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Zulu vs Sinhalese


Sinhalese vs Zulu


Countries

Countries
South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
1  
14

National Language
South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

Second Language
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe  
Sri Lanka  

Speaking Continents
Africa  
Asia  

Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Not spoken in any of the countries  

Regulated By
Pan South African Language Board  
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)  

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.
  
  • 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
Xhosa Language  
Maldivian Language  

Derived From
-  
Sanskrit Language  

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
57  
34
54  
33

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
7  
4
18  
15

How Many Consonants
50  
35
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
Sawubona  
හලෝ (halō)  

Thank You
Ngiyabonga  
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)  

How Are You?
unjani  
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)  

Good Night
okuhle ebusuku  
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)  

Good Evening
okuhle kusihlwa  
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)  

Good Afternoon
okuhle ntambama  
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)  

Good Morning
okuhle ekuseni  
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)  

Please
Ngiyacela  
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)  

Sorry
Ngiyaxolisa  
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)  

Bye
bye  
බායි (bāyi)  

I Love You
Ngiyakuthanda wena  
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)  

Excuse Me
Uxolo  
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Qwabe  
Vedda  

Where They Speak
Gabon, South Africa  
Sri Lanka  

How Many People Speak
28,000,000.00  
24
19,000,000.00  
30

Dialect 2
central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu  
Sri Lankan Sinhala  

Where They Speak
Georgia, South Africa  
-  

How Many People Speak
28,000,000.00  
22
19,000,000.00  
27

Dialect 3
Ndebele  
Up-Country Sinhalese  

Where They Speak
Zimbabwe  
-  

How Many People Speak
28,000,000.00  
20
16,000,000.00  
27

Total No. Of Dialects
4  
4
1  
1

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
30.00 million  
36
16.00 million  
99+

Speaking Population
0.16 %  
99+
0.25 %  
99+

Native Speakers
12.00 million  
99+
16.00 million  
39

Second Language Speakers
16.00 million  
33
2.00 million  
99+

Native Name
isiZulu  
සිංහල (sĩhala)  

Alternative Names
Isizulu, Zunda  
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala  

French Name
zoulou  
singhalais  

German Name
Zulu-Sprache  
Singhalesisch  

Pronunciation
[zuːlu]  
[ˈsiŋhəliːz]  

Ethnicity
Zulu people  
Sinhalese people  

History

Origin
19  
3  

Language Family
Niger-Congo Family  
Indo-European Family  

Subgroup
Benue-Congo  
Indo-Iranian  

Branch
Beatu  
Indic  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
urban Zulu  
Sinhalese Prakrit  

Standard Forms
Deep Zulu  
Modern Sinhalese  

Language Position
87  
99+
70  
99+

Signed Forms
Zulu Sign Language  
Signed Sinhalese  

Scope
Individual  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
zu  
si  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
zul  
sin  

ISO 639 2/B
zul  
sin  

ISO 639 3
zul  
sin  

ISO 639 6
zul  
sin  

Glottocode
zulu1248  
sinh1246  

Linguasphere
99-AUT-fg  
No data available  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

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

Language Morphological Typology
-  
Fusional  

Countries >>
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Zulu and Sinhalese Language History

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

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

Zulu vs Sinhalese Difficulty

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

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