Countries
Countries
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Benin, Nigeria
Total No. Of Countries
42
0
46
👆🏻
National Language
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
Nigeria
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
Africa, Brazil, Togo, United Kingdom, United States of America
Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Yoruba Academy
Interesting Facts
- Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
- The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
- One of the largest African ethnic groups is Yoruba in south of Sahara Desert.
- In Yoruba language, same combination of vowels and consonants have different meanings depending on the pitch of the vowels, so it is tonal language.
Similar To
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Owo and Itsekiri languages
Derived From
Arabic Language
Not Available
Alphabets
Alphabets in
Alphabets
2429
18
247
👆🏻
Phonology
How Many Vowels
512
0
32
👆🏻
How Many Consonants
2117
9
60
👆🏻
Scripts
Latin
Latin
Writing Direction
Not Available
Not Available
Hard to Learn
Language Levels
33
2
12
👆🏻
Time Taken to Learn
36 weeks30 weeks
3
88
👆🏻
Greetings
Hello
Habari
Ẹ n lẹ
Thank You
Asante
e dupe
How Are You?
Habari gani?
Bawo ni o se wa
Good Night
Usiku mwema
Kasun layọ o
Good Evening
Habari za jioni
ka a ale
Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri
e kaasan
Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi
e kaaro
Please
tafadhali
Jowo
Sorry
pole
binu
Bye
bye
bye
I Love You
nakupenda
mo nifẹ rẹ
Excuse Me
Samahani
mo tọrọ gafara
Dialects
Dialect 1
Kiunguja
Itsekiri
Where They Speak
Zanzibar island
Nigeria
How Many People Speak
NA500,000.00
1.5
960000000
👆🏻
Dialect 2
Kimrima
Ede
Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam
Benin, Togo
How Many People Speak
NA800,000.00
700
80000000
👆🏻
Dialect 3
Kimgao
Ulukwumi
Where They Speak
Kilwa
Nigeria
How Many People Speak
NA10,000.00
1400
96000000
👆🏻
Total No. Of Dialects
1220
0
188
👆🏻
How Many People Speak
How Many People Speak?
150.00 million30.00 million
0.13
1200
👆🏻
Speaking Population
NA0.42 %
0.11
89
👆🏻
Native Speakers
15.00 million28.00 million
0.13
873
👆🏻
Second Language Speakers
NANA
0.01
400
👆🏻
Native Name
-9999
Yorùbá
Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Yariba, Yooba
French Name
swahili
yoruba
German Name
Swahili
Yoruba-Sprache
Pronunciation
Not Available
Not Available
Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili
Yoruba people
History
Origin
6th century
4 BC
Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family
Subgroup
Benue-Congo
Western Sudanic
Branch
Bantu
Kwa
Language Forms
Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
Swahili
Yorùbá
Language Position
NA49
1
120
👆🏻
Signed Forms
Not Available
Yoruba Sign Language
Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage
Individual
Code
ISO 639 1
sw
yo
ISO 639 2
ISO 639 2/T
swa
yor
ISO 639 2/B
swa
yor
ISO 639 3
swa
yor
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
swah1254
yoru1245
Linguasphere
99-AUS-m
No data available
Types of Language
Language Type
Living
Living
Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available
Subject-Verb-Object
Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Analytic, Isolating