Xhosa vs Cantonese
Countries
South Africa
Hong Kong, Macau
National Language
South Africa
China, Guangdong
Second Language
Lesotho, South Africa
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Africa
Asia
Minority Language
Botswana, Lesotho
Hawaii
Regulated By
Not Available
Civil Service Bureau, Government of Hong Kong, Official Language Division
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.
- Cantonese have lot of slangs, many of them include words that do not make sense at all and some also have English in them.
- Even though Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese, Cantonese has 8 tones instead of Mandarin's 4.
Similar To
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele
Chinese Language
Derived From
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages
Not Available
Alphabets in
Xhosa-Alphabets.jpg#200
Cantonese-Alphabets.jpg#200
Scripts
Latin
Chinese Characters and derivatives
Writing Direction
Not Available
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom
Good Night
Ulale kakuhle
晚安
Good Evening
Ubusuku obuhle
晚上好
Good Afternoon
Uben' emva kwemini entle
下午好
Bye
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle
再见
I Love You
Ndiyakuthanda
我爱你
Dialect 1
Gcaleka
Guangzhou
Where They Speak
South Africa
outside mainland China
Where They Speak
South Africa
Hong Kong
Dialect 3
Hlubi
Hong Kong
Where They Speak
South Africa
Hong Kong
Second Language Speakers
Not Available
Native Name
isiXhosa
Kwang Tung Wa
Alternative Names
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa
Guangfu, Metropolitan Cantonese
French Name
xhosa
Not Available
German Name
Xhosa-Sprache
Not Available
Pronunciation
Not Available
Not Available
Ethnicity
amaXhosa, amaBhaca
Not Available
Origin
16th Century
17th century
Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
Sino-Tibetan Family
Subgroup
Benue-Congo
Not Available
Branch
Bantu
Not Available
Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
isiXhosa
Standard Cantonese
Signed Forms
Signed Xhosa
Not Available
Scope
Individual
Not Available
ISO 639 1
xh
No data available
ISO 639 2/T
xho
Not Available
ISO 639 2/B
xho
Not Available
ISO 639 3
xho
No data available
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
xhos1239
cant1236
Linguasphere
99-AUT-fa
No data available
Language Type
Living
Not Available
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object
Not Available
Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Not Available
Xhosa and Cantonese Language History
Comparison of Xhosa vs Cantonese language history gives us differences between origin of Xhosa and Cantonese language. History of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th Century whereas history of Cantonese 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 Cantonese Language History.
Xhosa and Cantonese 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 Cantonese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Xhosa and Cantonese language. Xhosa word for "Hello" is Molo or Cantonese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢. Find more of such common Xhosa Greetings and Cantonese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Xhosa vs Cantonese Difficulty
The Xhosa vs Cantonese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Xhosa Alphabets and Cantonese 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 Cantonese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Xhosa and Cantonese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Xhosa is 44 weeks while to learn Cantonese time required is 88 weeks.