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Swahili
Swahili

Afrikaans
Afrikaans



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Swahili
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Afrikaans

Swahili vs Afrikaans

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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
Namibia, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Regulated By

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Die Taalkommissie, National Languages Committee

Interesting Facts

  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
  • Afrikaans Language is a mixture of English, Dutch, German, French and some South African language like Xhosa.
  • Afrikaans Language lacks case and gender distinctions.

Similar To

Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Dutch Language

Derived From

Arabic Language
Dutch Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2432
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

515
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2117
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

36 weeks24 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Habari
hallo

Thank You

Asante
Dankie

How Are You?

Habari gani?
Hoe gaan dit

Good Night

Usiku mwema
goeie nag

Good Evening

Habari za jioni
Goeienaand

Good Afternoon

nzuri Alasiri
Goeie middag

Good Morning

Habari za asubuhi
goeie more

Please

tafadhali
asseblief

Sorry

pole
jammer

Bye

bye
Totsiens

I Love You

nakupenda
Ek het jou lief

Excuse Me

Samahani
Verskoon my

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kiunguja
Kaapse Afrikaans

Where They Speak

Zanzibar island
-

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.007,700,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Kimrima
Oranjeriverafrikaans

Where They Speak

Dar es Salaam
-

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.007,700,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Kimgao
Baster Afrikaans

Where They Speak

Kilwa
Namibia

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.007.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

123
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

150.00 million19.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %0.03 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

15.00 million7.10 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

75.00 million10.30 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Kiswahili
Afrikaans

Alternative Names

Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Cape Dutch

French Name

swahili
afrikaans

German Name

Swahili
Afrikaans

Pronunciation

[swaˈhili]
[ɐfriˈkɑːns]

Ethnicity

Swahili people or Waswahili
Afrikaners

History

Origin

6th century
17th Century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Indo-European Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Germanic

Branch

Bantu
Western

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
Cape dutch or kitchen dutch

Standard Forms

Swahili
Standard Afrikaans

Language Position

2123
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Swahili Sign Language
Signed Afrikaans (signs of SASL)

Scope

Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sw
af

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

swa
afr

ISO 639 2/B

swa
afr

ISO 639 3

swa
afr

ISO 639 6

swa
afrs

Glottocode

swah1254
afri1274

Linguasphere

99-AUS-m
52-ACB-ba

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
Analytic

Swahili vs Afrikaans Speaking Countries

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

  • Swahili is spoken as a national language in: Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania.
  • Afrikaans is spoken as a national language in: South Africa.

You will also get to know the continents where Swahili and Afrikaans speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Swahili language is 21 and position of Afrikaans language is 23. Find all the information about these languages on Swahili and Afrikaans.

Swahili and Afrikaans Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Afrikaans language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Afrikaans language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Afrikaans 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 Swahili and Afrikaans Language History.

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

Swahili vs Afrikaans Difficulty

The Swahili vs Afrikaans difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Afrikaans 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 Swahili and Afrikaans are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Afrikaans, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Afrikaans time required is 24 weeks.