| Languages of Chad | |
|---|---|
.png) Signage in Arabic and French at the University of N'Djamena | |
| Official | Arabic, French |
| Indigenous | Chadic languages, Nilo-Saharan languages, Adamawa languages |
| Vernacular | Français populaire africain, Chadian Arabic |
| Foreign | English |
| Signed | Nigerian Sign Language |
| Keyboard layout | |
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| Culture of Chad |
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Chad has two official languages, Arabic and French, and over 120 indigenous languages. A vernacular version of Arabic, Chadian Arabic, is a lingua franca and the language of commerce, spoken by 40–60% of the population.[1] The two official languages have fewer speakers than Chadian Arabic.[citation needed] Standard Arabic is spoken by around 615,000 speakers.[1] French is widely spoken in the main cities such as N'Djamena and by most men in the south of the country. Most schooling is in French.[2] The language with the most first-language speakers is probably Ngambay, with around one million speakers.[3]
Chad submitted an application to join the Arab League as a member state on 25 March 2014, which is still pending.[4]
Chadian Sign Language is a variant of Nigerian Sign Language, a dialect of American Sign Language; Andrew Foster introduced ASL in the 1960s, and Chadian teachers for the deaf train in Nigeria.