Swahili vs Cantonese
Countries
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Hong Kong, Macau
National Language
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
China, Guangdong
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Africa
Asia
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Hawaii
Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division
Interesting Facts
- Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
- The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
- 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
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Chinese Language
Derived From
Arabic Language
Not Available
Alphabets in
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200
Scripts
Latin
Chinese Characters and derivatives
Writing Direction
Not Available
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
How Are You?
Habari gani?
你好吗？
Good Night
Usiku mwema
晚安
Good Evening
Habari za jioni
晚上好
Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri
下午好
Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi
早上好
Dialect 1
Kiunguja
Guangzhou
Where They Speak
Zanzibar island
outside mainland China
Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam
Hong Kong
Dialect 3
Kimgao
Hong Kong
Where They Speak
Kilwa
Hong Kong
Speaking Population
Not Available
Native Name
Not Available
Kwang Tung Wa
Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese
French Name
swahili
Not Available
German Name
Swahili
Not Available
Pronunciation
Not Available
Not Available
Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili
Not Available
Origin
6th century
17th century
Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
Subgroup
Benue-Congo
Not Available
Branch
Bantu
Not Available
Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
Swahili
Standard Cantonese
Signed Forms
Not Available
Not Available
Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage
Not Available
ISO 639 1
sw
No data available
ISO 639 2/T
swa
Not Available
ISO 639 2/B
swa
Not Available
ISO 639 3
swa
No data available
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
swah1254
cant1236
Linguasphere
99-AUS-m
No data available
Language Type
Living
Not Available
Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available
Not Available
Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Not Available
Swahili and Cantonese Language History
Comparison of Swahili vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Cantonese language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th 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 Swahili and Cantonese Language History.
Swahili 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 Swahili and Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Swahili and Cantonese language. Swahili word for "Hello" is Habari or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common Swahili Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Swahili vs Cantonese Difficulty
The Swahili vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili 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 Swahili and Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.