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Somali vs Cantonese


Cantonese vs Somali


Countries

Countries
Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia  
Hong Kong, Macau  

Total No. Of Countries
3  
12
2  
13

National Language
Somalia  
China, Guangdong  

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Speaking Continents
Africa, Middle East  
Asia  

Minority Language
Yemen  
Hawaii  

Regulated By
National Languages Committee, Regional Somali Language Academy  
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division  

Interesting Facts
  • Somali language is one of the best documented Afro-Asiatic languages.
  • One of the most widely spoken of the Cushitic languages is the Somali Language.
  
  • Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
  • Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.
  

Similar To
Afar and Oromo Language  
Chinese Language  

Derived From
Arabic Language  
-  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Somali-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
26  
8
28  
10

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
5  
2
8  
5

How Many Consonants
21  
11
20  
10

Scripts
Arabic, Latin, Osmanya  
Chinese Characters and derivatives  

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
5  
4
10  
8

Time Taken to Learn
52 weeks  
18
88 weeks  
19

Greetings

Hello
Hello  
您好  

Thank You
Waad ku mahadsan tahay  
谢谢  

How Are You?
Sidee tahay ?  
你好吗?  

Good Night
Habeenka Good  
晚安  

Good Evening
Evening Good  
晚上好  

Good Afternoon
galab wanaagsan  
下午好  

Good Morning
Subax wanaagsan  
早上好  

Please
Fadlan  
请  

Sorry
sorry  
遗憾  

Bye
caraysiiyo  
再见  

I Love You
Waan ku jeclahay  
我爱你  

Excuse Me
iga raali ahow  
原谅我  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Northern Somali  
Guangzhou  

Where They Speak
Gabon, Standard Somali  
outside mainland China  

How Many People Speak
16,000,000.00  
32
71,000,000.00  
13

Dialect 2
Benaadir  
Xiguan  

Where They Speak
Georgia, The capital of Mogadishu  
Hong Kong  

How Many People Speak
16,000,000.00  
30
71,000,000.00  
11

Dialect 3
Af-Ashraaf  
Hong Kong  

Where They Speak
Standard Somali  
Hong Kong  

How Many People Speak
21.00  
99+
70,000,000.00  
10

Total No. Of Dialects
3  
3
3  
3

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
13.00 million  
99+
60.00 million  
27

Speaking Population
0.07 %  
99+
16.00 %  
2

Native Speakers
8.00 million  
99+
52.00 million  
21

Second Language Speakers
21.00 million  
29
71.00 million  
15

Native Name
af Soomaali  
Kwang Tung Wa  

Alternative Names
Af-Maxaad Tiri, Af-Soomaali, Common Somali, Soomaaliga  
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese  

French Name
somali  
cantonais  

German Name
Somali  
Kantonesisch  

Pronunciation
[afsoomaali]  
[kʰɐn˧˥tʰœːn˧˥sɨ˧˥]  

Ethnicity
Somalis  
Han Chinese  

History

Origin
19th century  
17th century  

Language Family
Afro-Asiatic Family  
Sino-Tibetan Family  

Subgroup
Cushitic  
-  

Branch
-  
-  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No early forms  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Somali  
Standard Cantonese  

Language Position
83  
99+
1  
1

Signed Forms
Somali Sign Language  
Signed Cantonese  

Scope
Individual  
-  

Code

ISO 639 1
so  
No data available  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
som  
yue  

ISO 639 2/B
som  
yue  

ISO 639 3
som  
No data available  

ISO 639 6
som  
yue  

Glottocode
soma1255  
cant1236  

Linguasphere
No data available  
No data available  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
-  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb  
-  

Language Morphological Typology
-  
-  

Countries >>
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Somali and Cantonese Language History

Comparison of Somali vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of Somali and Cantonese language. History of Somali language states that this language originated in 19th century whereas history of Cantonese language states that this language originated in 17th 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 Somali and Cantonese Language History.

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

Somali vs Cantonese Difficulty

The Somali vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Somali Alphabets and Cantonese 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 Somali and Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Somali and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Somali is 52 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.

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