Chadian Arabic

Chadian Arabic
Shuwa
لهجة تشادية
Native to	Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria[1]
Speakers	L1: 2.3 million (2005–2023)[1] L2: 70,000 (2013)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Chadian Arabic
Writing system	Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	shu
Glottolog	chad1249
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Chadian Arabic (Arabic: لهجة تشادية), also known as Shuwa Arabic,^[a] Western Sudanic Arabic, or West Sudanic Arabic (WSA),^[2] is a variety of Arabic and the first language of 1.6 million people,^[3] both town dwellers and nomadic cattle herders. Most of its speakers live in central and southern Chad. Its range is an east-to-west oval in the Sahel. Nearly all of this territory is within Chad and Sudan. It is also spoken elsewhere in the vicinity of Lake Chad in the countries of Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Finally, it is spoken in slivers of the Central African Republic. In addition, this language serves as a lingua franca in much of the region. In most of its range, it is one of several local languages and often not among the major ones.

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