Northern Sotho

Northern Sotho
Sesotho sa Leboa
Native to	South Africa
Region	Gauteng, Limpopo, parts of Mpumalanga
Ethnicity	Pedi Lobedu Pulana Tlôkwa
Native speakers	4.7 million (2011 census)[1] 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)[2]
Language family	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Southern Bantu Sotho–Tswana Northern Sotho
Early forms	Tswaniac Hurutshe Kgatla
Standard forms	Pedi
Writing system	Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille Ditema tsa Dinoko
Signed forms	Signed Northern Sotho
Official status
Official language in	South Africa
Regulated by	Pan South African Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nso
ISO 639-3	nso
Glottolog	pedi1238  Pedi
Guthrie code	S.32,301–304[3]
Linguasphere	99-AUT-ed
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home.   0–20%   20–40%   40–60%   60–80%   80–100%
Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho home-language speakers.   <1 /km²   1–3 /km²   3–10 /km²   10–30 /km²   30–100 /km²   100–300 /km²   300–1000 /km²   1000–3000 /km²   >3000 /km²
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Sesotho sa Leboa is a Sotho-Tswana language group spoken in the northeastern provinces of South Africa, most commonly in Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the Limpopo provinces.^[4] It is also known by Pedi or Sepedi and holds the status of an official language in South Africa.^[5][6]

An official language for the Lebowa homeland during apartheid, it is the first language of over 4.6 million (9.1%) people according to the South African National Census of 2011, making it the 5th most spoken language in South Africa.