Swahili

Xhosa

Swahili vs Xhosa

Swahili

Xhosa

Add ⊕

Countries

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

South Africa

Total No. Of Countries

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

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

Writing Direction

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

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

Subgroup

Benue-Congo

Branch

Bantu

Language Forms

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

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

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

Swahili vs Xhosa Speaking Countries

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

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

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

Swahili and Xhosa Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Xhosa language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Xhosa language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th 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 Xhosa Language History.

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

Swahili vs Xhosa Difficulty

The Swahili vs Xhosa difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Xhosa 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 Xhosa are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Xhosa, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Xhosa time required is 44 weeks.