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What is Swahili?
Swahili belongs to the family of Bantu languages, one of the largest language families on the African continent. A typical feature of these languages is the way all kinds of information is ‘glued’ together into one word.
Kiswahili | = the language |
Mswahili | = a person |
Waswahili | = people |
Uswahili | = the culture and way of life |
Uswahilini | = the land inhabited by Waswahili |
Ki-M-Wa-U are prefixes (the letters before the word -Swahili) and -Ni is a suffix (the letters after the word Swahili-). This structure of prefixes and suffixes is characteristic of the Bantu languages of Sub-Saharan Africa to which (Ki)swahili belongs. We therefore call it an agglutinative language, coming from the Latin ‘agglutinare’ meaning ‘to glue together’.
The Arabic alphabet was originally used for writing the language. After colonisation, German and British missionaries transcribed the language into the Latin alphabet.
Why Swahili?
Would you like to know more about African culture? Then learning Swahili is a good first step.
The language originated in East Africa and is the native language of the Waswahili, who live on the coast and islands of East Africa.
Swahili is now a lingua franca that has spread across the African continent since 1000 BC. Today, Swahili is spoken in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Swahili is also spoken in the Arabian Peninsula, such as Oman and the United Emirates.
Swahili is the third most widely spoken language in Africa alongside English and French. With 200 million speakers, it is the most widely used African language and serves as a ‘bridging language’ for the many other African languages. Swahili is also a popular language because it is one of the easier Bantu languages to learn.
In 2022, the African Union adopted Swahili as its official working language. In 2019, Swahili became the only recognised African language within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which brings together sixteen mainly southern African countries. Swahili is also the official language of the East African Community (EAC), of which seven countries are members.
‘Because of the visibility and cultural value of Kiswahili, more and more students are interested in it.’ Annachiara Raia – Lecturer in African studies, Leiden University |