Swahili

Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, is a Bantu language spoken by the Swahili people living mainly in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique. It is spoken by between 150 million and 200 million people, both as a first language and as a second language, with most native speakers in Tanzania and Kenya.

About 40% of Swahili words come from Arabic. This happened when Arab slave traders traded along the East African coast. Swahili also includes words from Portuguese, English, and German. Because of efforts by the governments of Tanzania and Kenya, Swahili is an official language of the East African Community countries, which include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. It is also one of the working languages of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community.

In 2022, the United Nations declared Swahili Language Day on July 7 to honor the day when Julius Nyerere chose Swahili to help unite people during Tanganyika's struggle for independence. Today, many countries in Africa are teaching Swahili in schools to help people communicate across different regions.

Classification

Swahili is a Bantu language that belongs to the Sabaki branch. It is part of Bantu zone G, which is different from other Sabaki languages that are in zone E70 and are sometimes called Nyika. Many words in Swahili come from Arabic, showing the strong influence of Arabic culture. Originally, Swahili was spoken along the East African coast.

History

The word "Swahili" comes from an Arabic name for the area, meaning "coasts".

The Swahili language started from the Bantu languages spoken along the coast of East Africa. Many words in Swahili are similar to those in Unguja, Pemba, and Mijikenda languages, as well as other East African Bantu languages. Over time, Swahili borrowed many words, mostly from Arabic, but also from Persian, Hindustani, Portuguese, and Malay. The grammar and most of the everyday words in Swahili come from the Sabaki language.

During the time when different colonial powers ruled East Africa, Swahili grew and spread. Arabs used Swahili for trade and teaching Islam, and later the Germans made it the official language in schools. After World War I, the British continued to support Swahili, especially in areas like Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar. In 1928, leaders from these places met in Mombasa and chose the Zanzibar dialect as the standard form of Swahili.

Current status

Estimates suggest that between 60 million and 150 million people speak Swahili, either as their first language or as a second language. Swahili is widely used in five countries around the African Great Lakes: Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. It is an official or national language in these places. Many people in Tanzania, especially along the coast, speak Swahili as their first language. In other areas of Tanzania, people often speak Swahili with influences from local languages.

Swahili is also spoken in smaller numbers in Burundi, Comoros, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. In 2015, the East African Community started the East African Kiswahili Commission to help promote and develop the language. Swahili is also used in technology, with tools like spelling checkers, language learning apps, and translation programs available to help people use it.

Religious and political identity

Swahili helped spread both Christianity and Islam in East Africa. When Arabs arrived, they brought Islam and used Swahili to teach it. Many local people adopted Islam and learned from Swahili, which picked up some Arabic words.

When Europeans came, they brought Christianity. They saw Swahili as a useful language for sharing their beliefs and teaching others. Swahili became important for spreading Christianity and for general education.

In the fight for Tanganyika’s independence, the Tanganyika African National Union used Swahili to bring people together. After independence, Swahili became the national language of Tanzania. It helps unite over 120 different tribes and remains a source of pride for Tanzanians.

Phonology

For help with Swahili sounds, see Help:IPA/Swahili.

Vowels

Swahili has five main vowel sounds: /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /ɔ/, and /u/. These sounds can change a little depending on where they appear in a word. For example, some sounds are pronounced a bit differently when they are not stressed or when certain letters come before them.

Consonants

Swahili also has some special sounds, like aspirated consonants, which are not written differently in the alphabet. The letter /r/ can be pronounced in two ways by most speakers. Swahili does not use tones to change meaning like some other languages do.

Orthography

See also: Swahili Ajami

Swahili is now written using the Latin alphabet. There are some special pairs of letters, like ch, sh, ng' and ny, that make unique sounds. Letters like q and x are not used, and c is only used in special cases.

In the past, Swahili was mainly written with a special version of the Arabic alphabet called Ajami. A lot of books were made using this writing style. When the Latin alphabet was introduced, using Ajami became less common. But some people still like to write Swahili this way. Over time, people have tried to make the Arabic alphabet better fit the Swahili language. This effort started in the late 1800s and continued for many years. However, when European countries took control of East Africa, the use of the Arabic alphabet was limited. Even so, many people in rural areas continued to use it well into the 1900s. There were also different ways people wrote Swahili, which sometimes made it hard to understand. Despite this, efforts to make a standard way of writing Swahili with the Arabic letters kept going for many years.

Grammar

Swahili nouns are grouped into classes, much like genders in some other languages. These classes help organize words into groups that share similar meanings or functions. For example, the prefix m- can mean a single person, like mtoto meaning "child," while wa- can mean many people, like watoto meaning "children."

In Swahili, words that describe or relate to nouns must match the noun's class. This includes adjectives, pronouns, and even verbs. This matching system helps make sentences clear and correct.

One interesting class is ki-/vi-, which includes words like tools and small things. For example, kisu means "knife," and kitoto means "infant." This class can also describe things that are a bit like something else or have a small amount of a quality, such as kijani meaning "green" from jani meaning "leaf."

Another class is m-/mi-, often called the "tree" class because it includes words like mti meaning "tree." But it also covers many other things like plants, natural forces, and even active body parts like moyo meaning "heart."

Swahili also uses agreement, where words in a sentence must match the noun they relate to. This makes communication clear and helps avoid confusion.

Dialects and closely related languages

Modern standard Swahili is based on a dialect called Kiunguja, spoken in Zanzibar City.

Swahili has many different dialects, some of which are quite different from each other. For example, Kimwani is spoken in parts of Mozambique, and Chimwiini is spoken in parts of Somalia. There are also dialects like Kiamu, used in literature and poetry from the island of Lamu.

Swahili dialects are grouped in different ways by experts. Some are grouped as Mombasa–Lamu Swahili, which includes dialects from areas like Mombasa and Lamu. Others are grouped as Pemba Swahili, spoken on islands like Pemba and Zanzibar. There are also Swahili-based pidgins and creoles, such as Engsh in Nairobi and Sheng slang also used by young people in Nairobi.

Swahili poets

Swahili poets have created beautiful and meaningful works. Some famous Swahili poets include Dada Masiti, a Kenyan poet from the 1810s, and Shaaban bin Robert, a Tanzanian poet, author, and essayist who lived from 1909 to 1962. Other notable poets are Euphrase Kezilahabi from Tanzania, known for his novels and poetry, and Mathias E. Mnyampala, a Tanzanian writer, lawyer, and poet. Many more talented poets have shared their stories and ideas through the Swahili language.

Oral literature

In 1870, a person named Edward Steere shared 23 Swahili stories with English translations. These stories included tales like "Kisa cha Punda wa Dobi", which means "The Story of the Washerman's Donkey," also called "The Heart of a Monkey." There was also a story named "Mwalimu Goso", meaning "Goso the Teacher," and "Sungura na Simba", meaning "The Hare and the Lion."

Steere also collected many wise sayings and puzzles in Swahili. Some of these sayings include:

• "Mbio za sakafuni hwishia ukingoni." which means "Running on a roof ends at the edge of it."
• "Angurumapo simba, mteza nani?" which means "Who will dance to a lion's roaring?"
• "Mlevi wa mvinyo hulevuka, mlevi wa mali halevuki." which means "He that is drunk with wine gets sober, he that is drunk with wealth does not."

Some of the puzzles he shared were:

• "Nyumba yangu kubwa, haina mlango (yayi)." which means "My house is large; it has no door (egg)."
• "Kuku wangu akazalia miibani (nanasi)." which means "My hen has laid among thorns (pineapple)."
• "Popo mbili zavuka mto (macho)." which means "Two nuts cross a river (eyes)."

Another book from 1881 included more Swahili stories with English translations, along with additional wise sayings and puzzles. Some of these sayings included:

• "Tulingane sawasawa, kama sahani na kawa." which means "We match together, like a dish and a cover."
• "Samaki mmoja akioza, wameoza wote." which means "If one fish is bad, they are all bad."
• "Wa kuume haukati wa kushoto." which means "The right hand does not cut the left."
• "Paka akiondoka, panya hutawala." which means "When the cat goes away, the rat is king."

The puzzles in this book included:

• "Gumugumu huzaa teketeke, gumugumu teketeke huzaa (mahindi)." which means "The hard is the parent of the soft, and the soft of the hard (maize)."
• "Mtoto wangu killa mwaka hulala chini (boga)." which means "My child each year lies on the ground (pumpkin)."
• "Nyumba vangu kubwa haina taa (kaburi)." which means "My great house has no lamp (grave)."
• "Nimetupa mshale wangu, mchana kwenda mbali nikitupa usiku hauendi mbali (macho)." which means "I cast my arrow in the day time, it went far off; it I cast it at night, it does not go far (eyes)."

There are also many other wise sayings in Swahili, like:

• Fuata nyuki ule asali. Which means "Follow the bee so that you may eat honey."
• Baada ya dhiki faraja. Which means "After hardship comes relief."
• Mgaagaa na upwa hali wali mkavu. Which means "The one who busies himself with work will not miss a meal."
• Mwacha mila ni mtumwa. Which means "The person who abandons his culture is a slave."

There are also sayings that tell us when powerful people fight, it is the ordinary people who suffer:

• Wapiganapo tembo nyasi huumia. Which means "Fighting elephants damage the grass."
• Ndovu wawili wakisongana, ziumiazo ni nyika. Which means "Where two elephants argue, the grassland is damaged."

Sample text

Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, is a language spoken by the Swahili people. These people mainly live in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique along the East African coast and nearby islands. Many people speak Swahili, with estimates suggesting between 150 million and 200 million speakers, including those who learned it as a second language. Most native speakers are found in Tanzania and Kenya.