While Swahili is the national language, Tanzania has around 129 different ethnic groups and has, therefore, evolved great linguistic diversity with four major African language bases, ranging from Bantu, Cushitic, and the Nilotic languages to the less comprehensively spoken Khoisan.
One of the founding directives of independent Tanzania was that no ethnic group should dominate, and this was made easier by the fact that none of the tribes exceed much more than 10% of the country’s overall population.
Swahili is the most widely spoken language, with English being largely absent from rural Tanzania and only really found in the larger towns, cities, and tourist areas.