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Xhosa
Xhosa

Igbo
Igbo



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X
Xhosa
X
Igbo

Xhosa vs Igbo

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Countries

Countries

South Africa
Nigeria

Total No. Of Countries

11
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

South Africa
Nigeria

Second Language

Lesotho, South Africa
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Botswana, Lesotho
Equatorial Guinea

Regulated By

-
Society for Promoting Igbo Language and Culture

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.
  • In Igbo, there is complicated system of high and low tones indicating differences in meaning and grammatical relationships.
  • Igbo has inexhaustible and rich linguistic features like idioms, proverbs, aphorisms, anecdotes etc.

Similar To

Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele
Yoruba and Hausa Languages

Derived From

Khoi-Khoi and San Languages
-

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

5336
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

108
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

4328
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks52 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Molo
kedụ

Thank You

Ndiyabulela
dalụ

How Are You?

Unjani
kedụ ka ịmere

Good Night

Ulale kakuhle
ka chi fo

Good Evening

Ubusuku obuhle
mgbede ọma

Good Afternoon

Uben' emva kwemini entle
ehihie ọma

Good Morning

Molo
ụtụtụ ọma

Please

Ndicela
Biko

Sorry

Ndicela uxolo
Ndo

Bye

Uhambe/Usale kakuhle
Kachifo

I Love You

Ndiyakuthanda
a hụrụ m gị n'anya

Excuse Me

Uxolo
ngọpụ

Dialects

Dialect 1

Gcaleka
Enuani

Where They Speak

South Africa
Nigeria

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.0028,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Thembu
Ngwa

Where They Speak

South Africa
Nigeria

How Many People Speak

19,000,000.001,500,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Hlubi
Not present

Where They Speak

South Africa
-

How Many People Speak

19.0024.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

920
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

20.00 million25.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.11 %0.09 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

8.20 million25.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

11.00 million24.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

isiXhosa
igbo

Alternative Names

“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa
Ibo

French Name

xhosa
igbo

German Name

Xhosa-Sprache
Ibo-Sprache

Pronunciation

[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]
[iɡ͡boː]

Ethnicity

amaXhosa, amaBhaca
Igbo people

History

Origin

16th Century
30th Century BC

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Kwa

Branch

Bantu
-

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

isiXhosa
Standard Igbo

Language Position

2157
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Signed Xhosa
Igbo Sign Language

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

xh
ig

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

xho
ibo

ISO 639 2/B

xho
ibo

ISO 639 3

xho
ibo

ISO 639 6

xho
ibo

Glottocode

xhos1239
nucl1417

Linguasphere

99-AUT-fa
No data available

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
-

Language Morphological Typology

-
Agglutinative

Xhosa vs Igbo Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Xhosa and Igbo speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Xhosa language is 21 and position of Igbo language is 57. Find all the information about these languages on Xhosa and Igbo.

Xhosa and Igbo Language History

Comparison of Xhosa vs Igbo language history gives us differences between origin of Xhosa and Igbo language. History of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th Century whereas history of Igbo language states that this language originated in 30th Century 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 Xhosa and Igbo Language History.

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

Xhosa vs Igbo Difficulty

The Xhosa vs Igbo difficulty level basically depends on the number of Xhosa Alphabets and Igbo 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 Igbo are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Xhosa and Igbo, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Xhosa is 44 weeks while to learn Igbo time required is 52 weeks.