Learn where Swahili is spoken
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Intro |
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| Michael: Where is Swahili spoken? |
| Gertrud: And how many varieties of Swahili are there? |
| Michael: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation: Emma Mwam buri is meeting Timothy Ndegwa for the first time. On hearing her speak Swahili, this college student asks, |
| "Where did you learn Swahili?" |
| Emma Mwamburi: Ulisomea Swahili wapi? |
| Dialogue |
| Emma Mwamburi: Ulisomea Swahili wapi. |
| Timothy Ndegwa: Tanzania. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Emma Mwamburi: Ulisomea Swahili wapi? |
| Michael: "Where did you learn Swahili?" |
| Timothy Ndegwa: Tanzania. |
| Michael: "In Tanzania." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Swahili, or as it's called by native people, |
| Gertrude: Kiswahili |
| Michael: is often referred as the African lingua franca. |
| It is a language based on |
| Gertrude: Kibantu |
| Michael: or Bantu, a language spoken for over 4000 years in sub-Saharan regions of Africa, and |
| Gertrude: Kiarabu |
| Michael: or Arabic, which influenced Swahili during its early days. It's spoken primarily in the central, eastern, and south-central regions of Africa. This includes countries like |
| Gertrude: Jamhuri ya Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Kongo, Visiwa vya Komoro |
| Michael: or Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Comoros Islands. |
| In Tanzania and Kenya, the Swahili language has official status. There are also minorities, but still significant numbers of speakers, in |
| Gertrude: Burundi, Rwanda, Zambia Kaskazini, Malawi na Mozambique |
| Michael: or Burundi, Rwanda, Northern Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. All in all, Swahili has around 100 millionspeakers of which around 90 million speak Swahili as their native language. People, who are Swahili natives, are referred to as |
| Gertrude: Waswahili. |
| Michael: As of 2018, the South African government also legalized Swahili to be taught in public schools. |
| So, whether you're learning Swahili for your own interest, for travel, or for business, know that you can tune in to news, arts, cuisine, culture, etc. from all of these Swahili-speaking countries to learn the language faster in a fun way! |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: As we discussed before, |
| Gertrude: Kiswahili |
| is spoken in many different countries, and most of them have their own unique dialects, and some of those dialects even have their own sub dialects. There are roughly 15 to 20 dialects in total, but the most important are the |
| Gertrude: Kiugunja |
| Michael: dialect spoken in Tanzania, |
| Gertrude: Kimvita |
| Michael: dialect spoken in Mombasa and the |
| Gertrude: Kiamu |
| Michael: spoken in Lamu. |
| However, the |
| Gertrude: Kiugunja |
| Michael: dialect forms the basis for the |
| Gertrude: Kiswahili sanifu |
| Michael: or standard Swahili language. |
| Although Swahili is mostly influenced by the Arabic language, many European languages also influenced the language. So, for example, the Swahili word |
| Gertrude: shule, |
| Michael: meaning "school," has a German origin. Depending on the region, Swahili speakers also tend to mix their language with either English or French. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Michael: The Swahili language has existed, in part, long before it became what we know today. |
| The name "Swahili" comes from an Arabic word which means "of coasts," and was given to the |
| Gertrude: Kibantu |
| Michael: or Bantu language by Arab traders who migrated to the East African coasts. |
| The language itself consists enormously of the Bantu language in Swahili, which has been spoken in Central, Eastern, and Southern parts of Africa for over 4000 years, but the Arabic language had an enormous impact on the development of the language we know today, since it developed as a way to make communication between the |
| Gertrude: watu wa Bantu |
| Michael: or "Bantu people," and the Arabic traders. |
| Indeed, one of the first books written in Swahili was written in the Arabic alphabet, although today Swahili is written with the Latin alphabet. |
| Due to Swahili's popularity and spread, German and British colonialists allowed it to be the main language used in East Africa during the colonial era. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Gertrud: Kwaheri! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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