Swahili is a Bantu language spoken mainly in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, and also in Burundi, Mozambique, Oman, Somalia the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa. Estimates for the total number of Swahili speakers range from 88 million to 200 million. There are between 5 million and 16 million native speakers of Swahili, and between 83 million and 183 million people who speak it as a second or foreign language.
Swahili is an official language of Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, and is one of the official languages of the African Union, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community. It is recognised as a minority language in Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Zambia.
The majority of people in Tanzania and Kenya speak Swahili as a second language, and most educated Kenyans are fluent in the language, as it is compulsory in schools, and also taught in universities. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Swahili is spoken in the five eastern provinces, and overall almost half of the population speak it. In Uganda Swahili is widely spoken among non-Baganda people, and is taught in schools.
The name Swahili comes from the Arabic word سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil), the plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil - boundry, coast) and means "coastal dwellers". The prefix ki- is attached to nouns in the noun class that includes languages, so Kiswahili means "coastal language".
Swahili includes quite a bit of vocabulary of Arabic origin as a result of contact with Arabic-speaking traders and and inhabitants of the Swahili Coast - the coastal area of Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, and islands such as Zanzibar and Comoros. There are also words of German, Portuguese, English, Hindi and French origin in Swahili due to contact with traders, slavers and colonial officials.
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The earliest known pieces of writing, in the Arabic script, in Swaihili are letters dating from 1711, and the earliest known manuscript, a poetic epic entitled Utendi wa Tambuka (The History of Tambuka), dates from 1728. During the 19th century Swahili was used as the main language of administration by the European colonial powers in East Africa and under their influence the Latin alphabet was increasingly used to write it. The first Swahili newspaper, Habari ya Mwezi, was published by missionaries in 1895.
Source: http://kevindonnelly.org.uk/swahili/index.php
Hear a recording of the Swahili alphabet by EasySwahili
Download alphabet charts for Swahili (Excel)
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Watu wote wamezaliwa huru, hadhi na haki zao ni sawa. Wote wamejaliwa akili na dhamiri, hivyo yapasa watendeane kindugu.
Arabic script text provided by Ahmed Elshikh
Hear a recording of this text by EasySwahili
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Information about Swahili | Phrases | Numbers | Tower of Babel | Books about Swahili on: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [affilate links]
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Information about the Swahili language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/swahili/guide/facts.shtml
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Swahili-language
http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/swh
Information about the Arabic script for Swahili
http://kevindonnelly.org.uk/swahili/
Online Swahili lessons
http://www.glcom.com/hassan/
http://www.glcom.com/cyberswahili/swahili.htm
http://www.africa.uga.edu/Kiswahili/doe/
http://www.jambokenya.com/swahili.html
http://www.africa.uga.edu/Kiswahili/doe/unitSelect.html
http://www.digitaldialects.com/Swahili.htm
http://polymath.org/swahili.php
http://www.swahilipod101.com/
Learn Swahili online with SwahiliPod101 | Learn Swahili with Glossika | Learn Swahili with Ling
Swahili phrases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/swahili/guide/phrases.shtml
http://www.glcom.com/hassan/lessons/useful_swahili_words.html
http://goafrica.about.com/od/peopleandculture/a/swahili.htm
http://wikitravel.org/en/Swahili_phrasebook
https://www.easyswahili.com/2016/
Online Swahili dictionaries
http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-swahili/
http://africanlanguages.com/swahili/
http://www.swahili.it
http://tshwanedje.com/dictionary/swahili/
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/swa.html
Online Swahili radio and news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/swahili/
http://www.voaswahili.com/
http://www.kiswahili.rfi.fr/
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/kiswahili/
http://swahili.cri.cn/
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/swahili/
by G. O. Oyoo
- includes details of the Swahili alphabet and pronunciation; a guide to Swahili pronouns, sentence structure and sentence construction; useful words and phrases in various scenarios, and an English-Swahili dictionary.
Buy from: Payhip.com
Bangi, Basaa, Bemba, Bena, Benga, Bukusu, Bulu, Central Teke, Chichewa, Chokwe, Chuwabu, Comorian, Digo, Duala, Eton, Ewondo, Fang, Ganda/Luganda, Gogo, Gusii, Gwere, Haya, Herero, Ikizu, Jita, Kamba, Kiga, Kikuyu, Kimbundu, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kisi, Kongo, Konjo, Koti, Kukuya, Kunda, Kuria, Lambya, Lingala, Loma, Lozi, Luba-Katanga, Luchazi, Lunda, Luvale, Makaa, Makonde, Makhuwa, Mandekan, Maore, Masaaba, Mbunda, Mende, Mongo, Mushungulu, Mwani, Nande, Nkore, North Teke, Northern Ndebele (South Africa), Northern Ndebele (Zimbabwe), Northern Sotho, Nyamwezi, Nyakyusa, Nyemba, Nyole, Nyungwe, Nzadi, Oroko, OshiWambo, Pagibete, Punu, Ronga, Sena, Sengele, Shona, Soga, Songe, Southern Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Sukuma, Swahili, Swati, Tanga, Tembo, Tonga, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswa, Tswana, Tumbuka, Umbundu, Venda, Xhosa, Yao, Yasa, Zigula, Zinza, Zulu
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Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 26.04.24
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