An endangered language is a language that it is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native people, it becomes an extinct language. UNESCO defines four levels of language endangerment between "safe" (not endangered) and "extinct":
- Vulnerable
- Definitely endangered
- Severely endangered
- Critically endangered
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km<sup>2</sup> (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With about 922 million people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 16.1% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 64 countries, including Madagascar and all the island groups.
Algeria
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Kenya
Lesotho
Libya
Mali
Mauritania
Morocco
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
Tunisia
Uganda
Western Sahara
See also
Notes
References
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- Sands, B. (2017). The challenge of documenting Africa's least known languages. Africa's endangered languages: Documentary and theoretical approaches, 11âÂÂ38.