There are 11 official languages! English is common, as is Afrikaans. Afrikaans was a creole mixture for communication among the various language groups -- but it has quite a bit of Dutch in it.
The various regions/states were established with boundaries more or less matching the language boundaries. Xhosa is common in the the Capetown area, and it is a click language. It was very impressive to hear small kids speaking with the clicks!
If you know Xhosa, there are 3 related languages that will not be too hard to learn. Then there is a language group with 3 more fairly similar languages. So, our guide for the Township spoke 9 languages! Amazing.
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