Ivory Coast Languages

The official and the national language of Ivory Coast is French. The use of the French language in the country was introduced during the colonial era. French is a romance language. It belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. The French alphabet has 26 letters. There are four different districts that appear on vowels. These districts include circumflex accent, acute accent, diaeresis, and the grave accent. It uses the Latin Script in its writing.

Approximately 10 million people in Ivory Coast can fluently speak French, which is approximately half of the total population of Ivory Coast.

The French that is spoken in Ivory Coast is a little different from French spoken in other French-speaking countries in Africa. However, the French can be universally understood by all French speakers.

Over 78 languages are spoken in Ivory Coast. Approximately 3/4 of the people of Ivory Coast can fluently speak the indigenous ethnic languages which include Kwa and Mandinka. The French language is used as the second language by a majority of the people of Ivory Coast. The southeastern quadrant is dominated by the Kwa language. Baoule, Senoufo, Yaconba, Agni, Attie, Guerre, Bete, Dioula, Abe, Mahou, Wobe, and Lobi are commonly spoken and are also considered to be national languages. There are over 3 million Kwa Speakers in Ivory Coast. Apart from the indigenous languages of Ivory Coast, a few people can speak English.