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Yoruba
Yoruba

Swahili
Swahili



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Yoruba
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Swahili

Yoruba vs Swahili

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Countries

Countries

Benin, Nigeria
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya

Total No. Of Countries

24
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Nigeria
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Africa, Brazil, Togo, United Kingdom, United States of America
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By

Yoruba Academy
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)

Interesting Facts

  • 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.
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.

Similar To

Owo and Itsekiri languages
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages

Derived From

-
Arabic Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2924
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

125
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

1721
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

30 weeks36 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Ẹ n lẹ
Habari

Thank You

e dupe
Asante

How Are You?

Bawo ni o se wa
Habari gani?

Good Night

Kasun layọ o
Usiku mwema

Good Evening

ka a ale
Habari za jioni

Good Afternoon

e kaasan
nzuri Alasiri

Good Morning

e kaaro
Habari za asubuhi

Please

Jowo
tafadhali

Sorry

binu
pole

Bye

bye
bye

I Love You

mo nifẹ rẹ
nakupenda

Excuse Me

mo tọrọ gafara
Samahani

Dialects

Dialect 1

Itsekiri
Kiunguja

Where They Speak

Nigeria
Zanzibar island

How Many People Speak

500,000.0075,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Ede
Kimrima

Where They Speak

Benin, Togo
Dar es Salaam

How Many People Speak

800,000.0075,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Ulukwumi
Kimgao

Where They Speak

Nigeria
Kilwa

How Many People Speak

10,000.0075,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

2012
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

30.00 million150.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.42 %0.42 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

28.00 million15.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

30.00 million75.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

Yorùbá
Kiswahili

Alternative Names

Yariba, Yooba
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili

French Name

yoruba
swahili

German Name

Yoruba-Sprache
Swahili

Pronunciation

[jòɾùbá]
[swaˈhili]

Ethnicity

Yoruba people
Swahili people or Waswahili

History

Origin

4 BC
6th century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Western Sudanic
Benue-Congo

Branch

Kwa
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Yorùbá
Swahili

Language Position

4921
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Yoruba Sign Language
Swahili Sign Language

Scope

Individual
Individual, Macrolanguage

Code

ISO 639 1

yo
sw

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

yor
swa

ISO 639 2/B

yor
swa

ISO 639 3

yor
swa

ISO 639 6

yor
swa

Glottocode

yoru1245
swah1254

Linguasphere

No data available
99-AUS-m

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
-

Language Morphological Typology

Analytic, Isolating
-

Yoruba vs Swahili Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Yoruba and Swahili speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Yoruba language is 49 and position of Swahili language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Yoruba and Swahili.

Yoruba and Swahili Language History

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

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

Yoruba vs Swahili Difficulty

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