South Africa

To which language should you translate to localize in South Africa?

“Molo, Dumela, Avuxeni, Aa/Ndaa. That is how you greet in few languages out of the eleven official
languages in South Africa spoken in nine provinces. What is interesting is that from some of the
greetings you can determine whether a person is greeting one person or, two or more people. In some
you can also determine the gender of the person who is greeting.

The accents and tradition differ depending on where the speakers reside. You will find that most of the
vernacular languages speaking people in rural areas they have deep accent and are more into tradition
than those who stay in different parts of the country. Also most of them understand their mother
tongue only, while those in other parts of the country are bilingual or know more languages.“

Official language

Zulu (22.7%; 14.34 mln), Xhosa (16.0%; 10.11 mln), Afrikaans (13.5%; 8.53 mln), English (9.6%; 6.06 mln), Sepedi (9.1%; 5.75 mln), Tswana (8.0%; 5.05), Sesotho (7.6%; 4.80 mln), Tsonga (4.5%; 2.84 mln), Swazi (2.5%; 1.58 mln), Venda (2.4%; 1.51 mln), Ndebele (2.1%; 1.32 mln)

Actual languages

Zulu (22.7%; 14.34 mln), Xhosa (16.0%; 10.11 mln), Afrikaans (13.5%; 8.53 mln), English (9.6%; 6.06 mln), Sepedi (9.1%; 5.75 mln), Tswana (8.0%; 5.05), Sesotho (7.6%; 4.80 mln), Tsonga (4.5%; 2.84 mln), Swazi (2.5%; 1.58 mln), Venda (2.4%; 1.51 mln), Ndebele (2.1%; 1.32 mln), other (2.0%; 1.26 mln)

What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in South Africa

(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)

• 113/150 localize by translating into English
• 2/150 localize by translating into English and Afrikaans
• 2/150 localize by translating into English, Afrikaans and Zulu
• 2/150 localize by translating into English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Southern Ndebele, isiXhosa, Sesotho, Tswana and Swazi Language
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Southern Ndebele, isiXhosa, Sesotho and South African Sign Language
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French and Simplified Chinese
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Simplified Chinese
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French and Portuguese
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, Simplified Chinese and Korean
• 1/150 localizes by translating into English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian and Bahasa Indonesia