Home
Languagevs


Sinhalese vs Xhosa


Xhosa vs Sinhalese


Countries

Countries
Sri Lanka  
South Africa  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
1  
14

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)  
-  

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
Sinhalese-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Xhosa-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
54  
33
53  
32

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
18  
15
10  
7

How Many Consonants
36  
26
43  
32

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
44 weeks  
17

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
19,000,000.00  
30
19,000,000.00  
30

Dialect 2
Sri Lankan Sinhala  
Thembu  

Where They Speak
-  
South Africa  

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

Dialect 3
Up-Country Sinhalese  
Hlubi  

Where They Speak
-  
South Africa  

How Many People Speak
16,000,000.00  
27
19.00  
99+

Total No. Of Dialects
1  
1
9  
9

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
16.00 million  
99+
20.00 million  
99+

Speaking Population
0.25 %  
99+
0.11 %  
99+

Native Speakers
16.00 million  
39
8.20 million  
99+

Second Language Speakers
2.00 million  
99+
11.00 million  
39

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
70  
99+
21  
19

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  
-  

Countries >>
<< All

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.

Compare Most Difficult Languages

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.

Most Difficult Languages

Most Difficult Languages

» More Most Difficult Languages

Compare Most Difficult Languages

» More Compare Most Difficult Languages