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Sinhalese vs Swahili


Swahili vs Sinhalese


Countries

Countries
Sri Lanka   
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya   

Total No. Of Countries
1   
14
4   
11

National Language
Sri Lanka   
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania   

Second Language
Sri Lanka   
Not spoken in any of the countries   

Speaking Continents
Asia   
Africa   

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

Regulated By
Hela Havula (හෙළ හවුල)   
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)   

Interesting Facts
  • In Sinhalese language, there are many loanwords from Dravidian languages mainly Tamil, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
  • Sinhalese language has it own script/ writing system.
  
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   

Similar To
Maldivian Language   
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages   

Derived From
Sanskrit Language   
Arabic Language   

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
54   
33
24   
6

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
18   
15
5   
2

How Many Consonants
36   
26
21   
11

Scripts
Sinhala alphabet   
Latin   

Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal   
Not Available   

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
2   
1
3   
2

Time Taken to Learn
44 weeks   
11
36 weeks   
10

Greetings

Hello
හලෝ (halō)   
Habari   

Thank You
ඔබට ස්තුතියි (obaṭa stutiyi)   
Asante   

How Are You?
ඔබ කොහොමද (oba kohomada)   
Habari gani?   

Good Night
සුභ රාත්රියක් (subha rātriyak)   
Usiku mwema   

Good Evening
සුබ සැන්දෑවක් (suba sændǣvak)   
Habari za jioni   

Good Afternoon
සුභ සන්ධ්යාවක් (subha sandhyāvak)   
nzuri Alasiri   

Good Morning
සුභ උදෑසනක් (subha udǣsanak)   
Habari za asubuhi   

Please
කරුණාකර (karuṇākara)   
tafadhali   

Sorry
සමාවන්න (samāvanna)   
pole   

Bye
බායි (bāyi)   
bye   

I Love You
මම ඔයාට ආදරෙයි (mama oyāṭa ādareyi)   
nakupenda   

Excuse Me
මට සමාවෙන්න (maṭa samāvenna)   
Samahani   

Dialects

Dialect 1
Vedda   
Kiunguja   

Where They Speak
Sri Lanka   
Zanzibar island   

Dialect 2
Not Available   
Kimrima   

Where They Speak
Not Available   
Dar es Salaam   

Dialect 3
Not Available   
Kimgao   

Where They Speak
Not Available   
Kilwa   

Total No. Of Dialects
1   
1
12   
12

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
16.00 million   
99+
150.00 million   
13

Speaking Population
0.25 %   
99+
Not Available   

Native Speakers
16.00 million   
39
15.00 million   
40

Second Language Speakers
2.00 million   
34
Not Available   

Native Name
සිංහල (sĩhala)   
Not Available   

Alternative Names
Cingalese, Singhala, Singhalese, Sinhala   
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili   

French Name
singhalais   
swahili   

German Name
Singhalesisch   
Swahili   

Pronunciation
Not Available   
Not Available   

Ethnicity
Sinhalese people   
Swahili people or Waswahili   

History

Origin
3   
6th century   

Language Family
Indo-European Family   
Niger-Congo Family   

Subgroup
Indo-Iranian   
Benue-Congo   

Branch
Indic   
Bantu   

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
Sinhalese Prakrit   
No early forms   

Standard Forms
Modern Sinhalese   
Swahili   

Language Position
70   
99+
Not Available   

Signed Forms
Not Available   
Not Available   

Scope
Individual   
Individual, Macrolanguage   

Code

ISO 639 1
si   
sw   

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
sin   
swa   

ISO 639 2/B
sin   
swa   

ISO 639 3
sin   
swa   

ISO 639 6
Not Available   
Not Available   

Glottocode
sinh1246   
swah1254   

Linguasphere
No data available   
99-AUS-m   

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living   
Living   

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb   
Not Available   

Language Morphological Typology
Fusional   
Not Available   

Countries >>
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Sinhalese and Swahili Language History

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

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

Sinhalese vs Swahili Difficulty

The Sinhalese vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Sinhalese 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 Sinhalese and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Sinhalese and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Sinhalese is 44 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.

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