[File:South Africa Northern Sotho speakers proportion map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks a form of Northern Sotho at home. ]] [File:South Africa Northern Sotho speakers density map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of Northern Sotho in South Africa: density of Northern Sotho home-language speakers. ]] Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa, also known by the name of its standardized dialect Sepedi or Pedi) is a Bantu language spoken primarily in South Africa, where it is one of the 11 official languages. According to the 2011 census it was the first language of 4,618,576 people in South Africa, principally in the provinces of Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.