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Swahili
Swahili

Xhosa
Xhosa



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Swahili
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Xhosa

Swahili and Xhosa

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Countries

Countries

African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
South Africa

Total No. Of Countries

41
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

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

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Lesotho, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Botswana, Lesotho

Regulated By

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
-

Interesting Facts

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

Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele

Derived From

Arabic Language
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2453
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

510
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2143
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

36 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Habari
Molo

Thank You

Asante
Ndiyabulela

How Are You?

Habari gani?
Unjani

Good Night

Usiku mwema
Ulale kakuhle

Good Evening

Habari za jioni
Ubusuku obuhle

Good Afternoon

nzuri Alasiri
Uben' emva kwemini entle

Good Morning

Habari za asubuhi
Molo

Please

tafadhali
Ndicela

Sorry

pole
Ndicela uxolo

Bye

bye
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle

I Love You

nakupenda
Ndiyakuthanda

Excuse Me

Samahani
Uxolo

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kiunguja
Gcaleka

Where They Speak

Zanzibar island
South Africa

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0019,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Kimrima
Thembu

Where They Speak

Dar es Salaam
South Africa

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0019,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Kimgao
Hlubi

Where They Speak

Kilwa
South Africa

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0019.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

129
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

150.00 million20.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %0.11 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

15.00 million8.20 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

75.00 million11.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Kiswahili
isiXhosa

Alternative Names

Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa

French Name

swahili
xhosa

German Name

Swahili
Xhosa-Sprache

Pronunciation

[swaˈhili]
[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]

Ethnicity

Swahili people or Waswahili
amaXhosa, amaBhaca

History

Origin

6th century
16th Century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Benue-Congo

Branch

Bantu
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Swahili
isiXhosa

Language Position

2121
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Swahili Sign Language
Signed Xhosa

Scope

Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sw
xh

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

swa
xho

ISO 639 2/B

swa
xho

ISO 639 3

swa
xho

ISO 639 6

swa
xho

Glottocode

swah1254
xhos1239

Linguasphere

99-AUS-m
99-AUT-fa

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

-
-

Swahili and Xhosa Alphabets

Swahili and Xhosa Alphabets provides you with alphabets, vowels and consonants in Swahili and Xhosa. In Swahili Alphabets there are 24 letters while in Xhosa Alphabets there are 53 letters. To learn Swahili and Xhosa languages the very first thing is to understand and learn alphabets of Swahili and Xhosa 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 Xhosa greetings, where you will find numerous useful phrases. Find whether Swahili and Xhosa are Most Spoken Languages.

All Swahili and Xhosa 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 Xhosa dialects. Various dialects of Swahili and Xhosa language differ in their pronunciations and words. Dialects of Swahili are spoken in different Swahili Speaking Countries whereas Xhosa Dialects are spoken in different Xhosa speaking countries. Also the number of people speaking Swahili vs Xhosa Dialects varies from few thousands to many millions. Some of the Swahili dialects include: Kiunguja, Kimrima. Xhosa dialects include: Gcaleka , Thembu. Also learn about dialects in South American Languages and North American Languages.

Swahili and Xhosa Speaking population

Swahili and Xhosa speaking population is one of the factors based on which Swahili and Xhosa languages can be compared. The total count of Swahili and Xhosa Speaking population in percentage is also given. The percentage of people speaking Swahili language is 0.42 % whereas the percentage of people speaking Xhosa language is 0.11 %. 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 Xhosa on Swahili vs Xhosa where you will get native speakers, speaking population in percentage and native names.

Swahili and Xhosa Language Codes

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