Home
Languagevs


Xhosa vs Sinhalese


Sinhalese vs Xhosa


Countries

Countries
South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
1  
14

National Language
South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

Second Language
Lesotho, South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

Speaking Continents
Africa  
Asia  

Minority Language
Botswana, Lesotho  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Regulated By
-  
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)  

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 Sinhalese language, there are many loanwords from Dravidian languages mainly Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
  • Sinhalese language has it own script/ writing system.
  

Similar To
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele  
Maldivian Language  

Derived From
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages  
Sanskrit Language  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Xhosa-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Sinhalese-Alphabets.jpg#200  

Alphabets
53  
32
54  
33

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
10  
7
18  
15

How Many Consonants
43  
32
36  
26

Scripts
Latin  
Sinhala alphabet  

Writing Direction
-  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
3  
2
2  
1

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks  
17
44 weeks  
17

Greetings

Hello
Molo  
හලෝ (halō)  

Thank You
Ndiyabulela  
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)  

How Are You?
Unjani  
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)  

Good Night
Ulale kakuhle  
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)  

Good Evening
Ubusuku obuhle  
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)  

Good Afternoon
Uben' emva kwemini entle  
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)  

Good Morning
Molo  
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)  

Please
Ndicela  
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)  

Sorry
Ndicela uxolo  
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)  

Bye
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle  
බායි (bāyi)  

I Love You
Ndiyakuthanda  
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)  

Excuse Me
Uxolo  
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Gcaleka  
Vedda  

Where They Speak
South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

How Many People Speak
19,000,000.00  
30
19,000,000.00  
30

Dialect 2
Thembu  
Sri Lankan Sinhala  

Where They Speak
South Africa  
-  

How Many People Speak
19,000,000.00  
27
19,000,000.00  
27

Dialect 3
Hlubi  
Up-Country Sinhalese  

Where They Speak
South Africa  
-  

How Many People Speak
19.00  
99+
16,000,000.00  
27

Total No. Of Dialects
9  
9
1  
1

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
20.00 million  
99+
16.00 million  
99+

Speaking Population
0.11 %  
99+
0.25 %  
99+

Native Speakers
8.20 million  
99+
16.00 million  
39

Second Language Speakers
11.00 million  
39
2.00 million  
99+

Native Name
isiXhosa  
සිංහල (sĩhala)  

Alternative Names
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa  
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala  

French Name
xhosa  
singhalais  

German Name
Xhosa-Sprache  
Singhalesisch  

Pronunciation
[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]  
[ˈsiŋhəliːz]  

Ethnicity
amaXhosa, amaBhaca  
Sinhalese people  

History

Origin
16th Century  
3  

Language Family
Niger-Congo Family  
Indo-European Family  

Subgroup
Benue-Congo  
Indo-Iranian  

Branch
Bantu  
Indic  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No early forms  
Sinhalese Prakrit  

Standard Forms
isiXhosa  
Modern Sinhalese  

Language Position
21  
19
70  
99+

Signed Forms
Signed Xhosa  
Signed Sinhalese  

Scope
Individual  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
xh  
si  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
xho  
sin  

ISO 639 2/B
xho  
sin  

ISO 639 3
xho  
sin  

ISO 639 6
xho  
sin  

Glottocode
xhos1239  
sinh1246  

Linguasphere
99-AUT-fa  
No data available  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object  
Subject-Object-Verb  

Language Morphological Typology
-  
Fusional  

Countries >>
<< All

Xhosa and Sinhalese Language History

Comparison of Xhosa vs Sinhalese language history gives us differences between origin of Xhosa and Sinhalese language. History of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th Century whereas history of Sinhalese language states that this language originated in 3. 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 Sinhalese Language History.

Compare Most Difficult Languages

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

Xhosa vs Sinhalese Difficulty

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

Most Difficult Languages

Most Difficult Languages

» More Most Difficult Languages

Compare Most Difficult Languages

» More Compare Most Difficult Languages