| Also Known As: Swahili,Suahili,Kisuahili,Kiswahili,Kiswaheli,Kisuaheli,Arab-swahili
Description:
Swahili (Kiswahili) is the first language of the Swahili people (Waswahili), who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands. Although only 5-10 million people speak it as their native language, Swahili is also a lingua franca of much of East Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a national or official language of four nations, and is the only language of African origin among the official working languages of the African Union.
Swahili is a Bantu language that serves as the native tongue of various groups traditionally inhabiting about 1,500 miles of the Southeast African coastline. About 35% of the Swahili vocabulary derives from the Arabic language, resulting from its evolution through centuries of contact between Arabic-speaking traders and many different Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting Africa's Indian Ocean coast. It also has incorporated German, Portuguese, Indian, English and French words into its vocabulary due to contact with these different groups of people. Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya, and..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of Swahili Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="-5.037312" lon="30.514786" type="map">
-5.694357, 36.322347, Tanzania
-13.838257, 34.442872, Malawi
-13.719497, 28.243254, Zambia
-2.024122, 29.669509, Rwanda
-18.929644, 35.324353, Mozambique
-0.425170, 36.751730, Kenya
1.102731, 32.396840, Uganda
-2.663311, 23.886417, Democratic Republic of the Congo
-3.283592, 29.829285, Burundi
9.102097, 18.281250, Africa</googlemap>
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Rosetta Document Collection
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