date=2014-09-17}}</ref> Most Afrikaans speakers live in [[South Africa]]. In [[Namibia]] it is the [[lingua franca]]. Overall 14 to 21 million people are estimated to speak Afrikaans.

Since the [[Colonialism|colonial]] era, Indo-European languages such as [[Afrikaans]], [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] have held official status in many countries, and are widely spoken, generally as [[lingua franca]]s. (''See [[African French]] and [[Portuguese in Africa|African Portuguese]]''.) Additionally, languages like French, and Portuguese have become native languages in various countries.

French has become native in the urban areas of the DRC,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tibategeza |first=Eustard |date=January 2023 |title=Language-in-Education Policy and Practice in the Democratic Republic of Congo |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367235628}}</ref> and Gabon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hugues Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza |first=Hugues Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza |date=August 2011 |title=From foreign to national: a review of the status of French in Gabon |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267327159}}</ref>

[[German language|German]] was once used in [[German colonial empire|Germany's colonies]] there from the late 1800s until World War I, when Britain and France took over and revoked German's official status. Despite this, German is still spoken in [[Namibia]], mostly among the [[White Namibians|white population]]. Although it lost its official status in the 1990s, it has been redesignated as a national language. [[Languages of India|Indian languages]] such as [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] are spoken by [[South Asia]]n expatriates exclusively. In earlier historical times, other Indo-European languages could be found in various parts of the continent, such as [[Old Persian language|Old Persian]] and [[Koine Greek|Greek]] in Egypt, [[Latin]] and [[Vandalic]] in North Africa and [[Persian language|Modern Persian]] in the [[Horn of Africa]].