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Swahili vs Chinese


Chinese vs Swahili


Countries

Countries
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya  
China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan  

Total No. Of Countries
4  
11
5  
10

National Language
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania  
China, Taiwan  

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Republic of Brazil  

Speaking Continents
Africa  
Asia  

Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Indonesia, Malaysia  

Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)  
Chinese Language Standardization Council, National Commission on Language and Script Work, Promote Mandarin Council  

Interesting Facts
  • Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
  • The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
    •   
  • Chinese language is tonal, since meaning of a word changes according to its tone.
  • In Chinese language, there is no grammatical distinction between singular or plural, no declination of verbs according to tense, mood and aspect.
  

Similar To
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages  
Not Available  

Derived From
Arabic Language  
Not Available  

Alphabets

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

Alphabets
24  
6
26  
8

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
5  
2
24  
19

How Many Consonants
21  
11
23  
13

Scripts
Latin  
Chinese Characters and derivatives  

Writing Direction
Not Available  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom  

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
3  
2
6  
5

Time Taken to Learn
36 weeks  
10
88 weeks  
13

Greetings

Hello
Habari  
您好 (Nín hǎo)  

Thank You
Asante  
谢谢 (Xièxiè)  

How Are You?
Habari gani?  
你好吗? (Nǐ hǎo ma?)  

Good Night
Usiku mwema  
晚安 (Wǎn'ān)  

Good Evening
Habari za jioni  
晚上好 (Wǎnshàng hǎo)  

Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri  
下午好 (Xiàwǔ hǎo)  

Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi  
早安 (Zǎo ān)  

Please
tafadhali  
请 (Qǐng)  

Sorry
pole  
遗憾 (Yíhàn)  

Bye
bye  
再见 (Zàijiàn)  

I Love You
nakupenda  
我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ)  

Excuse Me
Samahani  
劳驾 (Láojià)  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Kiunguja  
Mandarin  

Where They Speak
Zanzibar island  
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
960,000,000.00  
1

Dialect 2
Kimrima  
Wu  

Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam  
China, United States of America  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
80,000,000.00  
1

Dialect 3
Kimgao  
Yue  

Where They Speak
Kilwa  
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
60,000,000.00  
2

Total No. Of Dialects
12  
12
10  
10

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
150.00 million  
13
1,051.00 million  
2

Speaking Population
Not Available  
16.00 %  
2

Native Speakers
15.00 million  
40
873.00 million  
1

Second Language Speakers
Not Available  
178.00 million  
3

Native Name
Not Available  
中文 (zhōngwén)  

Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili  
Not Available  

French Name
swahili  
chinois  

German Name
Swahili  
Chinesisch  

Pronunciation
Not Available  
Not Available  

Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili  
Han  

History

Origin
6th century  
1250 BC  

Language Family
Niger-Congo Family  
Sino-Tibetan Family  

Subgroup
Benue-Congo  
Not Available  

Branch
Bantu  
Not Available  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
No early forms  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Swahili  
Standard Chinese  

Language Position
Not Available  
1  
1

Signed Forms
Not Available  
Wenfa Shouyu 文法手語 ("Grammatical Sign Language", Signed Mandarin (Taiwan))  

Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
sw  
zh  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
swa  
zho  

ISO 639 2/B
swa  
chi  

ISO 639 3
swa  
zho  

ISO 639 6
Not Available  
Not Available  

Glottocode
swah1254  
sini1245  

Linguasphere
99-AUS-m  
79-AAA  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available  
Subject-Verb-Object  

Language Morphological Typology
Not Available  
Analytic, Isolating  

Countries >>
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Swahili and Chinese Language History

Comparison of Swahili vs Chinese language history gives us differences between origin of Swahili and Chinese language. History of Swahili language states that this language originated in 6th century whereas history of Chinese language states that this language originated in 1250 BC. 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 Chinese Language History.

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

Swahili vs Chinese Difficulty

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

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