Northern Sotho

This article is about the northeastern South African language. For the Lesotho and central South African language, see Sotho language.

Northern Sotho
Sesotho sa Leboa
Native to	South Africa
Region	Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga
Ethnicity	Lobedu Tlôkwa
Native speakers	3.2 million (2022 Census) 9.1 million L2 speakers (2002)
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
Writing system	Latin (Northern Sotho alphabet) Sotho Braille
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	Variously: nso – Sekone brl – Birwa two
Glottolog	nort3233
Guthrie code	S.32,301–304
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

Northern Sotho is one of South Africa's twelve official languages and belongs to the Bantu language family, specifically the Sotho-Tswana group. The language is spoken mainly in Limpopo Province, and to a lesser extent in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and North West.

Northern Sotho is the umbrella term for a group of certain dialects.

As of the 2022 South African Census, approximately 6.2 million people, or 10.0% of the national population, speak Northern Sotho as their first language. Northern Sotho ranks as the fifth most spoken first language.