![]() ![]() Normally, older people or those considered to be of higher status are greeted first. Greeting etiquette emphasizes showing respect and politeness. But, you’ll sound like a tourist or like you’ve been watching the Lion King. Yes, it’s Swahili and nobody will be offended. But, please don’t walk around saying Hakuna matata. Also, did you know that the names of the main characters in the Lion King are all Swahili words? Simba, Sarbi, Rafiki, and Pumbaa means lion, mirage, friend, and foolish respectively. For example, Safari, which we in English use to mean a guided tour to observe or hunt animals, means journey in Swahili. It has gained popularity through entertainment. Swahili is already a part of daily life, you may not even know it. Sometimes called Copperbelt Swahili, especially the variety spoken in the south.Ĭomorian language, the language of the Comoros Islands,Ĭhimwiini was traditionally spoken around the Somali town of Barawa Kingwana: Spoken in the eastern and southern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kimwani: Spoken in the Kerimba Islands and northern coastal Mozambique. Sheng: A sort of street slang, this is a blend of Swahili, English, and a variety of other ethnic languages spoken in Nairobi Kimtang’ata to the north of Dar-es-Salaam and south of the Kenyan border Kimvita: spoken in Mombasa and areas of Kenya Kipemba: Local dialect of the island of Pemba. Kimgao: Formerly spoken around Kilwa and to the south. Kimakunduchi is a recent renaming of "Kihadimu " Kitumbatu and Kimakunduchi: The countryside dialects of the island of Zanzibar. Standard Swahili is based on this dialect Kiunguja: Spoken in Zanzibar town and environs in Zanzibar. There are several Dialects of Swahili as well as pidgin forms: They may have difficulty saying words like dada for “sister,” which they instead pronounce as tata, to mean “father” as used in many other dialects. Or, in the western part of Kenya you may hear a mix and match of the sounds “ta” and “da” and “ba” and “pa”. So for instance, the Kikuyu people, in central Kenya, have a difficult time saying words like kalamu “pen” or karamu “party”. Also, certain dialects in Kenya often mix and match the “L” and the “R” sounds. The differences in an accent no doubt are due to the influence of Arabic, Portuguese, English, French, and German. The accents that one will find will vary according to the regional influence. U like the “u” you or rude or “oo” in pool I is like the “i” in ski or “ee” in sweet Since Swahili is pronounced just as it is written, for an English-speaking person, it is one of the easier African languages to learn. The accent usually falls on the second to last syllable and there are no silent letters. They are always pronounced the same and never de-stressed. ![]() Swahili has 5 vowels, just like English, a, e, i, o, and u. The language Swahili is known as Kiswahili. ![]()
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