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Cantonese vs Swahili


Swahili vs Cantonese


Countries

Countries
Hong Kong, Macau  
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya  

Total No. Of Countries
2  
13
4  
11

National Language
China, Guangdong  
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
Asia  
Africa  

Minority Language
Hawaii  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Regulated By
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division  
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)  

Interesting Facts
  • Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
  • Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.
  
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   

Similar To
Chinese Language  
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages  

Derived From
-  
Arabic Language  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
28  
10
24  
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
8  
5
5  
2

How Many Consonants
20  
10
21  
11

Scripts
Chinese Characters and derivatives  
Latin  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom  
-  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
10  
8
3  
2

Time Taken to Learn
88 weeks  
19
36 weeks  
13

Greetings

Hello
您好  
Habari  

Thank You
谢谢  
Asante  

How Are You?
你好吗?  
Habari gani?  

Good Night
晚安  
Usiku mwema  

Good Evening
晚上好  
Habari za jioni  

Good Afternoon
下午好  
nzuri Alasiri  

Good Morning
早上好  
Habari za asubuhi  

Please
请  
tafadhali  

Sorry
遗憾  
pole  

Bye
再见  
bye  

I Love You
我爱你  
nakupenda  

Excuse Me
原谅我  
Samahani  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Guangzhou  
Kiunguja  

Where They Speak
outside mainland China  
Zanzibar island  

How Many People Speak
71,000,000.00  
13
75,000,000.00  
12

Dialect 2
Xiguan  
Kimrima  

Where They Speak
Hong Kong  
Dar es Salaam  

How Many People Speak
71,000,000.00  
11
75,000,000.00  
10

Dialect 3
Hong Kong  
Kimgao  

Where They Speak
Hong Kong  
Kilwa  

How Many People Speak
70,000,000.00  
10
75,000,000.00  
9

Total No. Of Dialects
3  
3
12  
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
60.00 million  
27
150.00 million  
13

Speaking Population
16.00 %  
2
0.42 %  
34

Native Speakers
52.00 million  
21
15.00 million  
40

Second Language Speakers
71.00 million  
15
75.00 million  
14

Native Name
Kwang Tung Wa  
Kiswahili  

Alternative Names
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese  
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili  

French Name
cantonais  
swahili  

German Name
Kantonesisch  
Swahili  

Pronunciation
[kʰɐn˧˥tʰœːn˧˥sɨ˧˥]  
[swaˈhili]  

Ethnicity
Han Chinese  
Swahili people or Waswahili  

History

Origin
17th century  
6th century  

Language Family
Sino-Tibetan Family  
Niger-Congo Family  

Subgroup
-  
Benue-Congo  

Branch
-  
Bantu  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No early forms  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Standard Cantonese  
Swahili  

Language Position
1  
1
21  
19

Signed Forms
Signed Cantonese  
Swahili Sign Language  

Scope
-  
Individual, Macrolanguage  

Code

ISO 639 1
No data available  
sw  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
yue  
swa  

ISO 639 2/B
yue  
swa  

ISO 639 3
No data available  
swa  

ISO 639 6
yue  
swa  

Glottocode
cant1236  
swah1254  

Linguasphere
No data available  
99-AUS-m  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
-  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
-  
-  

Language Morphological Typology
-  
-  

Countries >>
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Cantonese and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Cantonese vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Cantonese and Swahili language. History of Cantonese language states that this language originated in 17th 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 Cantonese and Swahili Language History.

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

Cantonese vs Swahili Difficulty

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

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