Sotho language
![A Mosotho woman holding up a sign protesting violence against women, written in her native Sesotho language, at a National Women's Day protest at the National University of Lesotho. The sign translates as](/Images/godic/202502/10/National_Women's_Day_detail_Sesotho5935.jpg")
![Geographical distribution of Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Sotho at home.
0–20%
20–40%
40–60%
60–80%
80–100%](/Images/godic/202502/10/South_Africa_2011_Sotho_speakers_proportion_map.svg5935.png")
![Geographical distribution of Sotho in South Africa: density of 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](/Images/godic/202502/10/South_Africa_2011_Sotho_speakers_density_map.svg5935.png")
The Sotho language, Sesotho (/ˈsuːtuː/;, also known as Southern Sotho, or Southern Sesotho) is a Southern Bantu language of the Sotho-Tswana (S.30) group, spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages, and in Lesotho, where it is the national language.