Swahili | |
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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 |
Latin script (Roman Swahili alphabet), Arabic script (Arabic Swahili alphabet) Swahili Braille |
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Official status | |
Official language in
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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 codeIndividual codes: swc – Congo Swahili swh – Coastal Swahili ymk – Makwe wmw – Mwani |
Glottolog | swah1254 |
G.42–43; |
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Linguasphere | 99-AUS-m |
areas where Swahili or Comorian is the indigenous language
official or national language
as a trade language
|
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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 south-eastern 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.
Clove farmers from Oman and the Persian Gulf farmed the Zanzibar Archipelago.