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Somali
Somali

Swahili
Swahili



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Somali
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Somali vs Swahili

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1 Countries
1.1 Countries
Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
1.2 Total No. Of Countries
34
Bhojpuri
0 46
1.3 National Language
Somalia
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
1.4 Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
1.5 Speaking Continents
Africa, Middle East
Africa
1.6 Minority Language
Yemen
Not spoken in any of the countries
1.7 Regulated By
National Languages Committee, Regional Somali Language Academy
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
1.8 Interesting Facts
  • Somali language is one of the best documented Afro-Asiatic languages.
  • One of the most widely spoken of the Cushitic languages is the Somali Language.
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
1.9 Similar To
Afar and Oromo Language
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
1.10 Derived From
Arabic Language
Arabic Language
2 Alphabets
2.1 Alphabets in
2.2 Alphabets
2624
Irish
18 247
2.3 Phonology
2.3.1 How Many Vowels
55
Hebrew
0 32
2.3.2 How Many Consonants
2121
German
9 60
2.4 Scripts
Arabic, Latin, Osmanya
Latin
2.5 Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Not Available
2.6 Hard to Learn
2.6.1 Language Levels
53
Bengali
2 12
2.6.2 Time Taken to Learn
52 weeks36 weeks
Cebuano
3 88
3 Greetings
3.1 Hello
Hello
Habari
3.2 Thank You
Waad ku mahadsan tahay
Asante
3.3 How Are You?
Sidee tahay ?
Habari gani?
3.4 Good Night
Habeenka Good
Usiku mwema
3.5 Good Evening
Evening Good
Habari za jioni
3.6 Good Afternoon
galab wanaagsan
nzuri Alasiri
3.7 Good Morning
Subax wanaagsan
Habari za asubuhi
3.8 Please
Fadlan
tafadhali
3.9 Sorry
sorry
pole
3.10 Bye
caraysiiyo
bye
3.11 I Love You
Waan ku jeclahay
nakupenda
3.12 Excuse Me
iga raali ahow
Samahani
4 Dialects
4.1 Dialect 1
Northern Somali
Kiunguja
4.1.1 Where They Speak
Gabon, Standard Somali
Zanzibar island
4.1.2 How Many People Speak
NANA
Macedonian
1.5 960000000
4.2 Dialect 2
Benaadir
Kimrima
4.2.1 Where They Speak
Georgia, The capital of Mogadishu
Dar es Salaam
4.2.2 How Many People Speak
NANA
Dzongkha
700 80000000
4.3 Dialect 3
Af-Ashraaf
Kimgao
4.3.1 Where They Speak
Standard Somali
Kilwa
4.3.2 How Many People Speak
NANA
Romanian
1400 96000000
4.4 Total No. Of Dialects
312
Sanskrit
0 188
5 How Many People Speak
5.1 How Many People Speak?
13.00 million150.00 million
Abkhaz
0.13 1200
5.2 Speaking Population
NANA
Xhosa
0.11 89
5.3 Native Speakers
8.00 million15.00 million
Abkhaz
0.13 873
5.3.1 Second Language Speakers
NANA
Finnish
0.01 400
5.3.2 Native Name
af Soomaali
Not Available
5.3.3 Alternative Names
Af-Maxaad Tiri, Af-Soomaali, Common Somali, Soomaaliga
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
5.3.4 French Name
somali
swahili
5.3.5 German Name
Somali
Swahili
5.4 Pronunciation
Not Available
Not Available
5.5 Ethnicity
Somalis
Swahili people or Waswahili
6 History
6.1 Origin
19th century
6th century
6.2 Language Family
Afro-Asiatic Family
Niger-Congo Family
6.2.1 Subgroup
Cushitic
Benue-Congo
6.2.2 Branch
Not Available
Bantu
6.3 Language Forms
6.3.1 Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
6.3.2 Standard Forms
Somali
Swahili
6.3.3 Language Position
83NA
Chinese
1 120
6.3.4 Signed Forms
Somali Sign Language
Not Available
6.4 Scope
Individual
Individual, Macrolanguage
7 Code
7.1 ISO 639 1
so
sw
7.2 ISO 639 2
7.2.1 ISO 639 2/T
som
swa
7.2.2 ISO 639 2/B
som
swa
7.3 ISO 639 3
som
swa
7.4 ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
7.5 Glottocode
soma1255
swah1254
7.6 Linguasphere
No data available
99-AUS-m
7.7 Types of Language
7.7.1 Language Type
Living
Living
7.7.2 Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb
Not Available
7.7.3 Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Not Available

Somali vs Swahili Speaking Countries

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

  • Somali is spoken as a national language in: Somalia.
  • Swahili is spoken as a national language in: Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania.

You will also get to know the continents where Somali and Swahili speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Somali language is 83 and position of Swahili language is not available. Find all the information about these languages on Somali and Swahili.

Somali and Swahili Language History

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

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

Somali vs Swahili Difficulty

The Somali vs Swahili difficulty level basically depends on the number of Somali 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 Somali and Swahili are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Somali and Swahili, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Somali is 52 weeks while to learn Swahili time required is 36 weeks.