Image from Fresh As A Daisy
Let’s learn about the Swahili language! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about the language. In addition, check out our newest bilingual children’s books available in Swahili.
Where is Swahili Spoken?
Swahili is one of the world’s most widely spoken African languages, with an estimated 200 million speakers worldwide. Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, is the official language of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Swahili is one of the national languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is spoken in Mozambique, Zambia, and Somalia, among other places.
In November 2021, the General Conference of UNESCO declared July 7th as World Kiswahili Language Day. In addition, Swahili holds the status of the official language within the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, and the East African Community.
Swahili in the United States
There are over 90,000 Swahili speakers in the United States, with the largest concentration of Swahili speakers residing in Texas, Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Georgia, and Minnesota.
Image from The Three Little Howlers
Interesting Facts about Swahili
Swahili is a Bantu language and is part of the Niger-Congo language group. It is a mix of local Bantu languages and Arabic but has also been heavily influenced by English, Persian, Portuguese, German, and French due to the years of trade along the East African coast.
“Swahili” is derived from the Arabic word sawahil, meaning shores or coasts. It is unknown when the Swahili language appeared, but it was spoken on the eastern coast of Africa well before 1000 CE. Swahili uses Latin script today, but early written records used Arabic. The transition to Latin script occurred during colonial rule.
Swahili grammar and structure is generally considered agglutinative, with words consisting of roots with additional parts that indicate their grammar relations. Like English, Swahili features a subject-verb-object word order and noun class system (unique to Bantu languages), where nouns are classified according to certain characteristics.
Hakuna Matata, best known from Disney’s The Lion King, is a Swahili expression meaning “no worries.” In addition, the characters’ names come from Swahili: Rafiki, meaning friend, Pumbaa, meaning foolish, Simba, meaning lion, and Nala, meaning gift.
Image from Tropical Rainforests
Swahili Books – Bilingual Children’s Books
If you interact with children who speak Swahili or are learning the language, you may want suggestions on some of the best bilingual children’s books. The Habitat Series is perfect for exploring some of Earth’s most diverse biomes with Coral Reefs, Deserts, and Tropical Rainforests. In addition, our multicultural four-book Idiom Set explains common idioms in a way that makes them fun and easy to understand. Language Lizard offers a wide selection of bilingual Swahili-English books here.
Are you interested in learning about other languages as well? Check out our series of posts on world languages, including Khmer, Bengali, Tigrinya, Hmong, Cherokee, Dari, and Pashto!