Baba yetu uliye mbinguni,
jina lako litukuzwe.
Ufalme wako ufike.
Utakalo lifanyike duniani mbinguni.
Utupe leo mkate wetu wa kila siku.
Utusamehe makosa yetu,
kama tunavyowasamehe na sisi waliotukosea.
Usitutie katika kishawishi,
lakini utuopoe maovuni.
Amina.
Swahili (900- ), also called Kiswahili, is a common second language in East Africa. Only 5 million speak it as their first language, but probably over 100 million speak it as a second language, in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and eastern D.R. Congo.
The top languages of Africa as a first or second language:
- Arabic: 170 million speakers
- English: 130m
- French: 115m
- Swahili: 100m, with estimates ranging from 55m to 140m.
- Berber: 50m
- Hausa: 50m
Worldwide, Swahili is #12. By 2100, it will probably be #4.
East Africa is divided into hundreds of languages. The governments of Kenya and Tanzania, like the British before them, push Swahili as a common language of instruction and lower-level government. Because it is a Bantu language like most languages in the region, it is way easier for most East Africans to learn than English. English is still used at universities and, in Kenya, in the media and at the top levels of government.
History: Bantu languages, starting somewhere near Nigeria 2,000 years ago, spread east and south across much of Africa. They reached the east coast by 500 AD. The Bantu language of those who traded with Arabs along the coast became Swahili. The name comes from the Arabic word for coast: sahel. While the grammar and most everyday words in Swahili are Bantu, a third of all words come from Arabic. Like Latin words in English, the Arabic words are often the high-sounding ones.
From 1000 to 1500 Swahili-speaking Muslim city-states sprang up, like Mombasa, Mogadishu and Kilwa. After 1500, the Portuguese and later other Europeans took over the sea trade: East Africa became a poor backwaters. After 1800, Swahili began to spread inland.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s European empires and their missionaries pushed Swahili as a common language. They wrote it with Roman letters instead of Arabic ones. Words for Western things were taken mainly from English, like mashine (machine), keki (cake) and penseli (pencil).
Swahili also has words from other languages, like German (shule, school), Persian (chai, tea) and Portuguese (pesa, money).
Standard Swahili, the kind taught at school, is based on the Swahili of Zanzibar.
A dialect hated by schoolteachers, one that uses more English words than most, is Sheng. The “eng” in Sheng is for English. It started in the slums of Nairobi and is used by rappers, the young and the fashionable.
If you watched the Disney film “The Lion King” (1994) you already know some Swahili words:
- hakuna matata – no problem
- simba – lion
- rafiki – friend
- nala – gift
- pumbaa – careless
- shenzi – barbarous
Some names from Swahili (some come from Arabic):
- Aaliyah – the very highest
- Aisha – hope
- Akila – wise
- Baraka – blessing
- Imani – faith
- Jahleel – noble
- Jamela – beautiful
- Latifah – kind
- Nbushe – godly one
- Nia – will
- Rashida – rightly guided
- Sanaa – art
- Taraji – expectations
- Uhura – freedom
– Abagond, 2010.
See also:
- Swahili links: BBC, Wikipedia, other.
- Roman alphabet
- Kilwa
- British Empire
- Portuguese Empire
- Arabic
- Africa: the last 13,000 years
- Top languages
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What a beautiful language and that “Lion King” movie part is very true for me.
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@ Ash yes the Lion King my lil brother jokes that it is the first Black Disney movie. LOL
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Yeah I knew pretty much most of of the langue is derived from Arabic but not portugese, german and persian
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Nice post. Another post about african dialects would be great!
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Nice post. I’ve always loved the name Nia – good to know that it has African roots.
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If you want to see the Lord’s Prayer sung in Swahili, here’s a video:
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An African centred perspective touching upon Swahili.
Click to access ANCIENT%20EGYPTIAN%20AND%20BANTU.pdf
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what a beautiful language, I kno some arabic بَرَكة also means blessing in arabic.
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Abagond,
That’s a beautiful language. Thank you for posting this. While society and the world in general wants to downgrade all things African, your posts on Black and African culture are very refreshing and much appreciated.
Thanks again.
Sincerely,
La Reyna
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Also, the names listed are beautiful as well. I like Baraka, from whom Barack Obama was name. Also, Sanaa, Aaliyah, and Imani. Many famous Blacks are named as such.
Aaliyah Houghton (may she rests in peace)
Iman
Imani Coppola
Chanel Iman
Barack Obama
Sanaa Lathan
Queen Latifah
Amaru Baraka
and many more.
La Reyna
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Abagond, at least half of those names you mentioned are Arabic in origin. While they no doubt exist in Swahili culture (due to its Arabic influence) I’m not sure if it’s entirely accurate to say they come from Swahili, since you will find them all over the Muslim world. Aisha was the name of the Prophet Muhammad’s wife, for example.
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باركة that should read, sorry i get my long/short vowels messed up sometimes
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@Eurasian Sensation
Weired you mentied Aisha that’s actually my first name, I guess i am muslim I don’t practice it or anything since a lot of Africans are muslim those names are quite common.
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I have to agree with Eurasiann sensation that they are Arabic names in origin.
However, and it depends how far you take the African-centredness, it is possible to argue as the aforesaid link does that Arabic ie Semetic language in fact originated
in Africa, and therefore with Africans, as many are seeming to suggest now
Although there would also be some input from the White ‘Semitic/Arab’ tribes also.
For this reason and moving it on slighly Theophile Obenga suggests that the term ‘Afro-Asiatic language’ is in fact a misnomer
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@ J: I can’t say I find that link all that plausible. Afro-Asiatic almost certainly does have ultimately African roots (probably the Nile Valley in Sudan), but any link with Bantu languages is highly questionable.
In any case, even though the proto-Afro-Asiatic speakers may have been African (and probably had a mix of black and Caucasian genes similar to the present day Ethiopians), the Arabic language itself almost certainly developed in the Arabian peninsula. So Swahili is a fusion of old Arabic and a Bantu language, neither of which are related closely.
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On another note, Swahili cuisine is one of the most interesting in Africa, and very different to the cuisine of the inland regions. It is a bit like Arabic/Persian food made with African ingredients, although there are also apparent influences from India and Southeast Asia (Indonesian sailors also traded along the coast).
Use of spices like cardamom and cumin, and spiced rice dishes like pilau show the Arab/Persian influence, but ingredients such as coconut milk, yams and plantains are also common.
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Diop has already demonstrated the connection (ie cultural affinities) between Wolof (Sengalese) and Pharaonic languages. This is common knowledge, and even in Western academia some will ‘surprisngly’ accept this..
I am not sure of the relevance of bringing in genes into a discussion of languages.
Finally I agree with you that Arabic was developed in the Arabian peninsula, where African people also resided.
And hence the suggestion that Arabic like all Semetic languages have its origins exclusively in Africa.
Slowly but surely this is becoming the prevailing idea in academia.
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@ J: I mentioned genes because the theories of Diop and Obenga seem to be strongly connected to the idea that the ancient Egyptians were black. Which I think is only partly true, as the people of N & NE Africa at the time would probably have been something of a hybrid population.
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And perhaps better than I could ever explain it,
Ancient civilizations of Africa By G. Mokhtar
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aDxMF-6UdCQC&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=Obenga+on+African+languages&source=bl&ots=ZcLO78YWUx&sig=mqTXr3X0b2lxeKe6OjbTvrgASZI&hl=en&ei=zgJ0S4TNJIey0gSt9sSkCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Obenga%20on%20African%20languages&f=false
This book discusses the Nile Valley 1974 Conference by UNESCO to ascertain ‘facts’ about Egypt like race, language etc that was participated by eminent scholars, of which the two African centred ones were represented by Diop & Obenga
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With regard to:
” J: I mentioned genes because the theories of Diop and Obenga seem to be strongly connected to the idea that the ancient Egyptians were black. Which I think is only partly true, as the people of N & NE Africa at the time would probably have been something of a hybrid population.
Thanks!!
This somehow raises the issue of WHAT Head Toucher touched upon when discussing whetehr race is social (post). Namely that any Blacks who has ‘Caucasoid’ features like many do in East Africa are ‘hybrid’ populations.
Furthermore there is another perspective to this viz. only
the ‘negro-type’ can be classified as ‘true African’, whereas other groups like teh Kho-San in South Africa which does not have the ‘classical negro features’ are not ‘true Africans’
From the African centred perspective, the same game is also played out with the term Afro-Asiaitic languages. Even though there seems to be a tentative move to replace it with the name ‘Eur-African’. In essence no real difference in my opinion.
These are the subtelties of Euro-centred worldview and/or White supremacy ideology, as some aver.
From a
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@ J: I don’t want to get way off the topic of this thread (ie. Swahili), but I think we are moving in the same direction in a sense anyway. Categories like “black”, “Caucasian”, “African”, “negro” and so forth are inherently problematic. Obviously Ethiopians are no less “African” than anyone else just because they have “Caucasian” DNA (whatever that is). Most people think about these things in a very simplistic sense, and it’s hard to discuss it in an understandable way without sometimes using these unsatisfying terms.
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I was too lazy to learn swahili as a child, I kind of regret it now. my grandmother tried toi make me learn but I hated it.
my mother is teaching my sons swahili now so i guess thats good.
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the word pesa is not really used commonly in pt anymore, better to say dinheiro
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Thanks Eurasian Sensation for the clarification.
If you permit me just to say one more thing.
I agree with you that categories like “black”, “Caucasian”, “African”, “negro” and so forth are inherently problematic.
However, if we being blunt and honest here its Western people who created all these designations as part of the raison d’etre to conquer most of the world thety classified as non-Whites.
Now these classifications, just like World War 2 has come back to haunt them. And this is the only reason why such terms (blacks, Caucasians etc) are problematic today, in my opinion, off course
Nice one…
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And if I may, pretty please he he… one more thing (still related to the above but I did not have this to hand).
W.E.B. Dubois summed up the historical reality as:
“There was no Nazi atrocity – concentration camps, wholesale maiming and murder, defilement of women or ghastly blasphemy of childhood – which the Christian civilization of Europe had not long been practising against colored folk in all parts of the world in the name and defence of a ‘Superior Race’ born to rule the world”
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Now these classifications, just like World War 2 has come back to haunt them. And this is the only reason why such terms (blacks, Caucasians etc) are problematic today, in my opinion, off course.
Yeah, but it was also the increasing inclusion of the non-Western Other which MADE them problematic.
“The West” didn’t all get together over at Germany’s place one fine Sunday and say “Y’know, people are catching on to this race thing, so let’s jettison it.” 😀
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A chief factor contributing to the backwardness of black Africa is the huge number of languages that are still spoken and still dividing nations.
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^^^^^
Hahahahah!!!!!
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With regard to:
Yeah, but it was also the increasing inclusion of the non-Western Other which MADE them problematic.
“The West” didn’t all get together over at Germany’s place one fine Sunday and say “Y’know, people are catching on to this race thing, so let’s jettison it.
I don’t understand what you are saying here, but I think the Dubois quote is very succint and describes what actually happened .
Would you like to give it another go??
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After re-reading your post, I think I understand what you say.
With regard to:
The West” didn’t all get together over at Germany’s place one fine Sunday and say “Y’know, people are catching on to this race thing, so let’s jettison it.”
No you are correct here…I forgot to add it happened after the WW2.
When the White nations (ie leaders Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin)- and not any non-white nations representing proceeded to create a new world post 1945.
This is what some refer to as Global White Supremacy
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Just came across this:
Origin of the Arabs – Utilising some aspects of the Encyclopeadia Britannica 1902
http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/origin-of-the-arabs-complied-by-cold-chilling/
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Abagond,
Am Kenyan, I love my swahili culture, so thank you for mentioning us here.
A bit of correction tho Nia means will. Nice name tho, I love it.
just to add some other swahili names,
Amani-peace
Neema-Grace
Rehema-Hope
Rukia
pendo-love
Taraji-expectations
Salma/salama-safe
Saidi(male),Saida(female)-helper
Halima
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