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Swahili
Swahili

Chewa
Chewa



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Swahili
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Chewa

Swahili vs Chewa

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Countries

Countries

African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Malawi, Zimbabwe

Total No. Of Countries

42
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Second Language

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

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Zambia

Regulated By

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
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Interesting Facts

  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
  • Chewa is one of the 55 languages featured on the Voyager spacecraft.
  • Most widely known language of Malawi is Chewa.

Similar To

Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Zulu language

Derived From

Arabic Language
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Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2431
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

55
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2118
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

35
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

36 weeks32 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Habari
Moni

Thank You

Asante
Zikomo

How Are You?

Habari gani?
Muli bwanji?

Good Night

Usiku mwema
Usiku wabwino

Good Evening

Habari za jioni
Madzulo abwino

Good Afternoon

nzuri Alasiri
Masana abwino

Good Morning

Habari za asubuhi
M'mawa wabwino

Please

tafadhali
Chonde

Sorry

pole
pepani

Bye

bye
anatsanzikana

I Love You

nakupenda
Ndimakukondani

Excuse Me

Samahani
Pepani

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kiunguja
Kasungu

Where They Speak

Zanzibar island
Malawi, Zambia

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0012,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Kimrima
Kikamtunda

Where They Speak

Dar es Salaam
Malawi, Zambia

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.0010,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Kimgao
Kimaravi

Where They Speak

Kilwa
Malawi, Zambia

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.001,200,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

125
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

150.00 million12.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %0.17 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

15.00 million12.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

75.00 million1.50 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Kiswahili
Nyanja

Alternative Names

Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Chichewa, Chinyanja, Nyanja, Nyanja-Chewa

French Name

swahili
chichewa; chewa; nyanja

German Name

Swahili
Nyanja-Sprache

Pronunciation

[swaˈhili]
[ˈtʃewa]

Ethnicity

Swahili people or Waswahili
Chewa people

History

Origin

6th century
15th 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
Chewa

Language Position

2127
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Swahili Sign Language
Chewa Sign Language

Scope

Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sw
ny

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

swa
nya

ISO 639 2/B

swa
nya

ISO 639 3

swa
nya

ISO 639 6

swa
nya

Glottocode

swah1254
nyan1308

Linguasphere

99-AUS-m
99-AUS-xaa – xag

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
-

Language Morphological Typology

-
-

Swahili vs Chewa Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Swahili and Chewa speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Swahili language is 21 and position of Chewa language is 27. Find all the information about these languages on Swahili and Chewa.

Swahili and Chewa Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Chewa language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Chewa language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Chewa language states that this language originated in 15th 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 Chewa Language History.

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

Swahili vs Chewa Difficulty

The Swahili vs Chewa difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Chewa 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 Chewa are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Chewa, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Chewa time required is 32 weeks.