Sinhalese vs Shona
Countries
Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe
National Language
Sri Lanka
Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe
Second Language
Sri Lanka
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Asia
Africa
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
Regulated By
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)
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Interesting Facts
- In Sinhalese language, there are many loanwords from Dravidian languages mainly Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
- Sinhalese language has it own script/ writing system.
- Shona language is tonal language.
- The African people in Zimbabwe is made of 10 ethnic groups, each speaking a different languages, shona is spoken by 60 percent of population.
Similar To
Maldivian Language
Kalanga and Nambya Language
Derived From
Sanskrit Language
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Alphabets in
Sinhalese-Alphabets.jpg#200
Shona-Alphabets.jpg#200
Scripts
Sinhala alphabet
Latin
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
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Thank You
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)
Waita zvako
How Are You?
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)
Wakadini zvako?
Good Night
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)
Urare zvakanaka
Good Evening
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)
Manheru
Good Afternoon
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)
Masikati
Good Morning
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)
Mangwanani
Please
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)
Ndinokumbirawo
Sorry
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)
Ndineurombo
I Love You
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)
Ndinokuda
Excuse Me
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)
Pamusoro
Where They Speak
Sri Lanka
Zimbabwe
Dialect 2
Sri Lankan Sinhala
Karanga
Where They Speak
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southern Zimbabwe
Dialect 3
Up-Country Sinhalese
Zezuru
Where They Speak
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central Zimbabwe, Mashonaland
Native Name
සිංහල (sĩhala)
chiShona
Alternative Names
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala
Chishona, “Swina” (pej.), Zezuru
French Name
singhalais
shona
German Name
Singhalesisch
Schona-Sprache
Pronunciation
[ˈsiŋhəliːz]
[ʃoːna]
Ethnicity
Sinhalese people
Shona people
Language Family
Indo-European Family
Niger-Congo Family
Subgroup
Indo-Iranian
Benue-Congo
Early Forms
Sinhalese Prakrit
Old Shona and Middle Shona
Standard Forms
Modern Sinhalese
Standard Shona
Signed Forms
Signed Sinhalese
Signed Shona
Scope
Individual
Individual
Glottocode
sinh1246
core1255
Linguasphere
No data available
99-AUT-a
Language Type
Living
Living
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb
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Language Morphological Typology
Fusional
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Sinhalese and Shona Language History
Comparison of Sinhalese vs Shona language history gives us differences between origin of Sinhalese and Shona language. History of Sinhalese language states that this language originated in 3 whereas history of Shona language states that this language originated in 20th 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 Sinhalese and Shona Language History.
Sinhalese and Shona 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 Sinhalese and Shona greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Sinhalese and Shona language. Sinhalese word for "Hello" is හලෝ (halō) or Shona word for "Thank You" is Waita zvako. Find more of such common Sinhalese Greetings and Shona Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Sinhalese vs Shona Difficulty
The Sinhalese vs Shona difficulty level basically depends on the number of Sinhalese Alphabets and Shona 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 Sinhalese and Shona are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Sinhalese and Shona, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Sinhalese is 44 weeks while to learn Shona time required is 30 weeks.