The Swahili or Kiswahili language is of Bantu origin and the most extensively used of the hundreds of Bantu languages in Africa.
The word Swahili means "the coast" and early Arab and Persian merchants that traveled or moved there used the name for the coast and its people.
The Swahili vocabulary has words from Arabic and other languages like Portuguese, English and German which shows how any language that grows and expands absorbs other vocabulary over time. The language developed and spread through the expansion of trading links of coastal towns with the interior of Africa. Swahili became a way of communication between people at trading-places that did not share the same "home language".
Swahili is still widely spoken in East African Countries. Especially in Tanzania efforts were made to promote and preserve the language. It became the national and the official language in Tanzania. Kenya kept Swahili as the national language but all official correspondence is in English.
On the margins of the present Swahili-speaking area, and this includes the border areas of northern Malawi and Zambia as well as the southern Somali coast and the northern end of the Mozambique coast, you should not expect everyone to know Swahili. You might encounter as well something which at first sounds as if it might be Swahili but turns out to be the local language, which has absorbed words from Swahili.
Still, as a foreigner, some knowledge of Swahili will enable you to make yourself understood throughout much of east and central Africa. I was fortunate enough to take Swahili lessons while living in Tanzania and as much of a challenge as it was I loved every hour of it.
The word Swahili means "the coast" and early Arab and Persian merchants that traveled or moved there used the name for the coast and its people.
The Swahili vocabulary has words from Arabic and other languages like Portuguese, English and German which shows how any language that grows and expands absorbs other vocabulary over time. The language developed and spread through the expansion of trading links of coastal towns with the interior of Africa. Swahili became a way of communication between people at trading-places that did not share the same "home language".
Swahili is still widely spoken in East African Countries. Especially in Tanzania efforts were made to promote and preserve the language. It became the national and the official language in Tanzania. Kenya kept Swahili as the national language but all official correspondence is in English.
On the margins of the present Swahili-speaking area, and this includes the border areas of northern Malawi and Zambia as well as the southern Somali coast and the northern end of the Mozambique coast, you should not expect everyone to know Swahili. You might encounter as well something which at first sounds as if it might be Swahili but turns out to be the local language, which has absorbed words from Swahili.
Still, as a foreigner, some knowledge of Swahili will enable you to make yourself understood throughout much of east and central Africa. I was fortunate enough to take Swahili lessons while living in Tanzania and as much of a challenge as it was I loved every hour of it.
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