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Arabic
Arabic

Swahili
Swahili



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Arabic
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Swahili

Arabic vs Swahili

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Countries

Countries

Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya

Total No. Of Countries

234
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
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, Asia
Africa

Minority Language

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

Regulated By

Academy of the Arabic Language, Arabic Language International Council
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)

Interesting Facts

  • Arabic is 5th common language in world.
  • Classical Arabic is the language of Quran and also it is official language. Classical Arabic is the only way to learn Arabic language in academic way and it does not change.
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.

Similar To

Amharic and Hebrew
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages

Derived From

-
Arabic Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2824
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

85
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2821
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Arabic
Latin

Writing Direction

Right-To-Left, Horizontal
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

43
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

88 weeks36 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

مرحبا
Habari

Thank You

شكرا
Asante

How Are You?

كيف حالك؟
Habari gani?

Good Night

تصبح على خير
Usiku mwema

Good Evening

مساء الخير
Habari za jioni

Good Afternoon

مساء الخير
nzuri Alasiri

Good Morning

صباح الخير
Habari za asubuhi

Please

من فضلك
tafadhali

Sorry

آسف
pole

Bye

وداعا
bye

I Love You

أحبك
nakupenda

Excuse Me

اعذرني
Samahani

Dialects

Dialect 1

Maghrebi
Kiunguja

Where They Speak

Algeria, Libya, Maghreb, Morocco, Tunisia
Zanzibar island

How Many People Speak

310,000,000.0075,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Sudanese
Kimrima

Where They Speak

Sudan
Dar es Salaam

How Many People Speak

17,000,000.0075,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Levantine
Kimgao

Where They Speak

Cyprus, Levant
Kilwa

How Many People Speak

21,000,000.0075,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

2612
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

452.00 million150.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

4.43 %0.42 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

206.00 million15.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

246.00 million75.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

(al arabiya) العربية
Kiswahili

Alternative Names

Al-’Arabiyya, Al-Fusha, Literary Arabic
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili

French Name

arabe
swahili

German Name

Arabisch
Swahili

Pronunciation

/al ʕarabijja/, /ʕarabi/
[swaˈhili]

Ethnicity

Arabs
Swahili people or Waswahili

History

Origin

512 CE
6th century

Language Family

Afro-Asiatic Family, Semitic Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Semitic
Benue-Congo

Branch

North Arabic
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Modern Standard Arabic
Swahili

Language Position

2521
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Arabic
Swahili Sign Language

Scope

Macrolanguage
Individual, Macrolanguage

Code

ISO 639 1

ar
sw

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

ara
swa

ISO 639 2/B

ara
swa

ISO 639 3

ara
swa

ISO 639 6

ara
swa

Glottocode

arab1395
swah1254

Linguasphere

12-AAC
99-AUS-m

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
-

Language Morphological Typology

Fusional, Synthetic
-

Arabic vs Swahili Speaking Countries

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

  • Arabic is spoken as a national language in: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
  • 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 Arabic and Swahili speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Arabic language is 25 and position of Swahili language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Arabic and Swahili.

Arabic and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Arabic vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Arabic and Swahili language. History of Arabic language states that this language originated in 512 CE 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 Arabic and Swahili Language History.

Arabic 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 Arabic and Swahili greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Arabic and Swahili language. Arabic word for "Hello" is مرحبا or Swahili word for "Thank You" is Asante. Find more of such common Arabic Greetings and Swahili Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Arabic vs Swahili Difficulty

The Arabic vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Arabic 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 Arabic and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Arabic and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Arabic is 88 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.