{"id":3166,"date":"2022-10-12T10:35:44","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edsweb.co.in\/idioma\/?p=3166"},"modified":"2022-10-12T10:35:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T10:35:44","slug":"language-facts-swahili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.idioma.com\/en\/language-facts-swahili","title":{"rendered":"Language facts: Swahili"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Swahili (or Kiswahili) is a language from the Niger-Congo branch, included in the group of Bantu languages. It is spoken in several East African countries, even reaching across the Mozambique Channel to northern Mozambique and is considered a\u00a0lingua franca<\/em>in the area of the African Great Lakes as well as other parts of Southeast Africa.<\/p>\n

Swahili\u00a0is the official language in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Comoros.\u00a0It is spoken by tens of million of people, possibly even by more than one hundred million people, either as a primary or secondary language.<\/p>\n

Lingua franca\u00a0of Southeast Africa<\/h3>\n

This language dates back at least 1,000 years, being in fact the first language of the Swahili people, and originally spread mainly in coastal region by fishermen. During the colonial period, it has been much influenced by German, English, Portuguese, French and even Arabic. It was in fact the German colonists who declared Swahili as the general administrative language in mainland Tanzania (back then Tanganyika). English colonists had similar plans with Swahili in Kenya, but without any official conclusion. However, after the British took over Tanzania \u2013 the former colony of the defeated Germany\u00a0\u2013\u00a0they instituted\u00a0Swahili as a common language for lower levels of education and administration\u00a0in all British colonies in the area\u00a0(while secondary education and governance would be in English only).<\/p>\n

Since 1928, when a conference in Mombasa was held in order to standardize Swahili language and provide it also with a written form (the language uses the Zanzibar Swahili dialect\u00a0Kiunguja<\/em>\u00a0as a basis for standardization), the language has been regulated by the National Swahili Council in Tanzania.\u00a0Today, Arabic language is gaining influence in Swahili language evolution due to the large amount of Arabic-speaking Muslim inhabitants in the region’s east coast.<\/p>\n

Alphabet<\/h3>\n

Swahili\u00a0has two writing systems: Latin and Arabic. While it\u00a0used to be based on the Arabic scripts, Latin script is common today.<\/p>\n

Latin version:<\/p>\n

A B CH D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z<\/p>\n

a b ch d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w x y z<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Swahili (or Kiswahili) is a language from the Niger-Congo branch, included in the group of Bantu languages. It is spoken in several East African countries, even reaching across the Mozambique Channel to northern Mozambique and is considered a\u00a0lingua francain the area of the African Great Lakes as well as other parts of Southeast Africa. Swahili\u00a0is …<\/p>\n

Language facts: Swahili<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-idioma"],"yoast_head":"\nLanguage facts: Swahili - idioma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www2.idioma.com\/en\/language-facts-swahili\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Language facts: Swahili - idioma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Swahili (or Kiswahili) is a language from the Niger-Congo branch, included in the group of Bantu languages. 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