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Sinhalese
Sinhalese

Xhosa
Xhosa



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Sinhalese
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Xhosa

Sinhalese vs Xhosa

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Countries

Countries

Sri Lanka
South Africa

Total No. Of Countries

11
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Sri Lanka
South Africa

Second Language

Sri Lanka
Lesotho, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Asia
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Botswana, Lesotho

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.
  • Xhosa has 15 click sounds, borrowed from the khoi-khoi and san languages of the South Africa.
  • The same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meaning when said with different tones, so Xhosa is tonal.

Similar To

Maldivian Language
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele

Derived From

Sanskrit Language
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

5453
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

1810
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

3643
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Sinhala alphabet
Latin

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

23
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

හලෝ (halō)
Molo

Thank You

ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)
Ndiyabulela

How Are You?

ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)
Unjani

Good Night

සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)
Ulale kakuhle

Good Evening

සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)
Ubusuku obuhle

Good Afternoon

සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)
Uben' emva kwemini entle

Good Morning

සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)
Molo

Please

කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)
Ndicela

Sorry

සමාවන්න (samāvanna)
Ndicela uxolo

Bye

බායි (bāyi)
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle

I Love You

මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)
Ndiyakuthanda

Excuse Me

මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)
Uxolo

Dialects

Dialect 1

Vedda
Gcaleka

Where They Speak

Sri Lanka
South Africa

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.0019,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Sri Lankan Sinhala
Thembu

Where They Speak

-
South Africa

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.0019,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Up-Country Sinhalese
Hlubi

Where They Speak

-
South Africa

How Many People Speak

16,000,000.0019.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

19
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

16.00 million20.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.25 %0.11 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

16.00 million8.20 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

2.00 million11.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

සිංහල (sĩhala)
isiXhosa

Alternative Names

Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa

French Name

singhalais
xhosa

German Name

Singhalesisch
Xhosa-Sprache

Pronunciation

[ˈsiŋhəliːz]
[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]

Ethnicity

Sinhalese people
amaXhosa, amaBhaca

History

Origin

3
16th 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
isiXhosa

Language Position

7021
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Sinhalese
Signed Xhosa

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

si
xh

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

sin
xho

ISO 639 2/B

sin
xho

ISO 639 3

sin
xho

ISO 639 6

sin
xho

Glottocode

sinh1246
xhos1239

Linguasphere

No data available
99-AUT-fa

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

Fusional
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Sinhalese vs Xhosa Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Sinhalese vs Xhosa speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Sinhalese or Xhosa language.

  • Sinhalese is spoken as a national language in: Sri Lanka.
  • Xhosa is spoken as a national language in: South Africa.

You will also get to know the continents where Sinhalese and Xhosa speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Sinhalese language is 70 and position of Xhosa language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Sinhalese and Xhosa.

Sinhalese and Xhosa Language History

Comparison of Sinhalese vs Xhosa language history gives us differences between origin of Sinhalese and Xhosa language. History of Sinhalese language states that this language originated in 3 whereas history of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th 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 Xhosa Language History.

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

Sinhalese vs Xhosa Difficulty

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