Monday, August 31, 2009

The Languages of Uganda

Sharing pictures from home with new friends.


In case any of you are truly curious, here is the answer to the poll (see left sidebar): "What is the official language of Uganda?"

Drumroll, please...

English is the official language of Uganda.

And, here is some more information from Wikipedia: "Around forty different languages are regularly and currently in use in the country. English became the official language of Uganda after independence. Ugandan English has a local flavour." (That is for sure! Although many do speak English, they have such heavy accents, it still can be difficult to understand them, until you develop an "ear" for their English.)

"The most widely locally spoken language in Uganda is Luganda spoken predominantly in the urban concentrations of Kampala, the capital city, and in towns and localities in the Buganda region of Uganda which encompasses Kampala...Swahili, a widely used language throughout eastern and central east Africa, was approved as the country's second official national language in 2005."

So, there you go - now you know a bit more about Uganda. : )

3 comments:

  1. I think I voted for English...my memory's bad though. Very interesting!
    Jonah loves your pictures and he wants me to say "hi" for him! He also says he loves peanut butter balls. (-;

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  2. I think I voted for Swahili...so I was close, right? ;-)

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  3. Yay, Lauren, if you voted for English! : ) I wish I could find out who voted for what, but I don't think that feature is available.
    Please tell Jonah "hi" as well and I also enjoyed seeing his photos on your blog. I like peanut butter balls, too! However, the funny thing is that I haven't made them since I was in Uganda. : ) One of the other American girls had the recipe and initiated making them - I just got in on the fun. : )
    Yes, Mikaela, you were close since Swahili is considered the second national language. I was doing some reading tonight and I believe Swahili is more widely accepted in northern Uganda. I knew of one lady on the island who spoke Swahili but really no Lugandan or English. There were few other Swahili speakers there so she was kind of isolated. Karina made a point to learn some Swahili and reach out to her.
    Thanks for your comments! : )

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