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Xhosa
Xhosa

Afrikaans
Afrikaans



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Xhosa
X
Afrikaans

Xhosa vs Afrikaans

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Countries

Countries

South Africa
South Africa

Total No. Of Countries

11
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

South Africa
South Africa

Second Language

Lesotho, South Africa
Namibia, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Botswana, Lesotho
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Regulated By

-
Die Taalkommissie, National Languages Committee

Interesting Facts

  • 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.
  • Afrikaans Language is a mixture of English, Dutch, German, French and some South African language like Xhosa.
  • Afrikaans Language lacks case and gender distinctions.

Similar To

Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele
Dutch Language

Derived From

Khoi-Khoi and San Languages
Dutch Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

5332
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

1015
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

4317
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
Left-To-Right, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks24 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Molo
hallo

Thank You

Ndiyabulela
Dankie

How Are You?

Unjani
Hoe gaan dit

Good Night

Ulale kakuhle
goeie nag

Good Evening

Ubusuku obuhle
Goeienaand

Good Afternoon

Uben' emva kwemini entle
Goeie middag

Good Morning

Molo
goeie more

Please

Ndicela
asseblief

Sorry

Ndicela uxolo
jammer

Bye

Uhambe/Usale kakuhle
Totsiens

I Love You

Ndiyakuthanda
Ek het jou lief

Excuse Me

Uxolo
Verskoon my

Dialects

Dialect 1

Gcaleka
Kaapse Afrikaans

Where They Speak

South Africa
-

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.007,700,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Thembu
Oranjeriverafrikaans

Where They Speak

South Africa
-

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.007,700,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Hlubi
Baster Afrikaans

Where They Speak

South Africa
Namibia

How Many People Speak

19.007.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

93
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

20.00 million19.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.11 %0.03 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

8.20 million7.10 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

11.00 million10.30 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

isiXhosa
Afrikaans

Alternative Names

“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa
Cape Dutch

French Name

xhosa
afrikaans

German Name

Xhosa-Sprache
Afrikaans

Pronunciation

[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]
[ɐfriˈkɑːns]

Ethnicity

amaXhosa, amaBhaca
Afrikaners

History

Origin

16th Century
17th Century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Indo-European Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Germanic

Branch

Bantu
Western

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
Cape dutch or kitchen dutch

Standard Forms

isiXhosa
Standard Afrikaans

Language Position

2123
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Xhosa
Signed Afrikaans (signs of SASL)

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

xh
af

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

xho
afr

ISO 639 2/B

xho
afr

ISO 639 3

xho
afr

ISO 639 6

xho
afrs

Glottocode

xhos1239
afri1274

Linguasphere

99-AUT-fa
52-ACB-ba

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
Analytic

Xhosa vs Afrikaans Speaking Countries

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

  • Xhosa is spoken as a national language in: South Africa.
  • Afrikaans is spoken as a national language in: South Africa.

You will also get to know the continents where Xhosa and Afrikaans speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Xhosa language is 21 and position of Afrikaans language is 23. Find all the information about these languages on Xhosa and Afrikaans.

Xhosa and Afrikaans Language History

Comparison of Xhosa vs Afrikaans language history gives us differences between origin of Xhosa and Afrikaans language. History of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th Century whereas history of Afrikaans language states that this language originated in 17th 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 Xhosa and Afrikaans Language History.

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

Xhosa vs Afrikaans Difficulty

The Xhosa vs Afrikaans difficulty level basically depends on the number of Xhosa Alphabets and Afrikaans 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 Xhosa and Afrikaans are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Xhosa and Afrikaans, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Xhosa is 44 weeks while to learn Afrikaans time required is 24 weeks.