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Swahili
Swahili

Arabic
Arabic



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Swahili
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Arabic

Swahili vs Arabic

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1 Countries
1.1 Countries
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
1.2 Total No. Of Countries
423
Bhojpuri
0 46
1.3 National Language
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen
1.4 Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
1.5 Speaking Continents
Africa
Africa, Asia
1.6 Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
1.7 Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Academy of the Arabic Language, Arabic Language International Council
1.8 Interesting Facts
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
  • Arabic is 5th common language in world.
  • Classical Arabic is the language of Quran and also it is official language. Classical Arabic is the only way to learn Arabic language in academic way and it does not change.
1.9 Similar To
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Amharic and Hebrew
1.10 Derived From
Arabic Language
Not Available
2 Alphabets
2.1 Alphabets in
2.2 Alphabets
2428
Irish
18 247
2.3 Phonology
2.3.1 How Many Vowels
58
Hebrew
0 32
2.3.2 How Many Consonants
2128
German
9 60
2.4 Scripts
Latin
Arabic
2.5 Writing Direction
Not Available
Right-To-Left, Horizontal
2.6 Hard to Learn
2.6.1 Language Levels
34
Bengali
2 12
2.6.2 Time Taken to Learn
36 weeks88 weeks
Cebuano
3 88
3 Greetings
3.1 Hello
Habari
مرحبا
3.2 Thank You
Asante
شكرا
3.3 How Are You?
Habari gani?
كيف حالك؟
3.4 Good Night
Usiku mwema
تصبح على خير
3.5 Good Evening
Habari za jioni
مساء الخير
3.6 Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri
مساء الخير
3.7 Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi
صباح الخير
3.8 Please
tafadhali
من فضلك
3.9 Sorry
pole
آسف
3.10 Bye
bye
وداعا
3.11 I Love You
nakupenda
أحبك
3.12 Excuse Me
Samahani
اعذرني
4 Dialects
4.1 Dialect 1
Kiunguja
Maghrebi
4.1.1 Where They Speak
Zanzibar island
Algeria, Libya, Maghreb, Morocco, Tunisia
4.1.2 How Many People Speak
NANA
Macedonian
1.5 960000000
4.2 Dialect 2
Kimrima
Sudanese
4.2.1 Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam
Sudan
4.2.2 How Many People Speak
NA17,000,000.00
Dzongkha
700 80000000
4.3 Dialect 3
Kimgao
Levantine
4.3.1 Where They Speak
Kilwa
Cyprus, Levant
4.3.2 How Many People Speak
NA21,000,000.00
Romanian
1400 96000000
4.4 Total No. Of Dialects
1226
Sanskrit
0 188
5 How Many People Speak
5.1 How Many People Speak?
150.00 million452.00 million
Abkhaz
0.13 1200
5.2 Speaking Population
NA4.43 %
Xhosa
0.11 89
5.3 Native Speakers
15.00 million206.00 million
Abkhaz
0.13 873
5.3.1 Second Language Speakers
NA246.00 million
Finnish
0.01 400
5.3.2 Native Name
Not Available
(al arabiya) العربية
5.3.3 Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Al-’Arabiyya, Al-Fusha, Literary Arabic
5.3.4 French Name
swahili
arabe
5.3.5 German Name
Swahili
Arabisch
5.4 Pronunciation
Not Available
/al ʕarabijja/, /ʕarabi/
5.5 Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili
Arabs
6 History
6.1 Origin
6th century
512 CE
6.2 Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
Afro-Asiatic Family, Semitic Family
6.2.1 Subgroup
Benue-Congo
Semitic
6.2.2 Branch
Bantu
North Arabic
6.3 Language Forms
6.3.1 Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
6.3.2 Standard Forms
Swahili
Modern Standard Arabic
6.3.3 Language Position
NA25
Chinese
1 120
6.3.4 Signed Forms
Not Available
Signed Arabic
6.4 Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage
Macrolanguage
7 Code
7.1 ISO 639 1
sw
ar
7.2 ISO 639 2
7.2.1 ISO 639 2/T
swa
ara
7.2.2 ISO 639 2/B
swa
ara
7.3 ISO 639 3
swa
ara
7.4 ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
7.5 Glottocode
swah1254
arab1395
7.6 Linguasphere
99-AUS-m
12-AAC
7.7 Types of Language
7.7.1 Language Type
Living
Living
7.7.2 Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available
Subject-Verb-Object
7.7.3 Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Fusional, Synthetic

Swahili vs Arabic Speaking Countries

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

  • Swahili is spoken as a national language in: Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania.
  • Arabic is spoken as a national language in: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

You will also get to know the continents where Swahili and Arabic speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Swahili language is not available and position of Arabic language is 25. Find all the information about these languages on Swahili and Arabic.

Swahili and Arabic Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Arabic language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Arabic language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Arabic language states that this language originated in 512 CE. 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 Swahili and Arabic Language History.

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

Swahili vs Arabic Difficulty

The Swahili vs Arabic difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Arabic 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 Swahili and Arabic are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Arabic, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Arabic time required is 88 weeks.