All of Zambia's major languages by native-speaker population are members of the Bantu family and are closely related to one another.

[7] An urban variety of Nyanja is the lingua franca of the capital Lusaka and is widely spoken as a second language throughout Zambia.

Bemba, the country's largest indigenous language, also serves as a lingua franca in some areas.

[7] Local Zambian languages play an important role in different sectors of society.

"), the simplification of some phrasal verbs ("throw" instead of "throw away"), subtle differences in the usage of auxiliary verbs such as "should", simplification of vowel sounds (some Zambians may regard "taste" and "test" as homophones), and the incorporation of particles derived from Zambia's indigenous languages (such as chi "big/bad" and ka "little").