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Sinhalese vs Swahili


Swahili vs Sinhalese


Countries

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

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
4  
11

National Language
Sri Lanka  
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania  

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)  
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)  

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.
  
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   

Similar To
Maldivian Language  
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages  

Derived From
Sanskrit Language  
Arabic Language  

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
54  
33
24  
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
18  
15
5  
2

How Many Consonants
36  
26
21  
11

Scripts
Sinhala alphabet  
Latin  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  
-  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
2  
1
3  
2

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks  
17
36 weeks  
13

Greetings

Hello
හලෝ (halō)  
Habari  

Thank You
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)  
Asante  

How Are You?
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)  
Habari gani?  

Good Night
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)  
Usiku mwema  

Good Evening
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)  
Habari za jioni  

Good Afternoon
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)  
nzuri Alasiri  

Good Morning
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)  
Habari za asubuhi  

Please
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)  
tafadhali  

Sorry
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)  
pole  

Bye
බායි (bāyi)  
bye  

I Love You
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)  
nakupenda  

Excuse Me
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)  
Samahani  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Vedda  
Kiunguja  

Where They Speak
Sri Lanka  
Zanzibar island  

How Many People Speak
19,000,000.00  
30
75,000,000.00  
12

Dialect 2
Sri Lankan Sinhala  
Kimrima  

Where They Speak
-  
Dar es Salaam  

How Many People Speak
19,000,000.00  
27
75,000,000.00  
10

Dialect 3
Up-Country Sinhalese  
Kimgao  

Where They Speak
-  
Kilwa  

How Many People Speak
16,000,000.00  
27
75,000,000.00  
9

Total No. Of Dialects
1  
1
12  
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
16.00 million  
99+
150.00 million  
13

Speaking Population
0.25 %  
99+
0.42 %  
34

Native Speakers
16.00 million  
39
15.00 million  
40

Second Language Speakers
2.00 million  
99+
75.00 million  
14

Native Name
සිංහල (sĩhala)  
Kiswahili  

Alternative Names
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala  
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili  

French Name
singhalais  
swahili  

German Name
Singhalesisch  
Swahili  

Pronunciation
[ˈsiŋhəliːz]  
[swaˈhili]  

Ethnicity
Sinhalese people  
Swahili people or Waswahili  

History

Origin
3  
6th century  

Language Family
Indo-European Family  
Niger-Congo Family  

Subgroup
Indo-Iranian  
Benue-Congo  

Branch
Indic  
Bantu  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
Sinhalese Prakrit  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Modern Sinhalese  
Swahili  

Language Position
70  
99+
21  
19

Signed Forms
Signed Sinhalese  
Swahili Sign Language  

Scope
Individual  
Individual, Macrolanguage  

Code

ISO 639 1
si  
sw  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
sin  
swa  

ISO 639 2/B
sin  
swa  

ISO 639 3
sin  
swa  

ISO 639 6
sin  
swa  

Glottocode
sinh1246  
swah1254  

Linguasphere
No data available  
99-AUS-m  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb  
-  

Language Morphological Typology
Fusional  
-  

Countries >>
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Sinhalese and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Sinhalese vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Sinhalese and Swahili language. History of Sinhalese language states that this language originated in 3 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 Sinhalese and Swahili Language History.

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

Sinhalese vs Swahili Difficulty

The Sinhalese vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Sinhalese 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 Sinhalese and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Sinhalese and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Sinhalese is 44 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.

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