Swahili language

The Swahili language dates its origin to the Bantu people of the coast of East Africa. The Swahili language is a daughter language of the Pokomo language which is also known as Kingozi. Most of the Bantu Swahili vocabulary is derived primarily from the Pokomo, Taita and Mijikenda languages and secondarily from other East African Bantu languages. Approximately 30% of the Swahili vocabulary is derived from Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, Portuguese, and Malay with Arabic contributing a majority of the foreign loan words in the Swahili language. It was originally written in Arabic script.[17]

The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written in Kilwa 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.[18][19]

Its name comes from Arabic: سَاحِل sāħil = "coast", broken plural سَوَاحِل sawāħil = "coasts", سَوَاحِلِىّ sawāħilï = "of coasts".

Although originally written with the Arabic script, Swahili is now written in a Latin alphabet introduced by Christian missionaries and colonial administrators. The text shown here is the Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer.[20]

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 teaching Islam to the local Bantu peoples. This resulted in Swahili first being written in the Arabic alphabet. 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 the Berlin conference. After seeing that there is already a widespread language the Germans decided to formalise it and made it the official language to be used in schools, thus schools in Swahili are called Shule(German = Schule), 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 East Africa and found that Swahili was rooted in most areas East Africa and wasn't only spoken at the coastal regions, they decided to formalise it as language to be used across the East African region(although in British East Africa of Kenya and Uganda most areas used English and their native language while Swahili was mostly restricted to the coast). In June 1928, an inter territorial conference attended by representatives of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar took place in Mombasa. The Zanzibar dialect was chosen as standard Swahili for those areas,[21] and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted.[22]

Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three African Great Lakes countries (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) where it is an official or national language while being the first language to many people in Tanzania especially along 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 local languages and dialects, and as a first language for most people born in the cities, whilst being spoken as a second language in rural areas. The widespread use of Swahili as a nation language in Tanzania came after Tanganyika got her independence in 1961 and the government decided that it would be used as a language to unify the new nation. That 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 in Secondary schools (although Swahili is still taught as an independent subject). In 1985, with the 8–4–4 system of education, Swahili was made a compulsory subject in all Kenyan schools.[23] Swahili and closely related languages are spoken by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Comoros, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.[24] The language was still understood in the southern ports of the Red Sea in the 20th century.[25][26] Swahili speakers may number 120 to 150 million in total.[27]

After Tanganyika and Zanzibar Unification in 1964, Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili(TUKI)(Institute of Swahili Research) was created from the Interterritorial Language Committee and in 1970 it was merged with the University of Dar es salaam and Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa(BAKITA) was formed and TUKI becoming an academic research institute under the University of Dar es salaam.

BAKITA was formed as an organisation dedicated to the development and advocacy of Swahili as a means of national integration in Tanzania. Key activities mandated for the organization include creating a healthy atmosphere for the development of Swahili, encouraging use of the language in government and business functions, coordinating activities of other organizations involved with Swahili, standardizing the language. Although other bodies and agencies can propose new vocabularies, BAKITA is the only organisation in the world that can approve its usage in the Swahili language. In Kenya, Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (CHAKITA) was established in 1998 to research and propose means to which Kiswahili can be integrated to a national language.

Swahili is among the first languages in Africa for which language technology applications have been developed. Arvi Hurskainen is one of the early developers. The applications include a spelling checker,[28] part-of-speech tagging,[29] a language learning software,[29] an analysed Swahili text corpus of 25 million words,[30] an electronic dictionary,[29] and machine translation[29] between Swahili and English. The development of language technology also strengthens the position of Swahili as a modern medium of communication.[31]

Swahili played a major role in spreading both Christianity and Islam in East Africa. With the arrival of Arabs in East Africa they brought Islam and to which they set up Madrasas and used Swahili to teach Islam to the natives. As the Arab presence grew, more and more native were converted to Islam and were taught using the Swahili language.

The arrival of Europeans in East Africa, Christianity was introduced in East Africa. While the Arabs were mostly centered at the coastal areas, European missionaries went further inland spreading Christianity. With the first missionary posts in East Africa being located in the coastal areas, the missionaries picked up Swahili and used it to spread Christianity since it had a lot of similarities with a lot of indigenous languages.

During the struggle for Tanganyika independence, Tanganyika African National Union used Swahili as language of mass organisation and political movement. This included publishing pamphlets and radio broadcasts to rally the people to fight for independence. After independence, Swahili was adopted as the national language of the nation. Till 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 among the people and a sense of togetherness and for that Swahili remains a key identity of the Tanzanian people.

Standard Swahili has five vowel phonemes: /ɑ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /ɔ/, and /u/. Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress.[34] Swahili vowels can be long; these are written as two vowels (example: Kondoo, meaning "sheep"). This is due to a historical process in which the L became deleted between two examples of the same vowel (Kondoo was originally pronounced Kondolo, which survives in certain dialects). However, these long vowels are not considered to be phonemic. A similar process exists in Zulu.

Some dialects of Swahili may also have the aspirated phonemes /pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ bʰ dʰ dʒʰ ɡʰ/ though they are unmarked in Swahili's Orthography.[36] Multiple studies favor classifying prenasalization as consonant clusters, not as separate phonemes. The /r/ phoneme is realised as either a short trill [r] or more commonly as a single tap [ɾ] by most speakers.[37] In some Arabic loans (nouns, verbs, adjectives), emphasis or intensity is expressed by reproducing the original emphatic consonants /dˤ, sˤ, tˤ, zˤ/ and the uvular /q/, or lengthening a vowel, where aspiration would be used in inherited Bantu words.[38]

Swahili nouns are separable into classes, which are roughly analogous to genders in other languages. For example, just as suffix <-o> in Spanish marks masculine objects, and <-a> marks feminine ones, so, in Swahili, prefixes mark 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. Similar prefixes must be used on verbs and particles in agreement with the governing noun in a phrase. This is a characteristic feature of all the Bantu languages of sub-Saharan Africa, and traces of it are also found in the other Niger-Congo languages of West Africa.

The ki-/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 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 diminutives in many languages is approximation and resemblance (having a 'little bit' of some characteristic, like -y or -ish in 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 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. 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 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 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. However, it seems to cover vital entities 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', 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 "metal forging", from -fua "to forge", 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, as in many other languages with noun classes. This may be further extended to anything dealing with time, such as mwaka 'year' and perhaps mshahara '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.[41] In short,

• Classes 1–2 include most words for people: kin terms, professions, ethnicities, etc., including translations of most English words ending in -er. They include a couple of generic words for animals: mnyama 'beast', mdudu 'bug'.
• Classes 5–6 have a broad semantic range of groups, expanses, and augmentatives. Although interrelated, it is easier to illustrate if broken down:
  • Augmentatives, such as joka 'serpent' from nyoka 'snake', lead to titles and other terms of respect (the opposite of diminutives, which lead to terms of contempt): Bwana 'Sir', shangazi 'aunt', fundi 'craftsman', kadhi 'judge'
  • Expanses: ziwa 'lake', bonde 'valley', taifa 'country', anga 'sky'
    • from this, mass nouns: maji 'water', vumbi 'dust' (and other liquids and fine particulates which may cover broad expanses), kaa 'charcoal', mali 'wealth', maridhawa 'abundance'
  • Collectives: kundi 'group', kabila 'language/ethnic group', jeshi 'army', daraja ' stairs', manyoya 'fur, feathers', mapesa 'small change', manyasi 'weeds', jongoo 'millipede' (large set of legs), marimba 'xylophone' (large set of keys)
    • from this, individual things found in groups: jiwe 'stone', tawi 'branch', ua 'flower', tunda 'fruit' (also the names of most fruits), yai 'egg', mapacha 'twins', jino 'tooth', tumbo 'stomach' (cf. English "guts"), and paired body parts such as jicho 'eye', bawa 'wing', etc.
    • also collective or dialogic actions, which occur among groups of people: neno 'a word', from kunena 'to speak' (and by extension, mental verbal processes: wazo 'thought', maana 'meaning'); pigo 'a stroke, blow', from kupiga 'to hit'; gomvi 'a quarrel', shauri 'advice, plan', kosa 'mistake', jambo 'affair', penzi 'love', jibu 'answer', agano 'promise', malipo 'payment'
    • From pairing, reproduction is suggested as another extension (fruit, egg, testicle, flower, twins, etc.), but these generally duplicate one or more of the subcategories above
• Classes 9–10 are used for most typical animals: ndege 'bird', samaki 'fish', and the specific names of typical beasts, birds, and bugs. However, this is the 'other' class, for words not fitting well elsewhere, and about half of the class 9–10 nouns are foreign loanwords. Loans may be classified as 9–10 because they lack the prefixes inherent in other classes, and most native class 9–10 nouns have no prefix. Thus they do not form a coherent semantic class, though there are still semantic extensions from individual words.
• Class 11 (which takes class 10 for the plural) are mostly nouns with an "extended outline shape", in either one dimension or two:
  • mass nouns that are generally localized rather than covering vast expanses: uji 'porridge', wali 'cooked rice'
  • broad: ukuta 'wall', ukucha 'fingernail', upande 'side' (≈ ubavu 'rib'), wavu 'net', wayo 'sole, footprint', ua 'fence, yard', uteo 'winnowing basket'
  • long: utambi 'wick', utepe 'stripe', uta 'bow', ubavu 'rib', ufa 'crack', unywele 'a hair'
    • from 'a hair', singulatives of nouns, which are often class 6 ('collectives') in the plural: unyoya 'a feather', uvumbi 'a grain of dust', ushanga 'a bead'.
• Class 14 are abstractions, such as utoto 'childhood' (from mtoto 'a child') and have no plural. They have the same prefixes and concord as class 11, except optionally for adjectival concord.
• Class 15 are verbal infinitives.
• Classes 16–18 are locatives. The Bantu nouns of these classes have been lost; the only permanent member is the Arabic loan mahali 'place(s)', but in Mombasa Swahili, the old prefixes survive: pahali 'place', mwahali 'places'. However, any noun with the locative suffix -ni takes class 16–18 agreement. The distinction between them is that class 16 agreement is used if the location is intended to be definite ("at"), class 17 if indefinite ("around") or involves motion ("to, toward"), and class 18 if it involves containment ("within"): mahali pazuri 'a good spot', mahali kuzuri 'a nice area', mahali muzuri (it's nice in there).

Swahili phrases agree with nouns in a system of concord, but 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 trigger a-, wa- and m-, wa- in verbal concord, while non-human subjects and objects of whatever class trigger i-, zi-. Infinitives vary between standard ku- and reduced i-.[42] ("Of" is animate wa and inanimate ya, za.)

In Standard Swahili, human subjects and objects of whatever class trigger animacy concord in a-, wa- and m-, wa-, and non-human subjects and objects trigger a variety of gender-concord prefixes.

Modern standard Swahili is based on Kiunguja, the dialect spoken in Zanzibar Town, but there are numerous dialects of Swahili, some of which are mutually unintelligible, such as the following:[43]

Maho (2009) considers these to be distinct languages:

• Kimwani is spoken in the Kerimba Islands and northern coastal Mozambique.
• Chimwiini is spoken by the ethnic minorities in and around the town of Barawa on the southern coast of Somalia.
• Kibajuni is spoken by the Bajuni minority ethnic group on the coast and islands on both sides of the Somali–Kenyan border and in the Bajuni Islands (the northern part of the Lamu archipelago) and is also called Kitikuu and Kigunya.
• Socotra Swahili (extinct)
• Sidi, in Gujarat (extinct)

The rest of the dialects are divided by him into two groups:

• Mombasa–Lamu Swahili
  • Lamu
    • Kiamu is spoken in and around the island of Lamu (Amu).
    • Kipate is a local dialect of Pate Island, considered to be closest to the original dialect of Kingozi.
    • Kingozi is an ancient dialect spoken on the Indian Ocean coast between Lamu and Somalia and is sometimes still used in poetry. It is often considered the source of Swahili.
  • Mombasa
    • Chijomvu is a subdialect of the Mombasa area.
    • Kimvita is 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 is the subdialect of the Mombasa area.
  • Kimrima is spoken around Pangani, Vanga, Dar es Salaam, Rufiji and Mafia Island.
  • Kiunguja is spoken in Zanzibar City and environs on Unguja (Zanzibar) Island. Kitumbatu (Pemba) dialects occupy the bulk of the island.
  • Mambrui, Malindi
  • Chichifundi, a dialect of the southern Kenya coast.
  • Chwaka
  • Kivumba, a dialect of the southern Kenya coast.
  • Nosse Be (Madagascar)
• Pemba Swahili
  • Kipemba is a local dialect of the Pemba Island.
  • Kitumbatu and Kimakunduchi are the countryside dialects of the island of Zanzibar. Kimakunduchi is a recent renaming of "Kihadimu"; the old name means "serf" and so is considered pejorative.
  • Makunduchi
  • Mafia, Mbwera
  • Kilwa (extinct)
  • Kimgao used to be spoken around Kilwa District and to the south.

Maho includes the various Comorian dialects as a third group. Most other authorities consider Comorian to be a Sabaki language, distinct from Swahili.[44]

In Somalia, where the Afroasiatic Somali language predominates, a variant of Swahili referred to as Chimwiini (also known as Chimbalazi) is spoken along the Benadir coast by the Bravanese people.[45] Another Swahili dialect known as Kibajuni also serves as the mother tongue of the Bajuni minority ethnic group, which lives in the tiny Bajuni Islands as well as the southern Kismayo region.[45][46]

In Oman, there are an estimated 22,000 people who speak Swahili.[47] Most are descendants of those repatriated after the fall of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.[48][49]

• Shaaban bin Robert
• Mathias E. Mnyampala
• Euphrase Kezilahabi
• Fadhy Mtanga
• Christopher Mwashinga
• Tumi Molekane
• Dotto Rangimoto
• Mohammed Ghassani

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