Home
Languagevs


Portuguese vs Swahili


Swahili vs Portuguese


Countries

Countries
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe   
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya   

Total No. Of Countries
10   
6
4   
11

National Language
Portugal   
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania   

Second Language
United States of America   
Not spoken in any of the countries   

Speaking Continents
Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America   
Africa   

Minority Language
Australia, Daman and Diu, France, Germany, Goa, Italy, Japan, United States of America   
Not spoken in any of the countries   

Regulated By
Academia Brasileira de Letras (Brazilian Literary Academy), Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras   
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)   

Interesting Facts
  • Portuguese language has absorbed many words from French, Italian, Arabic and also from indigenous South American and African languages.
  • The first written document in Portuguese language was found in the 12th century.
  
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   

Similar To
Spanish and Galician Languages   
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages   

Derived From
Latin   
Arabic Language   

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Portuguese-Alphabets.jpg#200   
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200   

Alphabets
23   
5
24   
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
9   
6
5   
2

How Many Consonants
19   
9
21   
11

Scripts
Latin   
Latin   

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal   
Not Available   

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
6   
5
3   
2

Time Taken to Learn
24 weeks   
6
36 weeks   
10

Greetings

Hello
Olá   
Habari   

Thank You
obrigado   
Asante   

How Are You?
Como você está?   
Habari gani?   

Good Night
boa noite   
Usiku mwema   

Good Evening
boa Noite   
Habari za jioni   

Good Afternoon
boa Tarde   
nzuri Alasiri   

Good Morning
bom Dia   
Habari za asubuhi   

Please
Por Favor   
tafadhali   

Sorry
pesaroso   
pole   

Bye
tchau   
bye   

I Love You
Eu te amo   
nakupenda   

Excuse Me
desculpe me   
Samahani   

Dialects

Dialect 1
Brazilian Portuguese   
Kiunguja   

Where They Speak
Brazil   
Zanzibar island   

How Many People Speak
204,000,000.00   
4
Not Available   

Dialect 2
European Portuguese   
Kimrima   

Where They Speak
Portugal   
Dar es Salaam   

How Many People Speak
10,000,000.00   
9
Not Available   

Dialect 3
Daman and Diu Portuguese creole   
Kimgao   

Where They Speak
Daman and Diu   
Kilwa   

How Many People Speak
4,000.00   
36
Not Available   

Total No. Of Dialects
26   
22
12   
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
231.00 million   
7
150.00 million   
13

Speaking Population
3.27 %   
7
Not Available   

Native Speakers
216.00 million   
5
15.00 million   
40

Second Language Speakers
15.00 million   
18
Not Available   

Native Name
Português   
Not Available   

Alternative Names
Português   
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili   

French Name
portugais   
swahili   

German Name
Portugiesisch   
Swahili   

Pronunciation
[puɾtuˈɣeʃ], [poʁtuˈɡes]   
Not Available   

Ethnicity
Portuguese people or portugueses   
Swahili people or Waswahili   

History

Origin
3rd Century   
6th century   

Language Family
Indo-European Family   
Niger-Congo Family   

Subgroup
Romance   
Benue-Congo   

Branch
Not Available   
Bantu   

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
Medieval Galician   
No early forms   

Standard Forms
Portuguese   
Swahili   

Language Position
6   
6
Not Available   

Signed Forms
Signed Portuguese   
Not Available   

Scope
Individual   
Individual, Macrolanguage   

Code

ISO 639 1
pt   
sw   

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
por   
swa   

ISO 639 2/B
por   
swa   

ISO 639 3
por   
swa   

ISO 639 6
Not Available   
Not Available   

Glottocode
port1283   
swah1254   

Linguasphere
51-AAA-a   
99-AUS-m   

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living   
Living   

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object   
Not Available   

Language Morphological Typology
Not Available   
Not Available   

Countries >>
<< All

Portuguese and Swahili Language History

Comparison of Portuguese vs Swahili language history gives us differences between origin of Portuguese and Swahili language. History of Portuguese language states that this language originated in 3rd Century 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 Portuguese and Swahili Language History.

Compare Most Spoken Languages

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

Portuguese vs Swahili Difficulty

The Portuguese vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Portuguese 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 Portuguese and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Portuguese and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Portuguese is 24 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.

Most Spoken Languages

Most Spoken Languages

» More Most Spoken Languages

Compare Most Spoken Languages

» More Compare Most Spoken Languages