Which African language is closest to English?

As a bonus, English is also quite similar to Afrikaans, a South African language that's based on Dutch but includes more indigenous vocabulary.

What language is most closely related to English?

However, the closest major language to English, is Dutch. With 23 million native speakers, and an additional 5 million who speak it as a second language, Dutch is the 3rd most-widely spoken Germanic language in the world after English and German.

Can English speakers understand Frisian?

Frisian is easy to learn for the people who are familiar with English because the vocabulary, structure, and phonetics of the two languages are very close to each other. Even the English and Frisian versions of many sentences can be used interchangeably.

What language is easiest to learn from English?

Spanish has always been a go-to language for English speakers to learn due to its practicality and wide reach. Well, it's also one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.

What is the dialect in Swahili?

The three most important dialects are kiUnguja (or Kiunguja), spoken on Zanzibar and in the mainland areas of Tanzania; kiMvita (or Kimvita), spoken in Mombasa and other areas of Kenya; and kiAmu (or Kiamu), spoken on the island of Lamu and adjoining parts of the coast.

Which Language Is Closest To English?

Is Swahili easy for English speakers?

Swahili is said to be the easiest African language for an English speaker to learn. It's one of the few sub-Saharan African languages that have no lexical tone, just like in English. It's also much easier to read as you read out Swahili words just the way they are written.

What race speaks Swahili?

The Swahili people (Swahili: WaSwahili) comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands, southwestern Somalia and Northwest Madagascar.

What is the quickest language to learn?

Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.

What is the hardest language to learn after English?

What is the hardest language to learn fluently?

Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.

What language is most mutually intelligible with English?

Closest Language: Scots

The closest language to English is arguably Scots. We say arguably as the language is often regarded more as a dialect of English than an actual language.

What race is Frisian?

The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia (which was a part of Denmark until 1864).

Who still speaks Frisian?

Most Frisian speakers live in the Netherlands, primarily in the province of Friesland, which since 1997 officially uses its West Frisian name of Fryslân, where the number of native speakers is about 400,000, which is about 75% of the inhabitants of Friesland.

What language did Jesus speak?

Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.

What 3 languages make up English?

So, English is made of Old English, Danish, Norse, and French, and has been changed by Latin, Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish, along with some words from other languages.

What languages are mixed into English?

Languages that influenced English include Celtic, French, Latin, Greek, and Spanish. Q: When was English first spoken? The origins of English can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxons, who arrived in Great Britain in the 5th century and spoke what is known today as Old English.

What is the hardest language for Americans to speak?

Finally, the “Big Four.” According to the US Department of State, the four most difficult languages to learn are Arabic, Japanese, Chinese and Korean. To become conversational in one of these languages, you'll probably need 1.69 years, spending 2,200 hours in class!

What is the 2 hardest language to speak?

What is the oldest language in the world?

The oldest written languages discovered in the form of cuneiform clay tablets are Hittite, Babylonian and Sumerian, dating to 6,000 years ago, according to linguist Peter J. Wright on Quora. The oldest living language, still in use to date, might be Tamil. This fact is widely debated across linguistic communities.

What is the smartest language to learn?

Do bilinguals learn faster?

“When learning a new language, bilinguals rely more than monolinguals on the brain processes that people naturally use for their native language,” Lead author Sarah Grey added, “We also find that bilinguals appear to learn the new language more quickly than monolinguals.”

What are the top 3 easiest languages?

What is a white person called in Swahili?

Also known as muzungu, mlungu, musungu or musongo, mzungu (pronounced [m̩ˈzuŋɡu]) is a Bantu word that means "wanderer" originally pertaining to spirits. The term is currently used in predominantly Swahili speaking nations to refer to white people dating back to 18th century.

Which African language is best to learn?

Swahili is the language most linguists will think of when talking about lingua francas in Africa. It's co-official with English in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and spoken by anywhere from 50 to 150 million people – the overwhelming majority as a second language.

What is the fastest growing language in Africa?

Hausa language has been described as one of the fastest growing languages as it is spoken all over the world.