Home
Languagevs


Indonesian vs Swahili


Swahili vs Indonesian


Countries

Countries
Indonesia  
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
4  
11

National Language
Indonesia  
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania  

Second Language
East Timor, Indonesia  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Speaking Continents
Asia  
Africa  

Minority Language
Denmark, East Timor, Netherlands  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Regulated By
Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa  
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)  

Interesting Facts
  • The modern Indonesian language uses many loan words from Persian, Chinese and Arabic.
  • In Indonesian language, spelling is phonetically precise, so that words are spelled as they sound.
  
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   

Similar To
Malay language  
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages  

Derived From
Malay and Dutch Languages  
Arabic Language  

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
26  
8
24  
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
6  
3
5  
2

How Many Consonants
19  
9
21  
11

Scripts
Latin  
Latin  

Writing Direction
-  
-  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
7  
6
3  
2

Time Taken to Learn
36 weeks  
13
36 weeks  
13

Greetings

Hello
Halo  
Habari  

Thank You
Terima kasih  
Asante  

How Are You?
Apa kabar?  
Habari gani?  

Good Night
Selamat Malam  
Usiku mwema  

Good Evening
Malam yang baik  
Habari za jioni  

Good Afternoon
Selamat Sore  
nzuri Alasiri  

Good Morning
Selamat Pagi  
Habari za asubuhi  

Please
mohon Untuk  
tafadhali  

Sorry
maaf  
pole  

Bye
Selamat tinggal  
bye  

I Love You
Aku cinta kamu  
nakupenda  

Excuse Me
Permisi  
Samahani  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Sundanese  
Kiunguja  

Where They Speak
Indonesia  
Zanzibar island  

How Many People Speak
38,000,000.00  
19
75,000,000.00  
12

Dialect 2
Balinese  
Kimrima  

Where They Speak
Bali, Indonesia, Lombok and Java, Nusa Penida  
Dar es Salaam  

How Many People Speak
3,300,000.00  
99+
75,000,000.00  
10

Dialect 3
Minangkabau  
Kimgao  

Where They Speak
Indonesia, Malaysia  
Kilwa  

How Many People Speak
6,000,000.00  
34
75,000,000.00  
9

Total No. Of Dialects
46  
30
12  
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
163.00 million  
11
150.00 million  
13

Speaking Population
1.16 %  
15
0.42 %  
34

Native Speakers
23.00 million  
34
15.00 million  
40

Second Language Speakers
140.00 million  
4
75.00 million  
14

Native Name
Bahasa Melayu  
Kiswahili  

Alternative Names
Bahasa Indonesia  
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili  

French Name
indonésien  
swahili  

German Name
Bahasa Indonesia  
Swahili  

Pronunciation
[bahaˈsa indoneˈsia]  
[swaˈhili]  

Ethnicity
Indonesians  
Swahili people or Waswahili  

History

Origin
7th Century  
6th century  

Language Family
Austronesian Family  
Niger-Congo Family  

Subgroup
Indonesian  
Benue-Congo  

Branch
-  
Bantu  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
Old Malay  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Indonesian  
Swahili  

Language Position
56  
99+
21  
19

Signed Forms
Sistem Isyarat Bahasa Indonesia (SIBI, "Signed Indonesian")  
Swahili Sign Language  

Scope
Individual  
Individual, Macrolanguage  

Code

ISO 639 1
id  
sw  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
ind  
swa  

ISO 639 2/B
ind  
swa  

ISO 639 3
ind  
swa  

ISO 639 6
ind  
swa  

Glottocode
indo1316  
swah1254  

Linguasphere
No data available  
99-AUS-m  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object  
-  

Language Morphological Typology
Agglutinative  
-  

Countries >>
<< All

Indonesian and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Indonesian vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Indonesian and Swahili language. History of Indonesian language states that this language originated in 7th 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 Indonesian and Swahili Language History.

Compare Best Languages to Learn

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

Indonesian vs Swahili Difficulty

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

Best Languages to Learn

Best Languages to Learn

» More Best Languages to Learn

Compare Best Languages to Learn

» More Compare Best Languages to Learn