There are over 7,100 languages spoken worldwide. But what is an official language? An official language can only be considered official when it has legal and cultural backing.
Where there is no common native language an official language often serves as the lingua Franca. The Zimbabwean constitution adopts 16 languages as official languages.
The country is in the Guinness book of records as one of the countries with the highest number of official languages in its constitution they include Ndau, Nambaya, English, Chibarwe, Chewa, Kalang, Shona, Xhosa, Tswana, Shangani, Venda, Ndebele, Khoisan, Sotho, Tonga and sign language. However English, Shona and Ndebele are much more popular than others.
