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Swahili
Swahili

Japanese
Japanese



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Swahili
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Japanese

Swahili vs Japanese

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Countries

Countries

African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Japan

Total No. Of Countries

41
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

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

Second Language

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

Speaking Continents

Africa
Asia, Pacific

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Palau

Regulated By

Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) at the Ministry of Education

Interesting Facts

  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
  • In Japanese Language, there are 4 different ways to address people: kun, chan, san and sama.
  • There are many words in Japanese language which end with vowel letter, which determines the structure and rhythm of Japanese.

Similar To

Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Korean Language

Derived From

Arabic Language
-

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2499
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

55
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2114
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Kana

Writing Direction

-
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

35
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

36 weeks88 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Habari
こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)

Thank You

Asante
ありがとう (Arigatō)

How Are You?

Habari gani?
お元気ですか (O genki desu ka?)

Good Night

Usiku mwema
おやすみなさい (Oyasuminasai)

Good Evening

Habari za jioni
こんばんは (Konbanwa)

Good Afternoon

nzuri Alasiri
こんにちは (Konnichiwa!)

Good Morning

Habari za asubuhi
おはよう (Ohayō)

Please

tafadhali
お願いします (Onegaishimasu)

Sorry

pole
ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai)

Bye

bye
さようなら (Sayōnara)

I Love You

nakupenda
愛しています (Aishiteimasu)

Excuse Me

Samahani
すみません (Sumimasen)

Dialects

Dialect 1

Kiunguja
Sanuki

Where They Speak

Zanzibar island
Kagawa

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.001,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Kimrima
Hakata

Where They Speak

Dar es Salaam
Fukuoka

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.00127,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Kimgao
Kansai

Where They Speak

Kilwa
kansai

How Many People Speak

75,000,000.00127,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

1231
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

150.00 million128.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %1.90 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

15.00 million128.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

75.00 million3.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Kiswahili
日本語

Alternative Names

Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Nihongo

French Name

swahili
japonais

German Name

Swahili
Japanisch

Pronunciation

[swaˈhili]
/nihoɴɡo/: [nihõŋɡo], [nihõŋŋo]

Ethnicity

Swahili people or Waswahili
Japanese (Yamato)

History

Origin

6th century
1185

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Japonic Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
-

Branch

Bantu
-

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese and Early Modern Japanese

Standard Forms

Swahili
Japanese

Language Position

218
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Swahili Sign Language
Signed Japanese

Scope

Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

sw
ja

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

swa
jpn

ISO 639 2/B

swa
jpn

ISO 639 3

swa
jpn

ISO 639 6

swa
jpn

Glottocode

swah1254
nucl1643

Linguasphere

99-AUS-m
45-CAA-a

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

-
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
Agglutinative, Synthetic

Swahili vs Japanese Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Swahili and Japanese speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Swahili language is 21 and position of Japanese language is 8. Find all the information about these languages on Swahili and Japanese.

Swahili and Japanese Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Japanese language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Japanese language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Japanese language states that this language originated in 1185. 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 Japanese Language History.

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

Swahili vs Japanese Difficulty

The Swahili vs Japanese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Japanese 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 Japanese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Japanese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Japanese time required is 88 weeks.