SWAHILI LANGUAGE

SWAHILI LANGUAGE

The name swahili is derived from from the arabic word 'sawahil '.It is also known as 'kiswahili'.It is a bantu language and  the first language of swahili people.The language was first written in AD 1711.The language was first spoken by arabian traders many centuries ago.It is also one of the easy languages to learn.It is spoken by 100 million people in Africa .So, its quite hard to ignore a language spoken by many. It is spoken in Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Mayotte, Mozambique, Oman, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, UAE, USA.

For centuries swahili remained as the  language for the people of east African coast.The promotion of swahili language include it in education curriculum for higher institution of learning.After the end of colonization ,Kenya and Tanzania made kiswahili mandatory in primary and high schools.This is the main reason why swahili is known by almost everybody in those countries.Swahili is acutually a mixed of many languages and a few include German,Portuguese,English,French,Hindi and a few more popular languages due to contact with traders,slavers and colonial officials.This is spoken as first language by 5-10 million people and as second language by 80 million people .It is the official language in Kenya,Tanzania and Uganda.The first swahili newspaper was the ''HABARI YA MWEZI'' by missionaries in 1895.It is written in Latin script and arabic script.

ARTICLE BY PRIYANKA.B

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