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Arabic vs Swahili


Swahili vs Arabic


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
23  
4
4  
11

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
Arabic.jpg#200  
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
28  
10
24  
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
8  
5
5  
2

How Many Consonants
28  
18
21  
11

Scripts
Arabic  
Latin  

Writing Direction
Right-To-Left, Horizontal  
-  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
4  
3
3  
2

Time Taken to Learn
88 weeks  
19
36 weeks  
13

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
310,000,000.00  
2
75,000,000.00  
12

Dialect 2
Sudanese  
Kimrima  

Where They Speak
Sudan  
Dar es Salaam  

How Many People Speak
17,000,000.00  
29
75,000,000.00  
10

Dialect 3
Levantine  
Kimgao  

Where They Speak
Cyprus, Levant  
Kilwa  

How Many People Speak
21,000,000.00  
23
75,000,000.00  
9

Total No. Of Dialects
26  
22
12  
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
452.00 million  
4
150.00 million  
13

Speaking Population
4.43 %  
6
0.42 %  
34

Native Speakers
206.00 million  
6
15.00 million  
40

Second Language Speakers
246.00 million  
2
75.00 million  
14

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
25  
23
21  
19

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  
-  

Countries >>
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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.

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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.

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