According to Dictionary.com, ‘pronunciation’ is: the act or result of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, stress, and intonation, often with reference to some standard of correctness or acceptability.
Paying attention to your Swahili pronunciation not your own essentially means you’re learning to ditch most of your foreign accent. This is very important if you want to be a successful communicator in any language. Getting Swahili pronunciation right may seem like a daunting task at the onset, but it need not be!
If you want to master the Swahili language and become fluent, you must learn the Swahili alphabet letters first. And you need physical worksheets to practice on.
This eBook is a MUST-HAVE for all Swahili learning beginners!
Download your FREE Swahili practice sheets PDF today and learn the Swahili language in no time!
This is a must-have guide for absolute beginners
Comparatively speaking, Swahili is an easy language to speak. A few sounds might be difficult, but almost every sound in Swahili is used every day in English. That means you already know how to say them! Swahili also follows many of the same intonation patterns as English.
Let’s recap the written system quickly, just as an introduction to the pronunciation. The Swahili alphabet is almost the same as the English alphabet-twenty-four letters with five vowels (-a, -e, -i, -o, -u). Swahili does not have the letters x or q, and the letter c is never used alone. It is always followed by the letter h.
It is important to reproduce these sounds as accurately as possible. It doesn’t matter how many words you know or how good you are at the grammar-if you don’t pronounce the word correctly, the Swahilis might not understand it. However, with that said, they are quite used to “immigrant” Swahili and can grasp even very broken pronunciation at times.
Some unique aspects of Swahili pronunciation:
These sounds are unique to Swahili. We pronounce each one of them differently. However, in most cases, a [ha] sound would cover them. In the pronunciation series, we will talk about them in greater detail, so don’t worry.
The most common way is to roll the -r, as in Irish English when you say “right” or “correct.” Just imagine some Irish movie you have seen, and you’ll get the picture. The point is that you roll your tongue against the palate (roof of your mouth) to make the sound. Or, if you have learned Spanish, great! Use the Spanish -r.
Proper pronunciation is important, very important. Some say it’s even more important than getting the grammar perfectly correct! Why would this be?
If communicating with native speakers matters to you when learning Swahili, you need to be understood when you talk, and you need to be able to understand the native speakers. After all, without understanding, the purpose of language is null and void! In order to be understood, you need to be able to speak the language in a way that is familiar to native speakers, or at least recognizable by them.
When learning to speak a new language, you will learn that the more you progress the more intricate it becomes! For instance, almost every language has vocabulary that may look the same in writing, but because the words are pronounced differently, they have very different meanings. This means that you may say a word in Swahili, and because of a slight change in pronunciation, the meaning of the word changes completely. Understandably, this can make for pretty embarrassing situations! At worst, your mispronounced Swahili will sound garbled to a native speaker.
Knowing the nuances of how a word or letter is pronounced will also help you to understand spoken Swahili better.
No worries if this feels hard; you’re learning, and with our help at SwahiliPod101, you will not have a problem with mispronunciation if you follow our advice and examples carefully.
Not pronouncing Swahili or any other language correctly can lead to a lot of frustration because you’re unable to express what you mean, and you will not be understood correctly. Even if you have total knowledge of Swahili grammar, and can write it like a native, not knowing how to speak it properly will only make for very frustrating communication all around.
Even if you’re only a beginner, it is possible to speak any language correctly. This way, you are bound to make a good impression on native speakers, and when you’re more fluent, you will be likely to garner a lot more respect than a fumbling newbie speaker who doesn’t care much for correct pronunciation.
People often have a lot of patience for someone who learns to speak a new language, but native speakers are more likely to address you and engage with you in conversation if you work hard on your accent. This is simply because you’ll be able to understand one another! So, proficiency in pronunciation can mean the difference between having none or plenty of Swahili speaking friends. It will also serve you well in the workplace, and make you popular with your Swahili speaking managers and employers or employees.
Learning to speak Swahili properly is also a sign of respect for not only the language, but also the native speakers and their customs.
SwahiliPod101 has plenty of resources to help you with your Swahili pronunciation, so be sure to make thorough use of our recordings with native Swahili speakers. These are available not only to demonstrate to you how you should pronounce Swahili vocabulary, but also sentences and dialogues. Watch and listen to these over and over again to train your ear, and watch the teacher’s mouth as she speaks in the video lessons. Then, copy the speech as best you can. Later, you can record yourself to hear if you sound like a native speaker and compare yourself with native speakers. Great for self-motivation.
And see that you’re copying the correct lip and mouth movements.
Use the Swahili dictionary provided by SwahiliPod101 to look up words and listen to the audio pronunciation. This will go a long way towards giving you an idea of how to pronounce a word or letter correctly.
Make an effort to often listen to Swahili music and recorded books, and watch plenty of Swahili movies and/or TV shows in Swahili. This will train your ear to the language, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you pick up the accent. Remember, this is the way we learned to speak when we were young - mostly by listening to the adults talking, and repeating what they say!
Repetition of the same thing may be boring, but in learning a new language, you’re creating new pathways in your brain. For these to remain and become habitual, you will need to repeat the correct pronunciation often.
Don’t be shy to address them in Swahili! Ask them to correct you when you make a pronunciation mistake - this is a wonderful way to practice and learn the language first-hand, and also to make new friends.
If you’re a serious student and don’t know where to meet native Swahili speakers, consider investing in SwahiliPod101’s Premium PLUS plan. This means you will have your own native Swahili teacher available to practice your pronunciation with, and much more! Send recordings of yourself speaking Swahili and get feedback from your Swahili teacher.
If you want to master the Swahili language and become fluent, you must learn the Swahili alphabet letters first. And you need physical worksheets to practice on.
This eBook is a MUST-HAVE for all Swahili learning beginners!
Download your FREE Swahili practice sheets PDF today and learn the Swahili language in no time!
This is a must-have guide for absolute beginners
Log in with Your Free Lifetime Account and we’ll give you an instructional Swahili PDF that covers the letters of the alphabet, practice worksheets, and a quiz to test yourself with… — absolutely FREE!
Let’s now take a closer look at how studying Swahili lessons in PDF format can help you reach your dream in up to half the time of normal video or audio lessons!
Learning Swahili through PDF lessons can dramatically reduce your data use. Once a lesson or tool is downloaded, you can then access it offline via your computer or smartphone any time or place regardless of Internet access. And once you’ve downloaded the Swahili lessons in PDF format, you can actually access them faster than logging in and trying to do so via a live site. So not only will learning Swahili using PDF lessons save minutes on your data plan—it will save you some significant time as well as the lessons add up!
Sometimes, a tiny smartphone screen just isn’t adequate, especially when you are trying to learn something new. The great thing about PDF lessons, tools or files is that they can be quickly printed and taken anywhere after you download them. In fact, printing out Swahili lessons in PDF format can actually save you time when compared to going through the material on a smartphone with a small screen—even with the extra printing time!
Studying video or audio lessons online is a great way to learn a language because students can play and rewind sections as many times as needed until the lesson is mastered. But when you review the same Swahili lessons again in PDF format, an incredible thing happens: your retention dramatically improves! Thanks to Time Spaced Repetition, seeing the information again in written format helps reinforce the information in your mind and improves both retention and recall. The benefits of learning Swahili using PDF lessons quickly add up to significant time savings for you, your data plan, and your dream of learning a new language!
Learning to read and write is a must for all beginners. Although you get video lessons on how to write in Swahili at SwahiliPod101, you’ll still need physical worksheets to practice on. That’s why you’re getting this printable tutorial PDFs as a gift.
Asante sana