Sotho language

Southern Sotho (Sesotho in Southern Sotho) is an African language mainly spoken by people living in Lesotho and the Free State Province of South Africa.

Southern Sotho
Sesotho
Native to	Lesotho South Africa
Region	Southern Africa
Native speakers	6 024 000[1]
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho-Tswana Group Southern Sotho
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Lesotho  South Africa
Regulated by	Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1	st
ISO 639-2	sot
ISO 639-3	sot

Southern Sotho is one of the two official languages of Lesotho and one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by almost 6,024,000 people, or 7% of South Africans at home (2011 census). Southern Sotho is part of the Sotho language family.

Southern Sotho contains many loanwords from Zulu.