Zande language

Zande
Pazande
Native toDemocratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan
EthnicityZande
speakers(L1: 1.8 million cited 1996–2017)[1]
L2: 100,000 (2013)[2]
Dialects
  • Dio
  • Makaraka
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3zne
Glottologzand1248

Zande is the largest of the Zande languages. It is spoken by the Azande, primarily in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and western South Sudan, but also in the eastern part of the Central African Republic. It is called Pazande in the Zande language and Kizande in Lingala.

Estimates about the number of speakers vary; in 2001 Koen Impens cited studies that put the number between 700,000 and one million.[3]

  1. ^ Zande at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ zande at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  3. ^ Impens, Koen (2001). "Essai de bibliographie des Azande". Annales Aequatoria. 22: 449–514.