While Swahili contains many words borrowed from Arabic, it existed before the first Arab visitors to the East African coast, contrary to popular belief. It is true, however, that the Sawhili has continued to change, and contains words assimilated from a variety of languages, including Arabic, English, Portuguese, and more.
While it sounds quite different from other languages in the Bantu family, Swahili originates from proto Bantu — the concept of an abstract language from which all Bantu languages originate, according to linguist Malcolm Guthrie.
Though less than five million people consider Swahili to be their mother tongue, the language has spread across the African Great Lakes region through trade, religion, education, and the human diaspora. Swahili is considered a bridge language — or lingua franca — used systematically rather than occasionally — to make communication possible between people who don’t share a mother tongue.
Despite being an official language in Uganda, Swahili is rarely spoken outside Kampala. It is thought that this is due, at least in part, to dictator Idi Amin’s insistence in including Swahili as an official language of the country. The language is commonly associated with his brutal regime, and has been rejected by many Ugandans.
The first Arab visitors to East Africa used the word “Swahili” to describe the coastal region in general, and it gradually came to apply to the distinctive East African culture in that area. Nowadays, the Swahili language is named “Kiswahili,” and those who speak it are referred to as “Waswahilis.”
Rather than beginning at midnight like in many other cultures, Swahili culture dictates that the telling of time begins at 6 a.m. So double check if you’re told to arrive somewhere at a specific time, as you may need to tack on six hours. Interestingly, Ethiopians often use the same Swahili clock, despite not being a Swahili-speaking country.
These documents consist of letters written in Arabic script that were sent to the Portuguese in Mozambique in 1711. They remain preserved in the historical archives in Goa, India.
Methali, or a form of wordplay, puns, and lyrical rhyming, is a defining feature of the Swahili language and culture. Taking the form of parables, proverbs, and, more recently, rap music, methali is extremely prevalent in Swahili-speaking regions.
With the exception of the Mvita dialect spoken in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, Swahili is one of the only Bantu languages that does not feature the clicking lexical tone. This, along with its heavy Arab influence, has led many to doubt its inclusion in the Bantu family.
With a few distinctive differences, Swahili is written primarily in the Latin alphabet. There are several unique letter combinations that are used for native and Arabic sounds, and not all consonants are aspirated, but it otherwise utilizes the standard Latin script.
