Languages
Native
Kirundi
100%
Secondary languages
French
15%
Swahili
14%
Language Samples
Amakuru?
How are you? (lit. 'What is the news?')
Ni meza, urakoze.
I am fine, thank you.
Rimwe, kabiri, gatatu, kane, gatanu, gatandatu, indwi, umunani, icenda, icumi.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Linguistic History
Like its northern neighbour Rwanda, Burundi boasts an extraordinary degree of linguistic unity. Kirundi is the mother tongue of virtually all Burundians, a legacy of the pre-colonial Kingdom of Burundi which unified diverse clans under a single royal court and language. Belgian colonisers recognised this unity and retained Kirundi (alongside French) in administration and education. Today Burundi has three official languages — Kirundi, French, and English (added in 2014) — but Kirundi dominates in every domain of daily life. Its close relationship with Kinyarwanda reflects a shared Lacustrine Bantu heritage across the Great Lakes region.
Similar Languages
Kinyarwanda
85%
Hunde
60%
Luganda
40%
Swahili
30%
Media
Bujumbura on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where Kirundi speakers have traded across the water for centuries.
Photo: I, SteveRwanda · CC BY-SA 3.0
Did You Know
01
Kirundi and Kinyarwanda are so closely related that speakers can generally understand each other without special study — a cross-border linguistic bridge in the heart of Africa.
02
Burundi's traditional drumming tradition — the Ingoma — is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list and is intimately linked to Kirundi oral poetry and praise songs.
03
Despite being one of the world's smaller countries by area, Burundi has a population density among the highest in mainland Africa, with Kirundi binding its communities together.