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Swahili
Swahili

Somali
Somali



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Swahili
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Swahili and Somali

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Countries

Countries

African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia

Total No. Of Countries

43
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
Somalia

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa, Middle East

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Yemen

Regulated By

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
National Languages Committee, Regional Somali Language Academy

Interesting Facts

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

Similar To

Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Afar and Oromo Language

Derived From

Arabic Language
Arabic Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2426
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

55
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2121
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Arabic, Latin, Osmanya

Writing Direction

-
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

35
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

36 weeks52 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Habari
Hello

Thank You

Asante
Waad ku mahadsan tahay

How Are You?

Habari gani?
Sidee tahay ?

Good Night

Usiku mwema
Habeenka Good

Good Evening

Habari za jioni
Evening Good

Good Afternoon

nzuri Alasiri
galab wanaagsan

Good Morning

Habari za asubuhi
Subax wanaagsan

Please

tafadhali
Fadlan

Sorry

pole
sorry

Bye

bye
caraysiiyo

I Love You

nakupenda
Waan ku jeclahay

Excuse Me

Samahani
iga raali ahow

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kiunguja
Northern Somali

Where They Speak

Zanzibar island
Gabon, Standard Somali

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0016,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Kimrima
Benaadir

Where They Speak

Dar es Salaam
Georgia, The capital of Mogadishu

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0016,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Kimgao
Af-Ashraaf

Where They Speak

Kilwa
Standard Somali

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0021.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

123
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

150.00 million13.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %0.07 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

15.00 million8.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

75.00 million21.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Kiswahili
af Soomaali

Alternative Names

Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Af-Maxaad Tiri, Af-Soomaali, Common Somali, Soomaaliga

French Name

swahili
somali

German Name

Swahili
Somali

Pronunciation

[swaˈhili]
[afsoomaali]

Ethnicity

Swahili people or Waswahili
Somalis

History

Origin

6th century
19th century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Afro-Asiatic Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Cushitic

Branch

Bantu
-

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Swahili
Somali

Language Position

2183
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Swahili Sign Language
Somali Sign Language

Scope

Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sw
so

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

swa
som

ISO 639 2/B

swa
som

ISO 639 3

swa
som

ISO 639 6

swa
som

Glottocode

swah1254
soma1255

Linguasphere

99-AUS-m
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
-

Swahili and Somali Alphabets

Swahili and Somali Alphabets provides you with alphabets, vowels and consonants in Swahili and Somali. In Swahili Alphabets there are 24 letters while in Somali Alphabets there are 26 letters. To learn Swahili and Somali languages the very first thing is to understand and learn alphabets of Swahili and Somali languages. The Swahili phonology consist Swahili vowels and Swahili consonants. After alphabets, words are to be learned and after words, phrases in that language. Take a look at Swahili greetings vs Somali greetings, where you will find numerous useful phrases. Find whether Swahili and Somali are Most Spoken Languages.

All Swahili and Somali Dialects

Most languages have dialects where each dialect differ from other dialect with respect to grammar and vocabulary. Here you will get to know all Swahili and Somali dialects. Various dialects of Swahili and Somali language differ in their pronunciations and words. Dialects of Swahili are spoken in different Swahili Speaking Countries whereas Somali Dialects are spoken in different Somali speaking countries. Also the number of people speaking Swahili vs Somali Dialects varies from few thousands to many millions. Some of the Swahili dialects include: Kiunguja, Kimrima. Somali dialects include: Northern Somali , Benaadir. Also learn about dialects in South American Languages and North American Languages.

Swahili and Somali Speaking population

Swahili and Somali speaking population is one of the factors based on which Swahili and Somali languages can be compared. The total count of Swahili and Somali Speaking population in percentage is also given. The percentage of people speaking Swahili language is 0.42 % whereas the percentage of people speaking Somali language is 0.07 %. When we compare the speaking population of any two languages we get to know which of two languages is more popular. Find more details about how many people speak Swahili and Somali on Swahili vs Somali where you will get native speakers, speaking population in percentage and native names.

Swahili and Somali Language Codes

Swahili and Somali language codes are used in those applications where using language names are tedious. Swahili and Somali Language Codes include all the international language codes, glottocodes and linguasphere.