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Amharic
Amharic

Swahili
Swahili



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Amharic
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Amharic vs Swahili

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Countries

Countries

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya

Total No. Of Countries

14
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Ethiopia
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By

-
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)

Interesting Facts

  • Amharic ranks as second most spoken Semitic language in the world.
  • Amharic has its own writing system named “fidel” and it uses Amharic alphabets to write.
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.

Similar To

Tigrinya and Oromo Languages
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages

Derived From

-
Arabic Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

3324
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

75
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

3121
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Ethiopic
Latin

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks36 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Selam
Habari

Thank You

amesege'nallo'
Asante

How Are You?

Dehina newot?
Habari gani?

Good Night

Dehna dur
Usiku mwema

Good Evening

melkam meshe't
Habari za jioni

Good Afternoon

i'ndemin walu
nzuri Alasiri

Good Morning

i'ndemin adäru
Habari za asubuhi

Please

i'bakwon
tafadhali

Sorry

aznallehu
pole

Bye

tschao
bye

I Love You

afekirishalehu
nakupenda

Excuse Me

yiqirta
Samahani

Dialects

Dialect 1

Gondar
Kiunguja

Where They Speak

Gondar
Zanzibar island

How Many People Speak

22,000,000.0075,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Gojjami
Kimrima

Where They Speak

Ethiopia
Dar es Salaam

How Many People Speak

22,000,000.0075,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Showa
Kimgao

Where They Speak

Ethiopia
Kilwa

How Many People Speak

22,000,000.0075,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

512
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

18.70 million150.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.37 %0.42 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

25.00 million15.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

10.00 million75.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

አማርኛ
Kiswahili

Alternative Names

Abyssinian, Amarigna, Amarinya, Amhara, Ethiopian
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili

French Name

amharique
swahili

German Name

Amharisch
Swahili

Pronunciation

[amarɨɲɲa]
[swaˈhili]

Ethnicity

Amharas
Swahili people or Waswahili

History

Origin

13th century
6th century

Language Family

Afro-Asiatic Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Semitic
Benue-Congo

Branch

Ethiopic
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

Ge'ez
No early forms

Standard Forms

Amharic
Swahili

Language Position

5521
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Amharic
Swahili Sign Language

Scope

Individual
Individual, Macrolanguage

Code

ISO 639 1

am
sw

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

amh
swa

ISO 639 2/B

amh
swa

ISO 639 3

amh
swa

ISO 639 6

amh
swa

Glottocode

amha1245
swah1254

Linguasphere

12-ACB-a
99-AUS-m

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
-

Language Morphological Typology

Fusional
-

Amharic vs Swahili Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Amharic vs Swahili speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Amharic or Swahili language.

  • Amharic is spoken as a national language in: Ethiopia.
  • Swahili is spoken as a national language in: Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania.

You will also get to know the continents where Amharic and Swahili speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Amharic language is 55 and position of Swahili language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Amharic and Swahili.

Amharic and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Amharic vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Amharic and Swahili language. History of Amharic language states that this language originated in 13th century whereas history of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Amharic and Swahili Language History.

Amharic and Swahili Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Amharic and Swahili greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Amharic and Swahili language. Amharic word for "Hello" is Selam or Swahili word for "Thank You" is Asante. Find more of such common Amharic Greetings and Swahili Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Amharic vs Swahili Difficulty

The Amharic vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Amharic Alphabets and Swahili Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Amharic and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Amharic and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Amharic is 44 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.