Swahili Language Kiswahili
Spoken in:	Tanzania Kenya Uganda Rwanda Burundi Congo (DRC) Somalia Oman Comoros Islands (including Mayotte) Mozambique
Total speakers:	First language: 5-10 million Second language: 80 million[1]
Language family:	Niger-Congo  Atlantic-Congo   Volta-Congo    Benue-Congo     Bantoid      Southern       Narrow Bantu        Central         G          Swahili Language
Official status
Official language in:	African Union  Kenya  Tanzania  Uganda
Regulated by:	Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (Tanzania)
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	sw
ISO 639-2:	swa
ISO 639-3:	variously: swa – Swahili (generic) swc – Congo Swahili swh – Swahili (specific)
The areas where Swahili is spoken as a native language (dark green), official or national language (medium green), and trade language (light green). Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. The Republic of Rwanda (ruːˈændə or /rəˈwɑːndə/ in English ɾwanda or in Kinyarwanda is a small Landlocked country in the Burundi (buˈɾundi officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman ( Arabic: سلطنة عُمان) is an Arab Country in Southwest Asia on the southeast The Comoros (ˈkɒməroʊz; جزر القمر Juzur al-Qumur) officially the Union of the Comoros (Union des Comores الإتّحاد القمريّ Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Moçambique or República de Moçambique, ʁɛ'publikɐ d musɐ̃'bik is a country in southeastern Africa List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area number of speakers and number In the classification of African languages, Atlantic-Congo constitutes the core of the Niger-Congo family, with the Noun class systems stereotypical In the classification of African languages Volta-Congo is a hypothetical major branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Benue-Congo group of languages constitutes the largest branch of the Niger-Congo language family both in terms of sheer number of languages of which 880 are known (per Ethnologue In the classification of African languages, Bantoid is a branch of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Niger-Congo phylum In the classification of African languages, Southern Bantoid (or South Bantoid is one of the two branches of the Bantoid subfamily of the Niger-Congo In the classification of African languages, Narrow Bantu is a term commonly used to designate the branch of Niger-Congo containing the numerous Bantu languages The African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other working languages is a Confederation consisting of 53  African The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (National Swahili Council abbreviated as BAKITA is a Tanzanian institution responsible with regulating the Swahili language. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages As a trade language, it extends some distance further to the northwest.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Swahili (called Kiswahili in the language itself) is the first language of the Swahili people (Waswahili), who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands. A first language (also mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) is the language a human being learns from birth The Swahili are a people and culture found on the coast of East Africa, mainly the coastal regions and the islands of Kenya and Tanzania, and north Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Moçambique or República de Moçambique, ʁɛ'publikɐ d musɐ̃'bik is a country in southeastern Africa ^[2] Although only 5-10 million people speak it as their native language,^[1] Swahili is a lingua franca of much of East Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a national or official language of four nations, and is the only African language among the official working languages of the African Union. A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely The African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other working languages is a Confederation consisting of 53  African

Overview

Swahili is spoken natively by various groups traditionally inhabiting about 1,500 miles of the East African coastline. About 35% of the Swahili vocabulary derives from the Arabic language, resulting from the fact that the language evolved through centuries of contact between Arabic-speaking traders and many different Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting Africa's Indian Ocean coast. It also has incorporated Persian, German, Indian and English words into its vocabulary due to contact with these different groups of people. Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya, and Congo (DRC), where it is an official or national language. The neighboring nation of Uganda made Swahili a required subject in primary schools in 1992 — although this mandate has not been well implemented — and declared it an official language in 2005. The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. Swahili, or other closely related languages, is also used by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Somalia, and Zambia, and nearly the entire population of the Comoros.

In the Guthrie nongenetic classification of Bantu languages, Swahili is included under Bantoid/Southern/Narrow Bantu/Central/G.

The name 'Kiswahili' comes from the plural of the Arabic word sāhil ساحل: sawāhil سواحل meaning "boundary" or "coast" (used as an adjective to mean "coastal dwellers" or, by adding 'ki-' ["language"] to mean "coastal language"). Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language (The word "sahel" is also used for the border zone of the Sahara ("desert")). See also Sahel Tunisia, a region of eastern Tunisia. The Sahel or Sahel Belt (from Arabic ساحل sāḥil The Sahara (الصحراء الكبرى aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra, "The Great Desert" is the world's largest hot Desert and the world's second largest The incorporation of the final "i" is likely to be the nisba (adjectival form) in Arabic (of the coast "sawāhalii" سواحلي), although some state it is for phonetic reasons. Arabic is a Semitic language See Arabic language for more information on the language in general

One of the earliest known documents in Swahili is an epic poem in the Arabic script titled Utendi wa Tambuka ("The History of Tambuka"); it is dated 1728. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Utend̠i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka ("The Story of Tambuka" also known as Kyuo kya Hereḳali (the book of Heraclius is an Epic poem Year 1728 ( MDCCXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a The Latin alphabet has since become standard under the influence of European colonial powers.

Although originally written in Arabic script, Swahili orthography is now based on the Latin alphabet that was introduced by Christian missionaries and colonial administrators. The text shown here is the Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer. ^[3]

Mithali (e. g. “Haraka haraka haina baraka - Haste has no blessing". ), i. e. “wordplay, risqué or suggestive puns and lyric rhyme, are deeply inscribed in Swahili culture, in form of Swahili parables, proverbs, and allegory”. ^[4] Mithali is uncovered globally within ‘Swah’ rap music. It provides the music with rich cultural, historical, and local textures and insight.

Name

"Kiswahili" is the Swahili word for the Swahili language, and this is also sometimes used in English. 'Ki-' is a prefix attached to nouns of the noun class that includes languages (see Noun classes below). An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Kiswahili refers to the 'Swahili Language'; Waswahili refers to the people of the 'Swahili Coast'; and Uswahili refers to the 'Culture' of the Swahili People. See Bantu languages for a more detailed discussion of the grammar of nouns. The Bantu languages (technically Narrow Bantu languages) constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family

Sounds

Swahili is unusual among sub-Saharan languages in having lost the feature of lexical tone (with the exception of the Mijikenda dialect group that includes the numerically important Mvita dialect, the dialect of Kenya's second city, the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa). Tone is the use of pitch in Language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is to distinguish or inflect words The Mijikenda ("the nine cities" are the nine Ethnic groups along the coast of Kenya from the border of Somalia in the north to the border of Tanzania in Mombasa is the second largest City in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean.

Vowels

Standard Swahili has five vowel phonemes: /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /ɔ/, and /u/. The pronunciation of the phoneme /u/ stands between International Phonetic Alphabet [u] and [o] (as found in Italian, for example). Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. Vowel reduction is the term in Phonetics that refers to various changes in the acoustic quality of Vowels which are related to changes in stress In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word The vowels are pronounced as follows:

• /ɑ/ is pronounced like the "a" in father
• /ɛ/ is pronounced like the "e" in bed
• /i/ is pronounced like the "i" in ski
• /ɔ/ is pronounced like the "o" in American English horse, or like a tenser version of "o" in British English "lot"
• /u/ is pronounced between the "u" in rude and the "o" in wrote.

Swahili has no diphthongs; in vowel combinations, each vowel is pronounced separately. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with Therefore the Swahili word for "leopard", chui, is pronounced /tʃu. i/, with hiatus. Hiatus (Latin "yawning" (haɪˈeɪtəs in Linguistics is the separate pronunciation of two adjacent Vowels sometimes with an intervening Glottal stop

Consonants

Notes:

• The nasal stops are pronounced as separate syllables when they appear before a plosive (mtoto [m. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Prenasalized stops or consonants are phonetic sequences of nasal plus plosive that behave phonologically like single consonants Implosive consonants are stops (rarely Affricates with a mixed Glottalic ingressive and Pulmonic egressive Airstream mechanism. See also Grassmann's law Spiritus asper Spiritus lenis Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants to. to] "child", nilimpiga [ni. li. m. pi. ɠa] "I hit him"), and prenasalized stops are decomposed into two syllables when the word would otherwise have one (mbwa [m. bwa] "dog"). However, elsewhere this doesn't happen: ndizi "banana" has two syllables, [ndi. zi], as does nenda [ne. nda] (not *[nen. da]) "go".
• The fricatives in parentheses, th dh kh gh, are borrowed from Arabic. Many Swahili speakers pronounce them as [s z h r], respectively.
• Swahili orthography does not distinguish aspirate from tenuis consonants. See also Grassmann's law Spiritus asper Spiritus lenis When nouns in the N-class begin with plosives, they are aspirated (tembo [tembo] "palm wine", but tembo [tʰembo] "elephant") in some dialects. Palm Wine also called Palm Toddy or simply Toddy is an Alcoholic beverage created from the Sap of various species of Palm tree such Otherwise aspirate consonants are not common.
• Swahili l and r are confounded by many speakers (the extent to which this is demonstrated generally depends on the original mother tongue spoken by the individual), and are often both realized as /ɺ/

Noun classes

In common with all Bantu languages, Swahili grammar arranges nouns into a number of classes. Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. In Linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing Nouns A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its Referent The ancestral system had 22 classes, counting singular and plural as distinct according to the Meinhof system, with most Bantu languages sharing at least ten of these. Carl Friedrich Michael Meinhof ( July 23, 1857 &ndash February 11, 1944) was a German linguist and one of the first linguists Swahili employs sixteen: six classes that usually indicate singular nouns, five classes that usually indicate plural nouns, a class for abstract nouns, a class for verbal infinitives used as nouns, and three classes to indicate location.

class	prefix	singular	translation	plural	translation
1, 2	m-/mu-, wa-	mtu	person	watu	persons
3, 4	m-/mu-, mi-	mti	tree	miti	trees
5, 6	Ø/ji-, ma-	jicho	eye	macho	eyes
7, 8	ki-, vi-	kisu	knife	visu	knives
9, 10	Ø/n-, Ø/n-	ndoto	dream	ndoto	dreams
11	u-	ua	flower
14	u-	utoto	childhood

Nouns beginning with m- in the singular and wa- in the plural denote animate beings, especially people. Examples are mtu, meaning 'person' (plural watu), and mdudu, meaning 'insect' (plural wadudu). A class with m- in the singular but mi- in the plural often denotes plants, such as mti 'tree', miti trees. The infinitive of verbs begins with ku-, e. In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages g. kusoma 'to read'. Other classes are harder to categorize. Singulars beginning in ki- take plurals in vi-; they often refer to hand tools and other artifacts. This ki-/vi- alteration even applies to foreign words where the ki- was originally part of the root, so vitabu "books" from kitabu "book" (from Arabic kitāb "book"). Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language This class also contains languages (such as the name of the language Kiswahili), and diminutives, which had been a separate class in earlier stages of Bantu. A diminutive is a formation of a Word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning smallness of the object or quality named encapsulation intimacy or endearment Words beginning with u- are often abstract, with no plural, e. g. utoto 'childhood'.

A fifth class begins with n- or m- or nothing, and its plural is the same. Another class has ji- or no prefix in the singular, and takes ma- in the plural; this class is often used for augmentatives. An augmentative is a suffix or prefix added to a Noun in order to convey the sense of greater intensity often though not primarily indicating a larger When the noun itself does not make clear which class it belongs to, its concords do. Adjectives and numerals commonly take the noun prefixes, and verbs take a different set of prefixes.

The same noun root can be used with different noun-class prefixes for derived meanings: human mtoto (watoto) "child (children)", abstract utoto "childhood", diminutive kitoto (vitoto) "infant(s)", augmentative toto (matoto) "big child (children)". Also vegetative mti (miti) "tree(s)", artifact kiti (viti) "chair(s)", augmentative jiti (majiti) "large tree", kijiti (vijiti) "stick(s)", ujiti (njiti) "tall slender tree".

Although the Swahili noun class system is technically grammatical gender, there is a difference from the grammatical gender of European languages: In Swahili, the class assignments of nouns is still largely semantically motivated, whereas the European systems are mostly arbitrary. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from However, the classes cannot be understood as simplistic categories such as 'people' or 'trees'. Rather, there are extensions of meaning, words similar to those extensions, and then extensions again from these. The end result is a semantic net that made sense at the time, and often still does make sense, but which can be confusing to a non-speaker.

Take the ki-/vi- class. Originally it was two separate genders: artifacts (Bantu class 7/8, utensils & hand tools mostly) and diminutives (Bantu class 12). Examples of the first are kisu "knife"; kiti "chair", from mti "tree, wood"; chombo "vessel" (a contraction of ki-ombo). Examples of the latter are kitoto "infant", from mtoto "child"; kitawi "frond", from tawi "branch"; and chumba (ki-umba) "room", from nyumba "house". It is the diminutive sense that has been furthest extended. An extension common to many languages is approximation and resemblance (having a 'little bit' of some characteristic, like -y or -ish is English). For example, there is kijani "green", from jani "leaf" (compare English 'leafy'), kichaka "bush" from chaka "clump", and kivuli "shadow" from uvuli "shade". A 'little bit' of a verb would be an instance of an action, and such instantiations (usually not very active ones) are also found: kifo "death", from the verb -fa "to die"; kiota "nest" from -ota "to brood"; chakula "food" from kula "to eat"; kivuko "a ford, a pass" from -vuka "to cross"; and kilimia "the Pleiades, from -limia "to farm with", from its role in guiding planting. The Pleiades (ˈpliːədiːz or /ˈplaɪədiːz/ also known as M 45, the '''Seven Sisters''', Seven Stars, SED, Matariki A resemblance, or being a bit like something, implies marginal status in a category, so things that are marginal examples of their class may take the ki-/vi- prefixes. One example is chura (ki-ura) "frog", which is only half terrestrial and therefore marginal as an animal. This extension may account for disabilities as well: kilema "a cripple", kipofu "a blind person", kiziwi "a deaf person". Finally, diminutives often denote contempt, and contempt is sometimes expressed against things that are dangerous. This might be the historical explanation for kifaru "rhinoceros", kingugwa "spotted hyena", and kiboko "hippopotamus" (perhaps originally meaning "stubby legs").

Another class with broad semantic extension is the m-/mi- class (Bantu classes 3/4). This is often called the 'tree' class, because mti, miti "tree(s)" is the prototypical example, but that doesn't do it justice. Rather, it seems to cover vital entities which are neither human nor typical animals: trees and other plants, such as mwitu 'forest' and mtama 'millet' (and from there, things made from plants, like mkeka 'mat'); supernatural and natural forces, such as mwezi 'moon', mlima 'mountain', mto 'river'; active things, such as moto 'fire', including active body parts (moyo 'heart', mkono 'hand, arm'); and human groups, which are vital but not themselves human, such as mji 'village', perhaps msikiti 'mosque', and, by analogy, mzinga 'beehive/cannon'. From the central idea of tree, which is thin, tall, and spreading, comes an extension to other long or extended things or parts of things, such as mwavuli 'umbrella', moshi 'smoke', msumari 'nail'; and from activity there even come active instantiations of verbs, such as mfuo "hammering", from -fua "to hammer", or mlio "a sound", from -lia "to make a sound". Words may be connected to their class by more than one metaphor. For example, mkono is an active body part, and mto is an active natural force, but they are also both long and thin. Things with a trajectory, such as mpaka 'border' and mwendo 'journey', are classified with long thin things in many languages. This may be further extended to anything dealing with time, such as mwaka 'year' and perhaps mshahara 'wages'. Also, animals which are exceptional in some way and therefore don't fit easily in the other classes may be placed in this class.

The other classes have foundations that may at first seem similarly counterintuitive. ^[5]

Verb affixation

Swahili verbs consist of a root and a number of affixes (mostly prefixes) which can be attached to express grammatical persons, tense, and subordinate clauses, which require a conjunction in languages such as English. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself a dependent clause does not express a complete Thought; therefore it is usually attached to an As many of these affixes are sandwiched between the root and other affixes, some linguists call them infixes; however, this is not the general use of that term. An infix is an Affix inserted inside a stem (an existing word

Verbs of Bantu origin, will end in '-a' in the indicative. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. This vowel changes to indicate the subjunctive and negation.

In most dictionaries, verbs are listed in their indicative root form, for example -kata meaning 'to cut/chop'. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically In a simple sentence, prefixes for grammatical tense and person are added, as ninakata 'I cut'. Here ni- means 'I' and na- indicates a specific time (present tense unless stated otherwise).

Verb Conjugation

ni-	-na-	kata
1sg	DEF. TIME	cut/chop

'I am cutting (it)'

Now this sentence can be modified either by changing the subject prefix or the tense prefix, for example:

u-	-na-	kata
2sg	DEF. TIME	cut/chop

'You are cutting'

u-	-me-	kata
2sg	PERFECT	cut/chop

'You have cut'

The complete list of basic subject prefixes, with the m-/wa- (human class) in the third person, is:

Subject prefixes

Person	Sg.	Pl.
1st	Ni-	Tu-
2nd	U-	M-
3rd (animate)	A-	Wa-

The most common tense prefixes are:

Tense and mood prefixes

-a-	gnomic (indefinite time)
-na-	definite time (often present progressive)
-me-	perfect
-li-	past
-ta-	future
hu-	habitual (does not take subject prefix)
-ki-	conditional

The indefinite (gnomic tense) prefix is used for generic statements such as "birds fly", and the vowels of the subject prefixes are is assimilated. For the poetic form see Gnomic Poetry. For the map projection see Gnomonic projection. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract Thus nasoma means 'I read', although colloquially it is also short for ninasoma.

Persons in gnomic tense

1st	na-	twa-
2nd	wa-	mwa-
3rd	a-	wa-

na-	soma
1sg:GNOM	read

'I read'

mwa-	soma
2pl:GNOM	read

'You (pl) read'

Conditional:

ni-ki-nunua nyama wa mbuzi soko-ni, ni-ta-pika leo.

'If I buy goat meat at the market, I'll cook today. '

The English conjunction 'if' is translated by -ki.

A third prefix is the object prefix. It is placed just before the root and refers a particular object, either a person, or rather as "the" does in English:

a-	na-	mw-	ona
3sg	DEF. T.	3sg. OBJ	see

'He (is) see(ing) him/her'

ni-	na-	mw-	ona	mtoto
1sg	DEF. T.	3sg. OBJ	see	child

'I (am) see(ing) the child'

The -a suffix listed by dictionaries is the positive indicative mood. Other forms occur with negation and the subjunctive, as in sisomi:

si-	som-	-i
1sg. NEG:PRES	read	NEG

'I am not reading/ I don't read'

Other instances of this change of the final vowel include the subjunctive in -e. This goes only for Bantu verbs ending with -a; Arabic-derived verbs do not change their final vowel.

Other suffixes, which once again look suspiciously like infixes, are placed before the end vowel, such as the applicative -i- and passive -w-:

wa-	na-	pig	-w	-a
3pl	DEF. T.	hit	PASSIVE	IND.

'They are being hit'

Swahili time

Swahili clock as provided by the Kamusi Project

(East African) Swahili time runs from dawn to dusk, rather than midnight to midday. The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary also known as " Kamusi Project " 7am and 7pm are therefore both one o'clock while midnight and midday are six o'clock. Words such as asubuhi 'morning', jioni 'evening' and usiku 'night' can be used to demarcate periods of the day, for example:

• saa moja asubuhi   ('hour one morning')   7:00 a. m.
• saa tisa usiku   ('hour nine night')  3:00 a. m.
• saa mbili usiku   ('hour two night')   8:00 p. m.

More specific time demarcations include adhuhuri 'early afternoon', alasiri 'late afternoon', usiku wa manane 'late night/past midnight', 'sunrise' macheo and sunset machweo.

At certain times there is some overlap of terms used to demarcate day and night, e. g. 7:00 p. m. can be either saa moja jioni or saa moja usiku.

Other relevant phrases include na robo 'and a quarter', na nusu 'and a half', kasarobo/kasorobo 'less a quarter', and dakika 'minute(s)':

• saa nne na nusu   ('hour four and a half')   10:30
• saa tatu na dakika tano   ('hour three and minutes five')   five past nine
• saa mbili kasorobo   ('hour two less a quarter')   7:45
• saa tatu kasoro   ('a few minutes to nine')

Swahili time derives from the fact that the sun rises at around 6am and sets at around 6pm everyday in most of the areas where Swahili speakers live.

Dialects of Swahili and languages closely related to Swahili

This list is based on Nurse, Derek, and Hinnebusch, Thomas J. Swahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history.

Dialects of Swahili

Modern standard Swahili is based on Kiunguja, the dialect spoken in Zanzibar town, the Zanzibar dialect is considered the ''Swahili Standard There are numerous local dialects of Swahili, many of which are jointly unintelligible, including the following. ^[6]

• Kiunguja: spoken in Zanzibar City and environs on Unguja (Zanzibar) Island. Stone Town or Mji Mkongwe, in Swahili meaning "ancient town" is the old part of Zanzibar City (or Unguja Mjini - the capital of the island Zanzibar ( is part of the East African republic of Tanzania. It consists of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Other dialects occupy the bulk of the island.
• Kitumbatu and Kimakunduchi: the countryside dialects of the island of Zanzibar. Kimakunduchi is a recent renaming of "Kihadimu"; the old name means "serf", hence it is considered pejorative.
• Kimrima: spoken around Pangani, Vanga, Dar es Salaam, Rufiji and Mafia Island. Pangani is a town that lies 45 km south of Tanga, Pangani District in northeast Tanzania. The vangas are a group of little-known small to medium-sized Passerine Birds restricted to Madagascar. Dar es Salaam (دار السلام "Abode of Peace" Dār as-Salām) formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. Rufiji is one of the 6 districts of the Pwani Region of Tanzania. Mafia Island ("Chole Shamba" is part of the Tanzanian Spice Islands, together with Unguja and Pemba.
• Kimgao: formerly spoken around Kilwa and to the south. Kilwa is one of the 6 districts of the Lindi Region of Tanzania.
• Kipemba: local dialect of the island of Pemba. This article is about the island Pemba is also a city in Mozambique and a small town in Zambia.
• Kimvita: the major dialect of Mombasa (also known as "Mvita", which means "war", in reference to the many wars which were fought over it) , the other major dialect alongside Kiunguja.
• Kingare: subdialect of the Mombasa area.
• Chijomvu: subdialect of the Mombasa area.
• Chi-Chifundi: dialect of the southern Kenya coast.
• Kivumba: dialect of the southern Kenya coast.
• Kiamu: spoken in and around the island of Lamu (Amu). Lamu town is the largest town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya.
• Sheng: a sort of street slang, this is a blend of Swahili, English, and some ethnic languages spoken in and around Nairobi in informal settings. Sheng is a Swahili -based Patois, originating in Nairobi, Kenya, and influenced by the many languages spoken there Slang is the use of highly informal Words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's Dialect or Language. Nairobi (naɪˈroʊbɪ is the capital and largest city of Kenya. Sheng originated in the Nairobi slums and is considered fashionable and cosmopolitan among a growing segment of the population.

Languages similar to Swahili

• Kimwani: spoken in the Kerimba Islands and northern coastal Mozambique.
• Kingwana: spoken in the eastern and southern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to Sometimes called Copperbelt Swahili, especially the variety spoken in the south.
• Comorian language, the language of the Comoros Islands, which form a chain between Tanzania and the northern tip of Madagascar. The Comoros (ˈkɒməroʊz; جزر القمر Juzur al-Qumur) officially the Union of the Comoros (Union des Comores الإتّحاد القمريّ
• Chimwiini was traditionally spoken around the Somali town of Barawa. Barawa or Brava ( Baraawe, المدينة ﺑﺮﺍﻭﻱ is a Port town in the south eastern coast of Somalia. In recent years, most of its speakers have fled to Kenya to escape civil war. Whether Chimwiini is Swahili or a distinct language is a question that provokes division within each of the following groups: linguists specializing in Swahili, Chimwiini speakers, and speakers of other Swahili dialects.

{Kizigua}is traditionaly spoken in the lower Juba province in Somalia near to Kismayo city as a dialect by the Bantu Negroes who were brought there in the 19th century as slave.

The rise of Swahili to regional prominence

There is as yet insufficient historical or archaeological evidence to allow one to state exactly when and where either the Swahili language or the Swahili culture emerged. Nevertheless, it is assumed that the Swahili speaking people have occupied their present territories, hugging the Indian Ocean, since well before AD 1000. The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface Arab and Persian traders are known to have had extensive contact with the coastal peoples from at least the 6th Century of the Christian Era, and Islam began to spread along the East African Coast from at least the 9th Century. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding layout and formatting it should ensure no clashes with the top of the infobox

People from Oman and the Persian Gulf settled the Zanzibar Archipelago, helping spread both Islam and the Swahili language and culture with major trading and cultural centers as far as Sofala (Mozambique) and Kilwa (Tanzania) to the south, and Mombasa and Lamu in Kenya, Barawa, Merca, Kismayu and Mogadishu (Somalia) in the north, the Comoros Islands and northern Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman ( Arabic: سلطنة عُمان) is an Arab Country in Southwest Asia on the southeast The Zanzibar Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean: Unguja Island, the largest colloquially There is also Sofala New South Wales Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Mombasa is the second largest City in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. Lamu town is the largest town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. Barawa or Brava ( Baraawe, المدينة ﺑﺮﺍﻭﻱ is a Port town in the south eastern coast of Somalia. Merca ( Somali Marka) is a port city in southern Somalia on the Indian Ocean. Kismayo or Kismayu (Kismaayo كيسمايو; Chisimaio is a Port Mogadishu ( Somali: Muqdisho, popularly Xamar, Hamar; مقديشو Maqadīshū The Comoros (ˈkɒməroʊz; جزر القمر Juzur al-Qumur) officially the Union of the Comoros (Union des Comores الإتّحاد القمريّ

Starting about 1800, the rulers of Zanzibar organized trading expeditions into the interior of the mainland, up to the various lakes in the continent's Great Rift Valley. The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by English explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trough approximately in length that runs They soon established permanent trade routes and Swahili speaking merchants settled in stops along the new trade routes. For the most part, this process did not lead to genuine colonization. Colonisation (also known as Colonization) occurs whenever any one or more species populates a new area But colonisation did occur west of Lake Malawi, in what is now Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, giving rise to a highly divergent dialect. Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa, Lake Nyassa, Lake Niassa, and Lago Niassa in Mozambique) is the most southerly Lake Katanga is a southern province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to

After Germany seized the region known as Tanganyika (present day mainland Tanzania) for a colony in 1886, it took notice of the wide (but shallow) dissemination of Swahili, and soon designated Swahili as a colony wide official administrative language. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Tanganyika is the name of an East African territory lying between the largest of the African great lakes Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika Tanzania ˌtænzəˈniːə officially the United Republic of Tanzania (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya The British did not do so in neighbouring Kenya, even though they made moves in that direction. The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south The British and Germans both were keen to facilitate their rule over colonies with dozens of languages spoken by selecting a single local language that hopefully would be well accepted by the natives. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as Swahili was the only good candidate in these two colonies.

In the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War I, it was dispossessed of all its overseas territories. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Tanganyika fell into British hands. The British authorities, with the collaboration of British Christian missionary institutions active in these colonies, increased their resolve to institute Swahili as a common language for primary education and low level governance throughout their East African colonies (Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, and Kenya). A missionary is a member of a Religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith someone who proselytizes. The Republic of Uganda is a Landlocked country in East Africa. Swahili was to be subordinate to English: university education, much secondary education, and governance at the highest levels would be conducted in English. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Australia See also Education

One key step in spreading Swahili was to create a standard written language. In June 1928, an interterritorial conference was held at Mombasa, at which the Zanzibar dialect, Kiunguja, was chosen to be the basis for standardizing Swahili. ^[7] Today's standard Swahili, the version taught as a second language, is for practical purposes Zanzibar Swahili, even though there are minor discrepancies between the written standard and the Zanzibar vernacular.

Current situation

At the present time, some 90 percent of approximately 39 million Tanzanians speak Swahili. ^[8] Kenya's population is comparable, but the prevalence of Swahili is lower, though still widespread. The five eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (to be subdivided in 2009) are Swahili speaking. Nearly half the 66 million Congolese speak it; [1] and it is starting to rival Lingala as the most important national language of that country. In Uganda, the Baganda generally don't speak Swahili, but it is in common use among the 25 million people elsewhere in the country, and is currently being implemented in schools nationwide in preparation for the East African Community. Buganda is the kingdom of the Baganda people the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda. The East African Community ( EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation comprising five east African countries The usage of Swahili in other countries is commonly overstated, being common only in market towns, among returning refugees, or near the borders of Kenya and Tanzania. Even so, Swahili possibly exceeds Hausa of West Africa as the sub-Saharan indigenous language with the greatest number of speakers, and Swahili speakers may number some ten to fifteen percent of the 750 million people of sub-Saharan Africa (2005 World Bank Data). Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers spoken as a first Language by about 24 million people and as a second language by about 15 [2]

Many of the world's institutions have responded to Swahili's growing prominence. It is one of the languages that feature in world radio stations such as The BBC, the Voice of America (USA), Radio Deutschewelle (Germany), Radio Moscow International (Russia), Ratio China International, Radio Sudan, and Radio South Africa.

In non-African popular culture

In Sid Meier's Civilization IV, a well known turn-based strategy computer game, the menu theme music is a rearrangement of the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, sharing the same name - "Baba Yetu" ("Our Father"). Sidney K Meier (born February 24 1954 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) is an American programmer and designer of several Sid Meier's Civilization IV ( Civilization 4 or Civ4) is a Turn-based strategy computer game released in The Lord's Prayer, also known as the Our Father or Pater noster, is probably the best-known Prayer in Christianity.

In Michael Jackson's 1987 single "Liberian Girl" the repeated intro is the Swahili phrase "Nakupenda pia, nakutaka pia, mpenzi wee!" which translates "I love you too, and I want you too, you my love!"

Disney's animated film The Lion King contains several Swahili references. The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, released in theaters on June 15 1994 "Simba", the main character's name, means lion (this is related to the Sanskrit word simha for "lion"), "Rafiki" means friend, and the name of the popular song "Hakuna Matata" means "no problem". Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical In The Lion King II: Simba's Pride Scar's adopted son is called "Kovu", Swahili for "scar". The Lion King II Simba's Pride (later retitled The Lion King 2 Simba's Pride) is an American Direct-to-video movie released by the

Bungie Studios uses this language in some of its games (Halo 2). Bungie is an American Video game developer founded in May 1991 under the name Halo 2 is a Science fiction First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie Studios.

Gene Roddenberry took the name of Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek from the Swahili word uhuru meaning "freedom". Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry (August 19 1921 &ndash October 24 1991 was an American Screenwriter and producer. Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols, is a character in Star Trek The Original Series and the first six Star Trek films

Also, the word Imzadi used in Star Trek: The Next Generation is derived from Swahili. Imzadi is a word in the fictional language Betazoid used in Star Trek the Next Generation and is a term of endearment Star Trek The Next Generation ( STTNG or TNG) is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning science fiction television program created by Gene Roddenberry It means "beloved".

The Brooklyn-based Afro-beat band The Daktaris took their name from the Swahili word for "doctor", as did the 1960s US television show Daktari. Afrobeat is a combination of Yoruba music, Jazz, Highlife, and Funk Rhythms fused with percussion and Vocal Daktari ( Swahili for "doctor" was a television series that aired on CBS from 1966 to 1969 featuring Marshall Thompson as Dr

Hatari, the Swahili word for "danger," is the name of a 1962 American movie. Hatari! is a 1962 American film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne.

In Buffy the vampire Slayer, the first watchers spoke Swahili. (season 7)

In The Simpsons Smithers speaks Swahili. Marge also lies on her resume saying that she speaks it.

The subsidiary company of eBay kijiji meaning village. Kijiji ( Swahili for village) is a centralized network of online urban communities for posting local Online classified advertisements.

The Content Management System (CMS) Joomla means total. The right spelling would have been Jumla but the pronunciation remains the same.

See also

• Swahili literature
• Mandombe
• UCLA Language Materials Project

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} L Marten, "Swahili", Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed. Swahili literature is generally speaking Literature written in the Swahili language particularly by Swahili people of the East African Mandombe ndopng|68px]]The word 'Mandombe' in the Mandombe script The UCLA Language Materials Project (LMP http//wwwlmpuclaedu maintains a web resource about teaching materials for some 150 languages that are less commonly taught in the United States , 2005, Elsevier
2. ^ Prins 1961
3. ^ http://wikisource.org/wiki/Baba_yetu
4. ^ Lemelle, Sidney J. “‘Ni wapi Tunakwenda’: Hip Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha. ” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 230-54. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Pres
5. ^ See here for details.
6. ^ H. E. Lambert 1956, 1957, 1958
7. ^ Whiteley 1969: 80
8. ^ Brock-Utne 2001: 123

References

• Ashton, E. O. Swahili Grammar: Including intonation. Longman House. Essex 1947. ISBN 0-582-62701-X.
• Brock-Utne, Birgit. 2001. Education for all -- in whose language? Oxford review of education, 27(1): 115-134.
• Chiraghdin, Shihabuddin and Mathias Mnyampala. Historia ya Kiswahili. Oxford University Press. Eastern Africa. 1977. ISBN 0-19-572367-8
• Contini-Morava, Ellen. Noun Classification in Swahili. 1994.
• Lambert, H. E. 1956. Chi-Chifundi: A Dialect of the Southern Kenya Coast. (Kampala)
• Lambert, H. E. 1957. Ki-Vumba: A Dialect of the Southern Kenya Coast. (Kampala)
• Lambert, H. E. 1958. Chi-Jomvu and ki-Ngare: Subdialects of the Mombasa Area. (Kampala)
• Marshad, Hassan A. Kiswahili au Kiingereza (Nchini Kenya). Jomo Kenyatta Foundation. Nairobi 1993. ISBN 9966-22-098-4.
• Nurse, Derek, and Hinnebusch, Thomas J. Swahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history. 1993. Series: University of California Publications in Linguistics, v. 121.
• Prins, A. H. J. 1961. The Swahili-Speaking Peoples of Zanzibar and the East African Coast (Arabs, Shirazi and Swahili). Ethnographic Survey of Africa, edited by Daryll Forde. London: International African Institute.
• Prins, A. H. J. 1970. A Swahili Nautical Dictionary. Preliminary Studies in Swahili Lexicon - 1. Dar es Salaam.
• Whiteley, Wilfred. 1969. Swahili: the rise of a national language. London: Methuen. Series: Studies in African History.

External links

• Ethnologue report on Swahili Ethnologue report on Swahili, Congo
• Omniglot's entry on the Swahili writing system
• UCLA report on Swahili
• PanAfrican L10n page on Swahili
• Swahili Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Factors of Its Development and Expansion
• Swahili educational and cultural Website

Dictionaries and grammar:

• The Kamusi Project: Internet Living Swahili Dictionary
• Online Swahili - English Dictionary
• "Swahili dictionary with etymologies" by Andras Rajki
• Swahili - English Dictionary
• List of Swahili words of Arabic Origin
• On nominal classes in Swahili

Automatic translation:

• Swahili to English translator
• Swahili to English word lookup
• Swahili spell checker

Live Streams

• Bongo Radio (Swahili / English, Tanzanian online radio station)
• Deutsche Welle in Swahili
• ΒΒC news in Swahili