Swahili phrasebook
Photo: Map: Canuckguy, Lokal Profil, et al. Derived work: Soumya-8974, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Swahili (Kiswahili), is an official language of Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda. Swahili speakers can also be found in surrounding countries, such as Burundi, Rwanda, and Mozambique. While Swahili is primarily spoken natively along the coast and islands of Kenya and Tanzania, it is the lingua franca across all of Tanzania, most of Kenya, eastern DRC, and some parts of Uganda, making it the most widely spoken African language in the world. As a part of the Bantu language family, Swahili is related to a variety of languages from Southern Africa to Central to West Africa. While the vast majority of Bantu languages are tonal, and a few like Xhosa and Zulu also incorporate clicks into their phonetics, Swahili does not use clicks or tones, so pronunciation is generally not difficult for English speakers.
Pronunciation guideSwahili has five vowels: a, e, i, o, u. If you are familiar with Spanish, Italian or Japanese, the vowels are pronounced the same. If not, they are pronounced:
Phrase listNote that greetings in Swahili are very important and long and drawn out - you can go back and forth several times, using not one but all of the greetings you know.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Swahili phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Map: Canuckguy, Lokal Profil, et al. Derived work: Soumya-8974, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons