Going from Arabic (MSA) to Swahili (Kiswahili) has a composite linguistic distance of 84% (curated lexical data). Below is the dimension-by-dimension breakdown.
Shared vocabulary, cognates, and loanwords.
Morphology, syntax, word order, cases.
Shared sounds and phoneme inventory.
Arabic → Latin
Afro-Asiatic ↔ Niger-Congo
The 5 languages with the lowest linguistic distance from Arabic (MSA):
A quick 3-question check between Arabic (MSA) and Swahili. No signup.