Taarab: Kazi ya Mungu
September 23, 2008 by Admin · 2 Comments
Taarab/Swahili Music by Jahazi
Duration : 0:6:58
Kenyan Coco Yam Delicacy (In Swahili with other subs)
September 16, 2008 by Admin · Leave a Comment
http://www.suprememastertv.com – Kenyan Coco Yam Delicacy (In Swahili with other subs), Episode: 649, Air date: 24 – June – 2008
Duration : 20 min 12 sec
How many countries in Africa speak Swahili?
September 16, 2008 by Admin · 5 Comments
Can you list all the countries in Africa that speak Swahili? Are there different dialects? What are the differences?
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/~kkasongo/LinguisticMap.htm
According to purists, there are no more than two million Kiswahili speakers who live essential along the along the east African coast of southern Somalia. They would be located in Kenya, Tanzania, northern Mozambique, and on the off shore islands of Lamu, Zanzibar, and Pemba. .Go here for more information. It is the opinion of many scholars of Kiswahili that beyond the area described in this map, other Kiswahili usage is nothing but pidginized versions, often derogatorily referred to as Kingwana. One Zanzibar Homepage states that the “Swahili is the most extensively spoken language in sub-Saharan Africa and is used in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda as well as certain parts of Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Mozambique.” Several socio-linguistic would hardly warrant the exclusion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such unfortunate claims dismissing without good explanation ignore the hard fact that there are more Kiswahili speakers in the Congo Kivu povince alone than in Rwanda and Burundi combined where its usage is rather limited and confined to the capitals.
As a user of that form and having studied it, it is only wrong to exclude it, but is actually part of the Kiswahili language. Although this form may be comprehended by many Sarufi speakers, the so-called most Kingwana users have a competent understanding of the Sarufi. Not only this version is studied in schools, but it is the form used in churches, in the written and spoken media and even in entertainment. The most common thing in the usage of Kiswahili in this area is the ability of such people living in a multilingual context to code-switch. It is therefore proper and even overdue that the map of Kiswahili be extended as far as the middle of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to Northern Zambia where a sizeable number of exchange and migration has been taken place in the last fifty years.
Where is Swahili spoken?
Swahili is spoken throughout a wide swath of East and Central Africa. Swahili is the most widely spoken African language, with somewhere between 50 and 100 million speakers in East Africa and Central Africa, particularly in Tanzania (including Zanzibar) and Kenya. Many people speak some version of Swahili as a first or second language in Oman, Uganda, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, and Congo (formerly Zaire). The “Swahili Coast” — where “standard” Swahili is generally agreed to have originated and where many argue you will today find the “pure” form of the language — is an area that extends along the Indian Ocean from roughly central Tanzania to central Kenya, including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=17&menu=004
LANGUAGE VARIATION
A large number of dialects are distinguished among Swahili speakers and scholars. They are almost without exception all mutually intelligible, differing primarily in certain phonological and lexical features. The dialect of Swahili referred to as Standard Swahili was established in 1930 by the Inter Territorial Language Committee and was based on the coastal dialect of Zanzibar, Kiunguja. The standard language spoken in Tanzania is often referred to as Kisanifu.
Besides Kiunguja, other Swahili linguistic variants (or dialects) are Kimakunduchi (or Kihadimu) and Kitumbatu (both spoken in the rural parts of Zanzibar); Kipemba (Pemba Island); Kimtang’ata (Tanga Town and environs); Kimrima (along the coast of Tanzania, opposite Zanzibar); Kimvita and other related dialects (Mombasa and environs); Kiamu, Kipate and Kisiu, etc. (the Lamu Archipelago); Kitikuu (the Lamu Archipelago and along the coasts of northern Kenya into southern Somalia); Kivumba (Wasini Island and Vanga); Kingwana (Congo and Zaire); and Kingozi, a literary dialect used in classical Swahili poetry.
Of all the Sabaki languages, Kimwani (the Kerimba Islands and northern coast of Mozambique) is most closely related to Swahili proper and may be considered a Swahili dialect. There are also pidginized versions of Swahili that developed during colonial times mainly in Kenya, but these are being progressively replaced by the Standard dialect. In fact, all the coastal Swahili dialects are coming under increasing pressure from Standard Swahili; some are surely to disappear. The literature also speaks of other Swahili dialects spoken in the Comoros and Madagascar, but the predominant languages there are separate languages and distinct from Swahili, except for ever diminishing and fast disappearing communities of Swahili speakers. For instance, the Bantu languages of the Comoro Islands (Ngazija, Nzwani, Mwali and Maore), often erroneously identified as Swahili dialects, are not understood by Swahili speakers and are different enough from Swahili to be considered separate languages. In Madagascar, Comorian communities there have often been referred to as “Swahili,” but in fact are distinct from the remaining Swahili communities that were established during the height of Swahili nineteenth century expansion; all of these are gradually giving way to Malagasy. In Somalia, in the coastal town of Brava (Barawa), Chimwiini is spoken; while it is very similar to the northern coastal dialects of Swahili, most scholars do not consider it as Swahili, nor do its own speakers and most Swahili speakers.
Quality Kiswahili learning materials??
September 16, 2008 by Admin · 1 Comment
I have been studying Kiswahili for over a year now, and I wanted to know if anyone knew of any intermediate-advanced level materials that may be useful. Any textbooks, grammar books, literature books, etc…. would really help.
Hello,
That is great. I’ll help you in any way i can.
Here are some books
Colloquial Swahili
Teach yourself Swahili
Berlitz Swahili
Lonely planet Swahili
Say it in Swahili
Simplified Swahili
Swahili-English, English-Swahili Practical Dictionary
Swahili Learners’ Reference Grammar
Here are some good websites that might assit you
http://www.geocities.com/bujjadu/
http://www.masai-mara.com/mmsw.htm
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~alyons/swa1220/swa1220.html
http://www.cis.yale.edu/swahili/grammar/grammar.htm
check the learn Swahili resources section for more.
Hope that helped…
where in London can i i learn Swahili (apart from at SOAS)?
September 16, 2008 by Admin · 2 Comments
either group or individual lessons, preferably less expensive than the courses at SOAS.
Karibu.
1. There are these private companies for price comparison.
Talk Languages
http://www.talklanguages.net/languages.htm
Language Trainers
http://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/swahili_courses_london.php
2. Otherwise try asking these sources if they know of private (probably one-to-one) tuition:
a) Kenya High Commission
http://kenyahighcommission.net/
b) Tanzania High Commission
http://www.tanzania-online.gov.uk/index.html
c) Uganda High Commission
http://www.ugandahighcommission.co.uk/
d) Kenyan Society
http://www.kenyansociety.co.uk/
e) Tanzania Now
http://www.tanzanianow.com/
f) Africa centre
http://www.africacentre.org.uk/index.htm
g) Voice of Africa Radio
http://www.voiceofafricaradio.com/
Kwa heri
I want to learn the language of Swahili very fast for free, which website offers the best turorial ?
September 16, 2008 by Admin · 4 Comments
inluding the way of pronunciation, where I can be able to hear the words pronounced.
Fast
Free
Good
Pick two of the three
Play for Learning Kiswahili – My World
September 15, 2008 by Admin · 1 Comment
Play for Learning – My World is an educational software for children between the ages of 2 and 10. It is entertaining and very effective at teaching children Kiswahili as a first or second language.
The software develops the child’s numeracy and literacy skills and seamlessly merges children’s development of non-verbal skills and spatial recognition with the acquisition of Kiswahili through play.
Key features:
It has more than 400 words / statements that children need to learn during early years.
It has over 20 stimulating learning environments such as My Home, The Park, The City and more.
It contains simple suggestions for play / learning activities for adults to refer to.
It has animated textual prompts that encourage children to read.
It uses native Swahili children’s voices and has printable colouring frames
Children find Play for Learning – My World interesting and fun. They click away happily even with minimal instructions.
Duration : 0:1:39
Play for Learning Kiswahili – Shapes and Colours
September 15, 2008 by Admin · 1 Comment
The software teaches your child 2D, 3D shapes, colours and other objects in real life presented in Kiswahili and English.
It seamlessly merges children’s development of non-verbal skills and spatial recognition with the acquisition of Kiswahili through play.
Key features:
The software is very effective at teaching 2D, 3D shapes and Colours.
It helps to develop your child’s numeracy and artistic skills.
It has suggestions for play / learning activities for adults to refer to.
It has plenty of textual prompts that encourage children to read.
Play for Learning – Shapes and Colours uses native Swahili children speakers and has over 300 new words / statements to learn!
You can print your own colour chart to hang on the wall and as well print a variety of colouring frames
Age: 2-10 years
Duration : 0:5:55
Do you think Swahili/Kiswahili should or can be the language of the African Continent? Why and how?
September 15, 2008 by Admin · 3 Comments
African countries have many languages, but unfortunately the majority of Africans in the continent cannot communicate in their own languages. They use languages of their colonial masters, English, French, Portugese, Spanish, etc., etc. to communicate and ran their governments!!
Only few countries, such as Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda can communicate in Kiswahili, which belongs to no particular tribe.
African Union has recently adopted Kiswahili as one of its official languages and at their recent summit, it has been suggested and proposed that Swahili should be adopted as the language of the continent. Do you see this feasible?
I will admit that Kiswahili is relatively easy to learn and might make a good international language, but I don’t see the feasibility of forcing people throughout Africa to learn Swahili. You mentioned that only those in Uganda, Kenya & Tanzania speak Swahili, but that isn’t entirely true within these countries. Many of the Masa’i speak KiMasai and English, with very little Swahili. Also, older adults and young children in rural villages tend to speak the local tribal language better and more fluently than Kiswahili. People on the borders in the neighboring countries (like Malawi & Zambia) often speak Swahili better than some East African natives because it is the language of commerce across the border.
However, one must remember that many hoping to bring in tourist dollars are learning English, German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Hindi or Mandarin in order to speak with the tourists. I don’t believe it is very realistic to expect Africans to learn and share in Swahili when each language has it’s own background and reasons behind it’s use.
Swahili-English Translation?
September 12, 2008 by Admin · 2 Comments
Leo wasauzi mtapiga
Aisee wasauzi mna gundu, sijawahi ona
What do these mean?
Hello friend of Earth.
Are you a foreigner to mother Africa?
(I’m an expert in Swahili)
Free Swahili Course
