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Zulu
Zulu

Afrikaans
Afrikaans



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Zulu
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Afrikaans

Zulu 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

Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe
Namibia, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Regulated By

Pan South African Language Board
Die Taalkommissie, National Languages Committee

Interesting Facts

  • The meaning of word "Zulu" means "Sky"and Zulu was the name of the ancestor who founded the Zulu royal line in about 1670.
  • Zulu language has many loanwords borrowed from Afrikaans and English Languages.
  • 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

Xhosa Language
Dutch Language

Derived From

-
Dutch Language

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

5732
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

715
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

5017
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

Sawubona
hallo

Thank You

Ngiyabonga
Dankie

How Are You?

unjani
Hoe gaan dit

Good Night

okuhle ebusuku
goeie nag

Good Evening

okuhle kusihlwa
Goeienaand

Good Afternoon

okuhle ntambama
Goeie middag

Good Morning

okuhle ekuseni
goeie more

Please

Ngiyacela
asseblief

Sorry

Ngiyaxolisa
jammer

Bye

bye
Totsiens

I Love You

Ngiyakuthanda wena
Ek het jou lief

Excuse Me

Uxolo
Verskoon my

Dialects

Dialect 1

Qwabe
Kaapse Afrikaans

Where They Speak

Gabon, South Africa
-

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.007,700,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu
Oranjeriverafrikaans

Where They Speak

Georgia, South Africa
-

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.007,700,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Ndebele
Baster Afrikaans

Where They Speak

Zimbabwe
Namibia

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.007.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

43
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

30.00 million19.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.16 %0.03 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

12.00 million7.10 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

16.00 million10.30 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

isiZulu
Afrikaans

Alternative Names

Isizulu, Zunda
Cape Dutch

French Name

zoulou
afrikaans

German Name

Zulu-Sprache
Afrikaans

Pronunciation

[zuːlu]
[ɐfriˈkɑːns]

Ethnicity

Zulu people
Afrikaners

History

Origin

19
17th Century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Indo-European Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Germanic

Branch

Beatu
Western

Language Forms

Early Forms

urban Zulu
Cape dutch or kitchen dutch

Standard Forms

Deep Zulu
Standard Afrikaans

Language Position

8723
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Zulu Sign Language
Signed Afrikaans (signs of SASL)

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

zu
af

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

zul
afr

ISO 639 2/B

zul
afr

ISO 639 3

zul
afr

ISO 639 6

zul
afrs

Glottocode

zulu1248
afri1274

Linguasphere

99-AUT-fg
52-ACB-ba

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
Subject-Object-Verb

Language Morphological Typology

-
Analytic

Zulu vs Afrikaans Speaking Countries

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

  • Zulu 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 Zulu and Afrikaans speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Zulu language is 87 and position of Afrikaans language is 23. Find all the information about these languages on Zulu and Afrikaans.

Zulu and Afrikaans Language History

Comparison of Zulu vs Afrikaans language history gives us differences between origin of Zulu and Afrikaans language. History of Zulu language states that this language originated in 19 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 Zulu and Afrikaans Language History.

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

Zulu vs Afrikaans Difficulty

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