Countries
African Union, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East African Community, Kenya
  
South Africa
  
National Language
Burundi, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania
  
South Africa
  
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe
  
Speaking Continents
Africa
  
Africa
  
Minority Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Regulated By
Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
  
Pan South African Language Board
  
Interesting Facts
- Swahili language has borrowed many words from Arabic language.
- The oldest written scripts in swahili language were found in 18th century.
- The meaning of word "Zulu" means "Sky"and Zulu was the name of the ancestor who founded the Zulu royal line in about 1670.
- Zulu language has many loanwords borrowed from Afrikaans and English Languages.
  
Similar To
Burundi, Rwanda, Malawi Languages
  
Xhosa Language
  
Derived From
Arabic Language
  
Not Available
  
Alphabets in
Swahili-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Zulu-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Phonology
  
  
Scripts
Latin
  
Latin
  
Writing Direction
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Hard to Learn
  
  
Hello
Habari
  
Sawubona
  
Thank You
Asante
  
Ngiyabonga
  
How Are You?
Habari gani?
  
unjani
  
Good Night
Usiku mwema
  
okuhle ebusuku
  
Good Evening
Habari za jioni
  
okuhle kusihlwa
  
Good Afternoon
nzuri Alasiri
  
okuhle ntambama
  
Good Morning
Habari za asubuhi
  
okuhle ekuseni
  
Please
tafadhali
  
Ngiyacela
  
Sorry
pole
  
Ngiyaxolisa
  
Bye
bye
  
bye
  
I Love You
nakupenda
  
Ngiyakuthanda wena
  
Excuse Me
Samahani
  
Uxolo
  
Dialect 1
Kiunguja
  
Qwabe
  
Where They Speak
Zanzibar island
  
Gabon, South Africa
  
Dialect 2
Kimrima
  
central KwaZulu-Natal Zulu
  
Where They Speak
Dar es Salaam
  
Georgia, South Africa
  
Dialect 3
Kimgao
  
Ndebele
  
Where They Speak
Kilwa
  
Zimbabwe
  
How Many People Speak?
150.00 million
  
13
30.00 million
  
36
Speaking Population
Not Available
  
Native Speakers
15.00 million
  
40
12.00 million
  
99+
Second Language Speakers
Not Available
  
16.00 million
  
17
Native Name
Not Available
  
isiZulu
  
Alternative Names
Kisuaheli, Kiswahili
  
Isizulu, Zunda
  
French Name
swahili
  
zoulou
  
German Name
Swahili
  
Zulu-Sprache
  
Pronunciation
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Ethnicity
Swahili people or Waswahili
  
Zulu people
  
Origin
6th century
  
19
  
Language Family
Niger-Congo Family
  
Niger-Congo Family
  
Subgroup
Benue-Congo
  
Benue-Congo
  
Branch
Bantu
  
Beatu
  
Language Forms
  
  
Early Forms
No early forms
  
urban Zulu
  
Standard Forms
Swahili
  
Deep Zulu
  
Language Position
Not Available
  
Signed Forms
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Scope
Individual, Macrolanguage
  
Individual
  
ISO 639 1
sw
  
zu
  
ISO 639 2
  
  
ISO 639 2/T
swa
  
zul
  
ISO 639 2/B
swa
  
zul
  
ISO 639 3
swa
  
zul
  
ISO 639 6
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Glottocode
swah1254
  
zulu1248
  
Linguasphere
99-AUS-m
  
99-AUT-fg
  
Types of Language
  
  
Language Type
Living
  
Living
  
Language Linguistic Typology
Not Available
  
Subject-Verb-Object
  
Language Morphological Typology
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Swahili and Zulu 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 Zulu greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Swahili and Zulu language. Swahili word for "Hello" is Habari or Zulu word for "Thank You" is Ngiyabonga. Find more of such common Swahili Greetings and Zulu Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Swahili vs Zulu Difficulty
The Swahili vs Zulu difficulty level basically depends on the number of Swahili Alphabets and Zulu 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 Zulu are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Swahili and Zulu, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Swahili is 36 weeks while to learn Zulu time required is 44 weeks.