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
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
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
Speaking Continents
Africa
Africa, Asia
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries
Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Academy of the Arabic Language, Arabic Language International Council
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.
Similar To
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
Amharic and Hebrew
Derived From
Arabic Language
Not Available
Alphabets in
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200
Arabic.jpg#200
Writing Direction
Not Available
Right-To-Left, Horizontal
How Are You?
Habari gani?
كيف حالك؟
Good Night
Usiku mwema
تصبح على خير
Good Evening
Habari za jioni
مساء الخير
Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri
مساء الخير
Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi
صباح الخير
I Love You
nakupenda
أحبك
Excuse Me
Samahani
اعذرني
Dialect 1
Kiunguja
Maghrebi
Where They Speak
Zanzibar island
Algeria, Libya, Maghreb, Morocco, Tunisia
Dialect 2
Kimrima
Sudanese
Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam
Sudan
How Many People Speak
Not Available
Dialect 3
Kimgao
Levantine
Where They Speak
Kilwa
Cyprus, Levant
How Many People Speak
Not Available
Speaking Population
Not Available
Second Language Speakers
Not Available
Native Name
Not Available
(al arabiya) العربية
Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
Al-’Arabiyya, Al-Fusha, Literary Arabic
French Name
swahili
arabe
German Name
Swahili
Arabisch
Pronunciation
Not Available
/al ʕarabijja/, /ʕarabi/
Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili
Arabs
Origin
6th century
512 CE
Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
Afro-Asiatic Family, Semitic Family
Subgroup
Benue-Congo
Semitic
Branch
Bantu
North Arabic
Early Forms
No early forms
No early forms
Standard Forms
Swahili
Modern Standard Arabic
Language Position
Not Available
Signed Forms
Not Available
Signed Arabic
Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage
Macrolanguage
ISO 639 6
Not Available
Not Available
Glottocode
swah1254
arab1395
Linguasphere
99-AUS-m
12-AAC
Language Type
Living
Living
Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available
Subject-Verb-Object
Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
Fusional, Synthetic
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.