There are eleven official names of South Africa^[1], a number surpassed only by India. These languages include English, Afrikaans and the nine Bantu languages with official status since 1994. These include the Nguni languages, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, and Siswati, and the Sotho languages, which include Setswana, Sesotho and Sesotho sa Leboa. The remaining two languages are Tshivenda and Xitsonga.

There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoi-San languages which are not official languages, but are one of the eight officially recognised languages. There are even smaller groups of speakers of endangered languages, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival. As a result, there are many official names for the country. These are:

• Republiek van Suid-Afrika (Afrikaans)
• Republic of South Africa (English)
• IRiphabliki yeSewula Afrika (IsiNdebele)
• IRiphabliki yaseMzantsi Afrika (IsiXhosa)
• IRiphabliki yaseNingizimu Afrika (IsiZulu)
• Rephaboliki ya Afrika-Borwa (Sepedi)
• Rephaboliki ya Afrika Borwa (Sesotho)
• Rephaboliki ya Aforika Borwa (Setswana)
• IRiphabhulikhi yeNingizimu Afrika (SiSwati)
• Riphabu?iki ya Afurika Tshipembe (Tshivenda)
• Riphabliki ra Afrika Dzonga (Xitsonga)

South Africa also recognises eight non-official languages (Fanagalo, Lobedu, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, Khoi, Nama, and San).

Sources

1. ↑ The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Chapter 1