KISWAHILI
Swahili
is derived from Arabic word sawahil which means "coast" and
has been "Swahilinised" as Swahili. Thus
Waswahili means the speakers of this coastal language while Kiswahili
is the Language itself.
Kiswahili
is an agglutinative Bantu language mainly spoken in East
and Central Africa. It is the mother tongue (L1) of the Waswahili
people
who inhabit 1500km strip in the East African
Coast. Kiswahili is
linguistically affiliated to Sabaki subgroup of northeastern coast
Bantu languages. It is closest to the Kenyan bantu languages such as
Ilwana, pokomo, and mijikenda (Digo, Giryama, Duruma etc.), which are
spoken in the Kenyacoastal hinterland, and to Comorian (Ngazija,Nzuani,
Mwali, and Maore) of the Comoro Islands.
It's
a cosmopolitan language with infusion of loan words from assorted
languages such as Arabic, Portuguese, English, German, Farsi (Persian)
and
Indian. This resulted from the numerous interactions between the
Waswahili and
the coastal visitors which led to infiltration of both lexical and
cultural concepts
into Swahili language over a long period of time. It was used as the
administrative language in East Africa
during
the Colonial era. The first Swahili Newspaper was published in 1895 by
the
missionaries. It was also used by the missionaries to spread the Gospel
and
convert the indigenous people into Christianity.
It is both an official and national language in Kenya
and Tanzania.
Recently, Uganda
has put measures in place to promote it's official use as in it's
immediate neighbors. It is one of the four national languages of the
Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire); the others being
Kikongo,
Tshiluba and Lingala. Other countries where Swahili is widely used
include; Rwanda, Burundi,
and some parts of Somalia,
Zambia,
Malawi,
Mozambique,
and the Comoro Islands.
Swahili is also used as a Lingua Franca for Eastern
Africa
and the neighboring countries. It is the fastest growing and developing
African
language both within and outside Africa.
Swahili has many dialects but the Standard Swahili commonly known as
Kiswahili
Sanifu was adopted from the Kiunguja dialect that was spoken by the
Waswahili
living in Zanzibar- an island in the
Indian
Ocean which together with Tanganyika
formed Tanzania.
This was because Zanzibar
was the epicenter of culture and commerce.
Probably because of
the long history of contact between the
east African
Coast
(home of Swahili first language
speakers), its origin, historical spread, etc have been subjects of
debate for
a long time among scholars. As such, it is not uncommon to find
information
that looks very different when searching different sources. With regard
to its
origin, for example, three main theories have been fronted over time:
Swahili
is a language of Arabic origin, Swahili is a mixture of Arabic and
Bantu
languages, and Swahili is a Bantu language. While it is a known fact
that
languages in contact always influence each other, some people have
chosen not
to take that into account when commenting about Swahili. For instance,
since
Arabs are known to have traveled to many parts of the world, why is it
that
they apparently found it needful to “donate” their language to the East
African
coast and nowhere else? Were people in the East African coast not
communicating
among themselves before the arrival of Arabs and other visitors?
Suffice it to
say that there is evidence from linguistic research showing that
Swahili is a
Bantu language. Like many other languages of the world have done,
Swahili has
borrowed heavily with the main sources being Arabic and several other
languages, and in fact that has tremendously aided its rapid
development.
Today, Swahili web has touched each and every corner of the world thus
its
speakers are advised not to speak ill of other people anywhere because
you
never know who is listening. Many Swahili speaking interlocutors going
about
their normal activities have been approached by people they least
expected
would know a word they were saying in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Swahili
culture is very interesting and Swahili speakers have always embraced
it with
lots of passion and enthusiasm. It's speakers are welcoming, hospitable
and
always out to market their language and culture. Swahili culture
alongside
wildlife have been the key pillars of East African tourism. Those who
have ever
visited Swahili Speaking cities like Mombasa,
Unguja, Dar-es-Salaam, Lamu, Malindi and Pate have had wonderful
experiences which have
been living testimonies to their people back home.
Swahili
has developed to become a very popular African
language, taught in many leading academic institutions in Africa,
Europe, America and
Asia.
It is offered as subject of study in prestigious universities like
Harvard,
Yale, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania
and many
others. It is estimated that close to 100 institutions teach Swahili in
the US
alone.
Swahili has been taught in SOAS at the University of London
since the 1930s. It is also taught in Canada,
Germany,
Poland,
Mexico,
Russia,
Japan,
India,
and many other countries.
Though
people have had different reasons of learning Swahili, main interests
in this language
have been due to; Its usefulness for research and travel purposes in East
and Central Africa, meeting foreign language requirements in
foreign
academic institutions and retracing the roots for the East African
people living
in Diaspora. It has also been regarded as an easy language to learn and
a
window for accessing East African culture. Many who have studied
Swahili as a foreign
language are continuously finding it useful in voluntary work and in
the job
market, especially among the many organizations that are getting
involved in
several projects in Africa. Many who
go ahead
to establish organizations working in East
and Central Africa either driven by social entrepreneurial goals or
the
traditional Aid Organizations, have also attested to its usefulness in
penetrating
the region.
For more information about Swahili language, it's culture and speakers,
additional
links have been included to supplement the learning materials
in this website.
SWAHILI
WEBSITE