Swahili language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Swahili |
|
|---|---|
| Kiswahili | |
| Native to | Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Mayotte (mostly Comorian), Mozambique (mostly Mwani), Oman, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda |
| Native speakers | 26 million (2007) 120 million L2 speakers |
| Language family |
Niger–Congo
|
| Writing system | Latin, Arabic |
| Official status | |
| Official language in | African Union Tanzania Kenya Uganda Comoros (as Comorian) |
| Regulated by | Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (Tanzania) |
| Guthrie code | G.42–43; G.40.A–H (pidgins & creoles) |
| Linguasphere | 99-AUS-m |
Areas where Swahili is spoken
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Swahili is a very important language spoken by many people in East Africa. Its name in the language itself is Kiswahili. It belongs to a group of languages called Bantu languages.
Swahili is used across a large area. You can hear it from southern Somalia all the way to northern Mozambique. It is also spoken in all of Kenya, Tanzania, and Burundi. In the DR Congo, about five million people speak Swahili as their first language. An amazing fifty million more speak it as a second language. This makes Swahili a common way for people to talk to each other across East Africa.
Who Speaks Swahili?
Swahili was first spoken by the Swahili people. These people live along the coast of East Africa. They also live on islands close to the coast, like Zanzibar. Zanzibar is now part of Tanzania. Today, Swahili is an official language in Tanzania and Kenya. This means it is used by the government and in schools. The language has also been changed by other languages, especially Arabic.
Learn Some Swahili Words
Here are a few simple words in Swahili to help you get started:
- city - mji
- country - nchi
- earth - dunia
- no - hapana
- okay - sawa
- water - maji
- yes - ndiyo
- me - mimi
Images for kids
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This image shows Swahili writing in Arabic script. It is on a memorial plate at the Askari Monument in Dar es Salaam, from 1927.
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Swahili was first written using the Arabic script. Now, it is mostly written using the Latin alphabet. Christian missionaries and colonial leaders brought this new way of writing. The text here is the Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer.
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Here you can see Swahili written in Arabic script on the clothes of a girl in German East Africa. This picture is from the early 1900s.
See also
In Spanish: Idioma suajili para niños
