Djibouti is one of the world's most multilingual small nations. The two dominant indigenous languages — Somali and Afar — are both Cushitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic family and have been spoken in the region for thousands of years. The Afar people inhabit the volcanic lowlands stretching into Eritrea and Ethiopia, while Somali speakers are concentrated in the south and the capital. French became an official language during the colonial period (1896–1977), when the territory was known as French Somaliland and later the French Territory of the Afars and Issas. Arabic was granted co-official status reflecting both religious ties (Islam is near-universal) and Djibouti's strategic position on the Red Sea trade route. This four-language situation — Somali, Afar, French, and Arabic — makes Djibouti's linguistic environment uniquely complex for a country of fewer than one million people.
