Swahili language

Swahili, also known by itslocal nameKiswahili, is aBantu languageoriginally spoken by theSwahili people, who are found primarily inTanzania,Kenya, andMozambique(along theEast Africancoast and adjacentlittoralislands).Estimates of the number of Swahili speakers, including both native and second-language speakers, vary widely. They generally range from 150 million to 200 million;with most of its native speakers residing in Tanzania and Kenya.
Swahili has a significant number ofloanwordsfrom other languages, mainlyArabic, as well as fromPortuguese,EnglishandGerman. Around 40% of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords,including the name of the language (سَوَاحِليsawāḥilī, a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coasts'). The loanwords date from the era of contact betweenArab tradersand theBantuinhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as alingua francain the region.
Due to concerted efforts by the government ofTanzania, Swahili is one of three official languages (the others being English and French) of theEast African Community(EAC) countries, namelyBurundi,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Kenya,Rwanda,Somalia,South Sudan,Tanzania, andUganda. It is the lingua franca of other areas in theAfrican Great Lakesregion andEastandSouthern Africa.Swahili is also one of the working languages of theAfrican Unionand of theSouthern African Development Community. TheEast African Communitycreated an institution called theEast African Kiswahili Commission(EAKC) which began operations in 2015. The institution currently serves as the leading body for promoting the language in theEast African region, as well as for coordinating its development and usage for regional integration and sustainable development.In recent yearsSouth Africa,Botswana,Namibia,Ethiopia,andSouth Sudanhave begun offering Swahili as a subject in schools or have developed plans to do so.
Shikomor(orComorian), an official language inComorosand also spoken inMayotte(Shimaore), is closely related to Swahili and is sometimes considered a dialect of Swahili, although other authorities consider it a distinct language.In 2022, based on Swahili's growth as a prominent international language, theUnited NationsdeclaredSwahili Language Dayas 7 July to commemorate the date thatJulius Nyerereadopted Swahili as a unifying language for African independence struggles.
Swahili is aBantu languageof theSabaki branch.InGuthrie's geographic classification, Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the nameNyika.Historical linguists consider the Arabic influence on Swahili to be significant, since it takes around 40% of its vocabulary directly fromArabic, and was initially spread byArab slave tradersalong theEast Africancoast.
The word `Swahili' comes from anArabicname for the area, meaning "coasts":
The core of the Swahili language originates inBantu languagesof the coast of East Africa. Much of Swahili's Bantu vocabulary has cognates in theUnguja,Pemba, andMijikenda languagesand, to a lesser extent, otherEast African Bantu languages. While opinions vary on the specifics, it has been historically purported that around 16–20% of the Swahili vocabulary is derived from loan words, the vast majorityArabic, but also other contributing languages, includingPersian,Hindustani,Portuguese, andMalay.
Omani Arabicis the source of most Arabic loanwords in Swahili.In the text "Early Swahili History Reconsidered". However, Thomas Spear noted that Swahili retains a large amount of grammar, vocabulary, and sounds inherited from theSabaki language. In fact, while taking account of daily vocabulary, using lists of one hundred words, 72–91% were inherited from theSabaki language(which is reported as a parent language) whereas 4–17% were loan words from other African languages. Only 2–8% were from non-African languages, and Arabic loan words constituted a fraction of that.According to other sources, around 40% of the Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic.What also remained unconsidered was that a good number of the borrowed terms had Bantu equivalents. The preferred use of Arabic loan words is prevalent along the coast, where local people, in a cultural show of proximity to, or descent from Arab culture, would rather use loan words, whereas the people in the interior tend to use the Bantu equivalents. It was originally written inArabic script.
The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written inKilwa,Tanzania, in 1711 in the Arabic script that were sent to the Portuguese of Mozambique and their local allies. The original letters are preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa,India.
Various colonial powers that ruled on the coast of East Africa played a role in the growth and spread of Swahili. With the arrival of the Arabs in East Africa, they used Swahili as a language of trade as well as for teaching Islam to the localBantu peoples. This resulted in Swahili first being written in the Arabic script. The later contact with the Portuguese resulted in the increase of vocabulary of the Swahili language. The language was formalised in an institutional level when the Germans took over after theBerlin conference. After seeing there was already a widespread language, the Germans formalised it as the official language to be used in schools. Thus schools in Swahili are called Shule (from GermanSchule) in government, trade and the court system. With the Germans controlling the major Swahili-speaking region in East Africa, they changed the alphabet system from Arabic to Latin. After the First World War, Britain took over German East Africa, where they found Swahili rooted in most areas, not just the coastal regions. The British decided to formalise it as the language to be used across the East African region (although inBritish East Africa[Kenya and Uganda] most areas used English and various Nilotic and other Bantu languages while Swahili was mostly restricted to the coast). In June 1928, an inter-territorial conference attended by representatives ofKenya,Tanganyika,Uganda, andZanzibartook place inMombasa. The Zanzibar dialect was chosen asstandard Swahilifor those areas,and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted.
Estimates of the total number of first- and second-language Swahili speakers vary widely, from as low as 50 million to as high as 200 million, but generally range from 60 million to 150 million.
Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions of people in the fiveAfrican Great Lakescountries (Kenya,DRC,Rwanda,Uganda, andTanzania), where it is an official or national language. It is also the first language for many people in Tanzania, especially in the coastal regions of Tanga, Pwani, Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Lindi. In the inner regions of Tanzania, Swahili is spoken with an accent influenced by other local languages and dialects. There, it is a first language for most of the people who are born in the cities, whilst being spoken as a second language in rural areas. Swahili and closely related languages are spoken by relatively small numbers of people inBurundi,Comoros,Malawi,Mozambique,ZambiaandRwanda.The language was still understood in the southern ports of theRed Seain the 20th century.TheEast African Communitycreated an institution called the East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) which began operations in 2015. The institution currently serves as the leading body for promoting the language in theEast African region, as well as for coordinating its development and usage for regional integration and sustainable development.
Swahili is among the first languages in Africa for whichlanguage technologyapplications have been developed.Arvi Hurskainenis one of the early developers. The applications include aspelling checker,part-of-speech tagging,language learning software,an analysed Swahilitext corpusof 25 million words,anelectronic dictionary,andmachine translationbetween Swahili and English. The development of language technology also strengthens the position of Swahili as a modern medium of communication.Furthermore,Swahili Wikipediais one of the few Wikipedias in an African language that features a substantial number of contributors and articles.
The widespread use of Swahili as a national language in Tanzania came after Tanganyika gained independence in 1961 and the government decided that it would be used as a language to unify the new nation. This saw the use of Swahili in all levels of government, trade, art as well as schools in which primary school children are taught in Swahili, before switching to English (medium of instruction)in secondary schools (although Swahili is still taught as an independent subject). After Tanganyika and Zanzibar unification in 1964,Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili(TUKI, Institute of Swahili Research) was created from the Interterritorial Language Committee. In 1970 TUKI was merged with theUniversity of Dar es Salaam, whileBaraza laKiswahili la Taifa(BAKITA) was formed. BAKITA is an organisation dedicated to the development and advocacy of Swahili as a means of national integration in Tanzania. Key activities mandated for the organisation include creating a healthy atmosphere for the development of Swahili, encouraging use of the language in government and business functions, coordinating activities of other organisations involved with Swahili, standardising the language. BAKITA vision are: "1.To efficiently manage and coordinate the development and use of Kiswahili in Tanzania 2.To participate fully and effectively in promoting Swahili in East Africa, Africa and the entire world over".Although other bodies and agencies can propose new vocabularies, BAKITA is the only organisation that can approve its usage in the Swahili language. Tanzanians are highly credited for shaping the language to appear the way it is now.
In Kenya, Kiswahili has been the national language since 1964 and is official since 2010.Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa(CHAKITA) was established in 1998 to research and promote Kiswahili language in Kenya.Kiswahili is a compulsory subject in all Kenyan primary and secondary schools.
Swahili is recognized as a national language in theDemocratic Republic of The Congoand is widely spoken in the eastern regions. The local dialects of Swahili inCongoare known asCongo Swahiliand differ considerably from Standard Swahili.
In order to strengthen political ties with otherEast African Communitynations, both Kiswahili and English have been taught in Burundian elementary schools since the academic year 2005/2006. Kiswahili is now used widely in Burundi but is not recognised as an official language; only French, Kirundi, and English have this distinction.Since 2013, Swahili has been included in the all Burundian education system.
Uganda adopted Kiswahili as one of its official languages (alongsideEnglish) in 2022, and also made it compulsory across primary and secondary schools in the country.
TheSomali languageis the national and primary first language of Somalia.The Swahili language is not widespread in Somalia and has noofficial statusnationally or regionally.Dialectsof Swahili are spoken by someethnic minoritieson theBajuni islandsin the form ofKibajunion the southern tip of the country and in the town ofBravain the form ofChimwiini; both contain a significant amount ofSomaliandItalianloanwords.Standard Swahili is generally only spoken by Somali nationals who have resided in Kenya and subsequently returned to Somalia.Lastly, a closely related languageMushunguli(also known as Zigula, Zigua, or Chizigua) is spoken by some of theSomali Bantuethnic minority mostly living in theJubba Valley.It is classified as aNortheast Coast Bantu languageas Swahili isand has some intelligibility with Swahili.
In 2024, Somalia joined theEast African Communityand its inclusion may facilitate the spread of the Swahili language in Somalia.Nevertheless, in Somalia, Swahili, as a foreign language, will have to compete withEnglish; the primary globallingua franca,Arabic; the official second language of Somalia and aliturgical languagefor Muslims,as popular secondary or tertiary languages. Consequently, there is significant uncertainty regarding the adoption of the Swahili language in Somalia compared to the situation in most other EAC member states.
Swahili played a major role in spreading bothChristianityandIslaminEast Africa. From their arrival in East Africa,Arabsbrought Islam and set upmadrasas, where they used Swahili to teach Islam to the natives. As the Arab presence grew, more and more natives converted to Islam and were taught using the Swahili language.
From the arrival ofEuropeansin East Africa, Christianity was introduced to the region. While the Arabs were mostly based in the coastal areas, European missionaries went further inland spreading Christianity. As the first missionary posts in East Africa were in the coastal areas, missionaries picked up Swahili and used it to spread Christianity, since it contained many similarities with other indigenous languages in the region.
During the struggle for Tanganyika independence, theTanganyika African National Unionused Swahili as a language of mass organisation and political movement. This included publishing pamphlets and radio broadcasts to rally the people to fight for independence. After gaining independence, Swahili was adopted as the national language. To this day, Tanzanians carry a sense of pride when it comes to Swahili, especially when it is used to unite over 120 tribes across Tanzania. Swahili was used to strengthen solidarity within the nation, and remains to be a key identity of the Tanzanian people.
Standard Swahili has five vowelphonemes:/ɑ/,/ɛ/,/i/,/ɔ/, and/u/. According toEllen Contini-Morava, vowels are neverreduced, regardless ofstress.However, according toEdgar Polomé, these five phonemes can vary in pronunciation. Polomé claims that/ɛ/,/i/,/ɔ/, and/u/are pronounced as such only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, as well as before aprenasalized consonant, they are pronounced as[e],[ɪ],[o], and[ʊ].Eis also commonly pronounced as mid-position afterw. Polomé claims that/ɑ/is pronounced as such only afterwand is pronounced as[a]in other situations, especially after/j/(y).Acan be pronounced as[ə]in word-final position.Long vowelsin Swahili are written as doubled vowels (for example,kondoo, "sheep") due to a historical process in which/l/becameelidedbetween the second last and last vowels of a word (for example,kondoo, "sheep" was originallykondolo, which survives in certain dialects). As a consequence, long vowels are not consideredphonemic. A similar process exists inZulu.
Where not shown, the orthography is the same as IPA.
Some dialects of Swahili may also have the aspirated phonemes/pʰtʰtʃʰkʰbʱdʱdʒʱɡʱ/though they are unmarked in Swahili's orthography.Multiple studies favour classifying prenasalization as consonant clusters, not as separate phonemes. Historically, nasalization has been lost before voiceless consonants, and subsequently the voiced consonants have devoiced,though they are still writtenmb, ndetc. The/r/phoneme is realised as either a short trill[r]or more commonly as a single tap[ɾ]by most speakers.[x]exists in free variation with h, and is only distinguished by some speakers.In some Arabic loans (nouns, verbs, adjectives), emphasis or intensity is expressed by reproducing the original emphatic consonants/dˤ,sˤ,tˤ,ðˤ/and the uvular/q/, or lengthening a vowel, where aspiration would be used in inherited Bantu words.
Swahili is now written in the Latin alphabet. There are a fewdigraphsfor native sounds,ch,sh,ng'andny;qandxare not used,cis not used apart from the digraphch, unassimilated English loans and, occasionally, as a substitute forkin advertisements. There are also several digraphs for Arabic sounds, which many speakers outside of ethnic Swahili areas have trouble differentiating.
The language used to be primarily written in theAjami script, which is an Arabic script. Much literature was produced in this script. With the introduction of Latin, the use of Ajami script has been diminished significantly. However, the language continues to have a tradition of being written in Arabic script.Starting from the later half of the 19th century, continuing into the 20th century, and going on in the 21st century, a process of "Swahilization" of the Arabic Script has been underway by Swahili scribes and scholars. The first of such attempts was done byMwalimu Sikujua, a scholar and poet fromMombasa.However, the spread of a standardized indigenous variation of Arabic script for Swahili was hampered by the colonial takeover of East Africa bythe United KingdomandGermany. The usage of Arabic script was suppressed inGerman East Africaand to a lesser extent inBritish East Africa. Nevertheless, well into the 1930s and 1940s, rural literacy rate in Arabic script as well as a local preference to write Swahili in the Arabic script (an unmodified version as opposed to proposals such as that of Mwalimu Sikujua) was relatively high.There were also differences in orthographic conventions between cities and authors and over the centuries, some quite precise but others different enough to cause difficulties with intelligibility. Thus despite a lack of official governmental backing, attempts at standardization and Swahilization of the Arabic script continued into the 20th century.
Swahili nouns are separable intoclasses, which are roughly analogous togendersin other languages. In Swahili,prefixesmark groups of similar objects:⟨m-⟩marks single human beings (mtoto'child'),⟨wa-⟩marks multiple humans (watoto'children'),⟨u-⟩marks abstract nouns (utoto'childhood'), and so on. And just as adjectives and pronouns must agree with the gender of nouns in some languages with grammatical gender, so in Swahili adjectives, pronouns and even verbs must agree with nouns. This is a characteristic feature of all theBantu languages.
Theki-/vi-class historically consisted of two separate genders, artefacts (Bantu class 7/8, utensils and hand tools mostly) and diminutives (Bantu class 12/13), which were conflated at a stage ancestral to Swahili. Examples of the former arekisu"knife",kiti"chair" (frommti"tree, wood"),chombo"vessel" (a contraction ofki-ombo). Examples of the latter arekitoto"infant", frommtoto"child";kitawi"frond", fromtawi"branch"; andchumba(ki-umba) "room", fromnyumba"house". It is the diminutive sense that has been furthest extended. An extension common to diminutives in many languages isapproximationandresemblance(having a 'little bit' of some characteristic, like-yor-ishin English). For example, there iskijani"green", fromjani"leaf" (compare English 'leafy'),kichaka"bush" fromchaka"clump", andkivuli"shadow" fromuvuli"shade". A 'little bit' of a verb would be an instance of an action, and suchinstantiations(usually not very active ones) are found:kifo"death", from the verb-fa"to die";kiota"nest" from-ota"to brood";chakula"food" fromkula"to eat";kivuko"a ford, a pass" from-vuka"to cross"; andkilimia"thePleiades", from-limia"to farm with", from its role in guiding planting. 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 theki-/vi-prefixes. One example ischura(ki-ura) "frog", which is only half terrestrial and therefore is 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 forkifaru"rhinoceros",kingugwa"spotted hyena", andkiboko"hippopotamus" (perhaps originally meaning "stubby legs").
Another class with broad semantic extension is them-/mi-class (Bantu classes 3/4). This is often called the 'tree' class, becausemti, miti"tree(s)" is the prototypical example. However, it seems to cover vital entities neither human nor typical animals: trees and other plants, such asmwitu'forest' andmtama'millet' (and from there, things made from plants, likemkeka'mat'); supernatural and natural forces, such asmwezi'moon',mlima'mountain',mto'river'; active things, such asmoto'fire', including active body parts (moyo'heart',mkono'hand, arm'); and human groups, which are vital but not themselves human, such asmji'village', and, by analogy,mzinga'beehive/cannon'. From the central idea oftree, which is thin, tall, and spreading, comes an extension to other long or extended things or parts of things, such asmwavuli'umbrella',moshi'smoke',msumari'nail'; and from activity there even come active instantiations of verbs, such asmfuo"metal forging", from-fua"to forge", ormlio"a sound", from-lia"to make a sound". Words may be connected to their class by more than one metaphor. For example,mkonois an active body part, andmtois an active natural force, but they are also both long and thin. Things with a trajectory, such asmpaka'border' andmwendo'journey', are classified with long thin things, as in many other languages with noun classes. This may be further extended to anything dealing with time, such asmwaka'year' and perhapsmshahara'wages'. Animals exceptional in some way and so not easily fitting in the other classes may be placed in this class.
The other classes have foundations that may at first seem similarly counterintuitive.In short,
Borrowings may or may not be given a prefix corresponding to the semantic class they fall in. For example, Arabicدودdūd("bug, insect") was borrowed asmdudu, pluralwadudu, with the class 1/2 prefixesm-andwa-, but Arabicفلوسfulūs("fish scales", plural ofفلسfals) and Englishslothwere borrowed as simplyfulusi("mahi-mahi" fish) andslothi("sloth"), with no prefix associated with animals (whether those of class 9/10 or 1/2).
In the process of naturalizationof borrowings within Swahili, loanwords are often reinterpreted, or reanalysed,as if they already contain a Swahili class prefix. In such cases the interpreted prefix is changed with the usual rules. Consider the following loanwords from Arabic:
Similarly, Englishwireand Arabicوقتwaqt("time") were interpreted as having the class 11 prevocalic prefixw-, and becamewayaandwakatiwith pluralnyayaandnyakatirespectively.
Swahili phrases agree with nouns in a system ofconcordbut, if the noun refers to a human, they accord with noun classes 1–2 regardless of their noun class. Verbs agree with the noun class of their subjects and objects; adjectives, prepositions and demonstratives agree with the noun class of their nouns. In Standard Swahili(Kiswahili sanifu), based on the dialect spoken in Zanzibar, the system is rather complex; however, it is drastically simplified in many local variants where Swahili is not a native language, such as in Nairobi. In non-native Swahili, concord reflects only animacy: human subjects and objects triggera-, wa-andm-, wa-in verbal concord, while non-human subjects and objects of whatever class triggeri-, zi-. Infinitives vary between standardku-and reducedi-.("Of" is animatewaand inanimateya, za.)
In Standard Swahili, human subjects and objects of whatever class trigger animacy concord ina-, wa-andm-, wa-,and non-human subjects and objects trigger a variety of gender-concord prefixes.
This list is based onSwahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history.
Modern standard Swahili, written in Latin, is based onKiunguja,the dialect spoken inZanzibar City.
Swahili literature and poetry, traditionally written inSwahili Ajami, is based onKiamu, the dialect ofLamuon the Kenyan Coast.
But there are numerous other dialects of Swahili, some of which are mutually unintelligible, such as the following:
Maho (2009) considers these to be distinct languages:
The rest of the dialects are divided by himinto two groups:
Maho includes the variousComoriandialects as a third group. Most other authorities consider Comorian to be aSabakilanguage, distinct from Swahili.
InSomalia, where theAfroasiaticSomali languagepredominates, a variant of Swahili referred to asChimwiini(also known as Chimbalazi) is spoken along theBenadircoast by theBravanese people.Another Swahili dialect known asKibajunialso serves as the mother tongue of theBajuniminority ethnic group, which lives in the tinyBajuni Islandsas well as the southernKismayoregion.
InOman, there are an estimated 52,000 people who speak Swahili as of 2020.Most are descendants of those repatriated after the fall of theSultanate of Zanzibar.
There are Swahili-based slangs, pidgins and creoles:
In 1870,Edward SteerepublishedSwahili Tales as Told by Natives of Zanzibar, a collection of 23 Swahili tales with facing-text English translation, along with a selection of proverbs and riddles.Some of the tales included are: "Kisa cha Punda wa Dobi,""The Story of the Washerman's Donkey," also known as "The Heart of a Monkey;" "Mwalimu Goso,""Goso the Teacher," acumulative tale; and
"Sungura na Simba,""The Hare and the Lion," a story about thetrickster hare.
Here are some of the proverbs that Steere recorded in Swahili:
Here are some of the riddles that Steere recorded in Swahili:
Steere also includes the formulaic announcement of a riddle:
An anonymous publication from 1881,Swahili Stories from Arab Sources with an English Translation, includes 15 stories in Swahili with English translations, plus an additional 14 Swahili stories that are not translated. There is also a selection of proverbs and riddles with English translations.
Here are some of the proverbs:
Here are some of the riddles:
For additional collections of Swahili prose from the 19th century, see the inventory in J. D. Rollins'sA History of Swahili Prose from Earliest Times to the End of the Nineteenth Century.
Two sayings with the same literal meaning ofWhere elephants fight, the grass is trampledor figuratively speaking, when those with power fight, it is those below them who suffer: