Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral islands). [6] Estimates of the number of Swahili speakers, including both native and second-language speakers, vary widely.
Mzungu (pronounced [m̩ˈzuŋɡu]), also known as muzungu, mlungu, musungu or musongo, is a Bantu word that means "wanderer" originally pertaining to the first European explorers to the East African region whom the local ethnic groups thought were traveling aimlessly with no goals to settle, conquer or trade, like restless spirits – the initial explorers who unbeknownst to the local tribes ...
This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Swahili on Wikipedia. It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Swahili in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them.
The system observes that every name of a person, object or place has a meaning. [1] The system has been subject to westernization and attrition to linguistics due to the Kenyan adoption of Swahili language as a lingua-franca and the dynamic view that indigenous languages are provincial and irrelevant. Naming is referred to as Kogoochinet-aab ...
Most languages are referred to in English without the class prefix (Swahili, Tswana, Ndebele), but are sometimes seen with the (language-specific) prefix (Kiswahili, Setswana, Sindebele). In a few cases prefixes are used to distinguish languages with the same root in their name, such as Tshiluba and Kiluba (both Luba ), Umbundu and Kimbundu ...
The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River.In addition to Swahili, Sabaki languages include Ilwana (Malakote) and Pokomo on the Tana River in Kenya, Mijikenda, spoken on the Kenyan coast; Comorian, in the Comoro Islands; and Mwani, spoken in northern Mozambique. [3]
Swahili had been established as a trade language in most parts of the Swahili Coast at the time of colonization, and it was also used in education. The British reduced the influence of Swahili and made English the medium of instruction in Kenyan schools. English remained in official use after Kenya's independence on 12 December 1963.
Words are also borrowed from languages that are neither a local language nor English – such as the Sheng word morgen "morning" – a Sheng word used in some areas with a similar meaning in German. Sheng vocabulary can vary significantly within Kenya's various subdivisions and the larger African Great Lakes region, and even between ...