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Somali
Somali

Xhosa
Xhosa



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Somali
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Xhosa

Somali vs Xhosa

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Countries

Countries

Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia
South Africa

Total No. Of Countries

31
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Somalia
South Africa

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Lesotho, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa, Middle East
Africa

Minority Language

Yemen
Botswana, Lesotho

Regulated By

National Languages Committee, Regional Somali Language Academy
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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.
  • 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

Afar and Oromo Language
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele

Derived From

Arabic Language
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2653
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

510
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2143
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Arabic, Latin, Osmanya
Latin

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
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Hard to Learn

Language Levels

53
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

52 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Hello
Molo

Thank You

Waad ku mahadsan tahay
Ndiyabulela

How Are You?

Sidee tahay ?
Unjani

Good Night

Habeenka Good
Ulale kakuhle

Good Evening

Evening Good
Ubusuku obuhle

Good Afternoon

galab wanaagsan
Uben' emva kwemini entle

Good Morning

Subax wanaagsan
Molo

Please

Fadlan
Ndicela

Sorry

sorry
Ndicela uxolo

Bye

caraysiiyo
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle

I Love You

Waan ku jeclahay
Ndiyakuthanda

Excuse Me

iga raali ahow
Uxolo

Dialects

Dialect 1

Northern Somali
Gcaleka

Where They Speak

Gabon, Standard Somali
South Africa

How Many People Speak

16,000,000.0019,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Benaadir
Thembu

Where They Speak

Georgia, The capital of Mogadishu
South Africa

How Many People Speak

16,000,000.0019,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Af-Ashraaf
Hlubi

Where They Speak

Standard Somali
South Africa

How Many People Speak

21.0019.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

39
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

13.00 million20.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.07 %0.11 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

8.00 million8.20 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

21.00 million11.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

af Soomaali
isiXhosa

Alternative Names

Af-Maxaad Tiri, Af-Soomaali, Common Somali, Soomaaliga
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa

French Name

somali
xhosa

German Name

Somali
Xhosa-Sprache

Pronunciation

[afsoomaali]
[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]

Ethnicity

Somalis
amaXhosa, amaBhaca

History

Origin

19th century
16th Century

Language Family

Afro-Asiatic Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Cushitic
Benue-Congo

Branch

-
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Somali
isiXhosa

Language Position

8321
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Somali Sign Language
Signed Xhosa

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

so
xh

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

som
xho

ISO 639 2/B

som
xho

ISO 639 3

som
xho

ISO 639 6

som
xho

Glottocode

soma1255
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

-
-

Somali vs Xhosa Speaking Countries

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

  • Somali is spoken as a national language in: Somalia.
  • Xhosa is spoken as a national language in: South Africa.

You will also get to know the continents where Somali and Xhosa speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Somali language is 83 and position of Xhosa language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Somali and Xhosa.

Somali and Xhosa Language History

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

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

Somali vs Xhosa Difficulty

The Somali vs Xhosa difficulty level basically depends on the number of Somali 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 Somali and Xhosa are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Somali and Xhosa, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Somali is 52 weeks while to learn Xhosa time required is 44 weeks.