KiSwahili

Swahili
Kiswahili
Native to	Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique (mostly Mwani), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda,Comoros, Mayotte and the margins of Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar, and South Sudan
Native speakers	2 million to 15 million (2012) L2 speakers: 50 to 100 million
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki Swahili
Writing system	Latin script (Roman Swahili alphabet), Arabic script (Arabic Swahili alphabet) Swahili Braille
Official status
Official language in	Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Comoros, African Union, East African Community
Regulated by	Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (Tanzania), Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`sw`
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3	– inclusive code Individual codes: `swc` – Congo Swahili `swh` – Coastal Swahili `ymk` – Makwe `wmw` – Mwani
Glottolog	`swah1254`
Guthrie code	`G.42–43; G.40.A–H (pidgins & creoles)`
Linguasphere	`99-AUS-m`
Coastal areas where Swahili or Comorian is the indigenous language, official or national language, and trade language. As a trade language, Swahili extends some distance further to the northwest.
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Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, is a Bantu language and the first language of the Swahili people. It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of eastern and southeastern Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The closely related Comorian language, spoken in the Comoros Islands, is sometimes considered a dialect.

Estimates of the total number of Swahili speakers vary widely, from 50 million to over 100 million. Swahili serves as a national language of three nations: Tanzania, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Shikomor, the official language in Comoros and also spoken in Mayotte (Shimaore), is related to Swahili. Swahili is also one of the working languages of the African Union and officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community.

A significant fraction of Swahili vocabulary is derived from Arabic through contact with Arabic-speaking Muslim inhabitants of the Swahili Coast.

Swahili is traditionally regarded as being the language of coastal areas of Tanzania and Kenya. It was formalised after independence by presidents of the African Great Lakes region but first spoken by natives of the coastal mainland. It spread as a fisherman's language to the various islands surrounding the Swahili Coast. Traders from these islands had extensive contact with the coastal peoples from at least the 2nd century A.D., and Swahili began to spread along the Swahili Coast from at least the 6th century. There is also cultural evidence of early Zaramo people settlement on Zanzibar from Dar es Salaam in present-day Tanzania.

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