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ABOUT KISWAHILI

Kiswahili is an official language in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It is also spoken in

Rwanda, Burundi, Congo (DRC), Somalia, Comoros Islands (including Mayotte),
Mozambique and Malawi.

Despite the substantial number of loanwords present in Swahili, the language is in fact Bantu.
In the past, some have held that Swahili is variously a derivative of Arabic, that a distinct
Swahili people do not exist or that Swahili is simply an amalgam of Arabic and African
language and culture, though these theories have now been largely discarded. The distinct
existence of the Swahili as a people can be traced back over a thousand years, as can their
language. In structure and vocabulary Swahili is distinctly Bantu and shares far more
culturally and linguistically with other Bantu languages and peoples than it does with Arabic,
Persian, and Indian. In fact, it is estimated that the proportion of non- African language
loanwords in Swahili is comparable to the proportion of French, Latin, and Greek loanwords
in the English language.

One of the most famous phrases in Swahili is "hakuna matata" from Disney's "The Lion
King" and "Timon and Pumba" cartoon series. It means "no problem" or "no worries"
(literally: "there are no problems"). Disney's characters Simba and Rafiki also owe their
names to Swahili, meaning 'lion' and 'friend' respectively. The African American holiday of
Kwanzaa derives its name from the Swahili word kwanza which means "first" or "beginning."
Safari (meaning "journey") is another Swahili word that has spread worldwide.

Name

“Kiswahili” is the Swahili word for the Swahili language, and is also sometimes used in
English. 'Ki-' is a prefix attached to nouns of the class that includes languages. 'Swahili' being
the main noun stem from which comes the more common English term Kiswahili for the
language. There are three "states" to which this main noun stem refers as follows: refers to the
'Swahili Language'; Waswahili refers to the people of the 'Swahili Coast'; and Swahili refers
to the 'Culture' of the Swahili People. (A common colloquialism, Uswahili, has been used for
years in Tanzania as a derogatory term for "base" behavior or attitude. Its relationship to
actual Swahili culture is unclear and somewhat controversial; its use should be generally
avoided.)
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Sheng dialect - a sort of street slang is a blend of Swahili, English, and some ethnic languages
spoken in and around Nairobi in informal settings. Sheng originated in the Nairobi slums and
is considered fashionable and cosmopolitan among a growing segment of the population.