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Zulu
Zulu

Xhosa
Xhosa



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Zulu
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Xhosa

Zulu vs Xhosa

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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
Lesotho, South Africa

Speaking Continents

Africa
Africa

Minority Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Botswana, Lesotho

Regulated By

Pan South African Language Board
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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.
  • 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.

Similar To

Xhosa Language
Zulu, Swazi, and Ndebele

Derived From

-
Khoi-Khoi and San Languages

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

5753
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

710
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

5043
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Latin
Latin

Writing Direction

-
-

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

33
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

44 weeks44 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Sawubona
Molo

Thank You

Ngiyabonga
Ndiyabulela

How Are You?

unjani
Unjani

Good Night

okuhle ebusuku
Ulale kakuhle

Good Evening

okuhle kusihlwa
Ubusuku obuhle

Good Afternoon

okuhle ntambama
Uben' emva kwemini entle

Good Morning

okuhle ekuseni
Molo

Please

Ngiyacela
Ndicela

Sorry

Ngiyaxolisa
Ndicela uxolo

Bye

bye
Uhambe/Usale kakuhle

I Love You

Ngiyakuthanda wena
Ndiyakuthanda

Excuse Me

Uxolo
Uxolo

Dialects

Dialect 1

Qwabe
Gcaleka

Where They Speak

Gabon, South Africa
South Africa

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.0019,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu
Thembu

Where They Speak

Georgia, South Africa
South Africa

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.0019,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Ndebele
Hlubi

Where They Speak

Zimbabwe
South Africa

How Many People Speak

28,000,000.0019.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

49
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

30.00 million20.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.16 %0.11 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

12.00 million8.20 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

16.00 million11.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

isiZulu
isiXhosa

Alternative Names

Isizulu, Zunda
“Cauzuh” (pej.), Isixhosa, Koosa, Xosa

French Name

zoulou
xhosa

German Name

Zulu-Sprache
Xhosa-Sprache

Pronunciation

[zuːlu]
[ˈkǁʰɔ̀ːsa]

Ethnicity

Zulu people
amaXhosa, amaBhaca

History

Origin

19
16th Century

Language Family

Niger-Congo Family
Niger-Congo Family

Subgroup

Benue-Congo
Benue-Congo

Branch

Beatu
Bantu

Language Forms

Early Forms

urban Zulu
No early forms

Standard Forms

Deep Zulu
isiXhosa

Language Position

8721
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Zulu Sign Language
Signed Xhosa

Scope

Individual
Individual

Code

ISO 639 1

zu
xh

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

zul
xho

ISO 639 2/B

zul
xho

ISO 639 3

zul
xho

ISO 639 6

zul
xho

Glottocode

zulu1248
xhos1239

Linguasphere

99-AUT-fg
99-AUT-fa

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Verb-Object
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

-
-

Zulu vs Xhosa Speaking Countries

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

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

You will also get to know the continents where Zulu and Xhosa speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Zulu language is 87 and position of Xhosa language is 21. Find all the information about these languages on Zulu and Xhosa.

Zulu and Xhosa Language History

Comparison of Zulu vs Xhosa language history gives us differences between origin of Zulu and Xhosa language. History of Zulu language states that this language originated in 19 whereas history of Xhosa language states that this language originated in 16th 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 Xhosa Language History.

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

Zulu vs Xhosa Difficulty

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