Swahili (language)

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, 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`
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 (DRC). Although sometimes considered to be a dialect of Swahili, Comorian, spoken in the Comoros Islands, is a distinct language.

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 DRC.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.

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