×

Swahili
Swahili

Yoruba
Yoruba



ADD
Compare
X
Swahili
X
Yoruba

Swahili vs Yoruba

Add ⊕

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

Swahili vs Yoruba Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Swahili and Yoruba speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Swahili language is not available and position of Yoruba language is 49. Find all the information about these languages on Swahili and Yoruba.

Swahili and Yoruba Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Yoruba language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Yoruba language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Yoruba language states that this language originated in 4 BC. 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 Yoruba Language History.

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

Swahili vs Yoruba Difficulty

The Swahili vs Yoruba difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Yoruba 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 Yoruba are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Yoruba, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Yoruba time required is 30 weeks.