Swahili
a little about the language...
Swahili (Swahili kiswahili) is the largest of the Bantu languages and one of the most significant languages of the African continent. Being a language of interethnic communication, Swahili is widespread over a vast territory of East and Central Africa, from the coast of the Indian Ocean in the east to the central regions of Zaire in the west, from Somalia in the north to Mozambique in the south.
Swahili is the official language in countries such as Tanzania, the Republic of Kenya and Uganda. It is also widely used in Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi, Comoros and Madagascar. Swahili is the only African language to receive the status of a working language of the African Union (since 2004).
According to various sources, Swahili is native to 2.5 - 5 million people. Another 50 - 70 million people use it as a second or third language of communication.
According to the genetic classification of J. Greenberg, Bantu languages belong to the Benue-Congo group of the Niger-Congo family.
According to the internal classification of M. Ghasri, the Swahili language is included in group G42: Bantoid/Southern/Narrow Bantu/Central/G.
Modern Swahili uses the Latin alphabet as its alphabet.
Swahili in popular culture
The word safari, which has become international, is a word from the Swahili language (in turn borrowed from Arabic), meaning “journey”, “trip”.
Swahili words were used in the names of the main characters in Disney's The Lion King. For example, Simba in Swahili means “lion”, Rafiki means “friend” (also an Arabic loanword - friend), Pumbaa means “lazy”. The name of the famous song from the cartoon is “Hakuna Matata” in Swahili meaning “no problem”.
In the science fiction film Hangar 18, the "alien language" that can be heard from the ship's voice system in the film is a piece of text from a Swahili phrasebook passed through some kind of voice converter.
In the computer game Sid Meier's Civilization IV, the song Baba Yetu (English)Russian is performed on the main menu screen, the lyrics of which are a translation of the Lord's Prayer into Swahili.
One of the most famous songs ever sung in a non-European language is "Malaika" ("My Angel") in Swahili. It was performed by many singers, incl. and the once famous group “Boney M”. The most popular version is performed by the American “King of Calypso” Harry Belafonte and South African Miriam.
"Jumbo" is one of the most commonly used words in Kenya. This is the simplest greeting in Swahili, and also the first word that tourists usually learn.
Swahili (or Kiswahili, as the people call it) is the national language of Kenya. Swahili originated on the East African coast as a language of trade, used by both Arabs and coastal tribes.
A language that includes elements of classical Arabic and Bantu dialects, became the native language of the Swahili people, which originated from mixed marriages between Arabs and African peoples.
The word "Swahili" comes from the Arabic word "sahel", which means "shore". The language began to spread quickly and, having turned into a regional language of interethnic communication, began to be widely used in Kenya and Tanzania.
Today, Swahili, which is the most widely spoken language in Africa, is spoken in Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and Zambia. Most people in Kenya speak their tribal language at home, use Swahili as their daily language of communication, and use English for business communication.
Swahili is a relatively simple language, characterized by a high degree of phonetics and a rigid grammatical system. The only difficulty in learning Swahili comes from the extensive use of prefixes, suffixes and infixes, as well as the noun class system.
The island of Zanzibar is considered the birthplace of Swahili, and the local dialect is the purest. The further you move from the coast, the less complex the language becomes, and its grammatical structure more flexible. Nairobi recently introduced Sheng, a fashionable dialect that is a mixture of Swahili, Kikuyu, English language and local slang.
Even a little knowledge of Swahili will make your trip to Kenya more enjoyable. Therefore, it is worth spending a little time studying it, especially since most Kenyans are very enthusiastic about tourists trying to speak Swahili.
The guide below will help you remember a few simple phrases in Swahili:
| Greetings | |
|---|---|
| Jambo or Hujambo | Hello! Good afternoon How are you doing? (a multi-purpose greeting literally meaning "Problems?") |
| Jambo or Sijambo | (answer) No problem |
| Habari? | How are you? (literally "Is there any news?") |
| Nzuri | Great, good, amazing |
| Hodi! | Hello. Is anyone home? (used when knocking on a door or entering a room) |
| Karibu | Come in! Greetings! Please! (also used when suggesting something) |
| Kwaheri/ni | Goodbye! (one person / several people) |
| Asante/ni | Thank you! (one person / several people) |
| Sana | Very (underline) |
| Bwana | Monsieur (similar to "Monsieur" in French) |
| Mama | Addressing adult women (similar to "madame" or "mademoiselle" in French) |
| Kijana | Young man, teenager (pl. vijana) |
| Mtoto | Child (pl. watoto) |
| Jina lako nani? | What's your name? |
| Unaitwaje? | What's your name? |
| Basic Phrases | |
|---|---|
| My name/my name | Jina langu ni/ Ninaitwa |
| Where are you from? | Unatoka wapi? |
| Where are you staying? | Unakaa wapi |
| Where are you staying? | Ninatoka |
| I stopped (stopped) at | Ninakaa |
| See you! | Tutaonana (lit. "see you") |
| Yes | Ndiyo (lit. "it is like this") |
| No | Hapana |
| I don't understand | Sifahamu / Sielewi |
| I don't speak Swahili, but | Sisemi Kiswahili, lakini |
| How to say this in Swahili? | Unasemaje na Kiswahili |
| Would you please repeat that? | Sema tena (lit. "say it again") |
| Speak slowly | Sema pole pole |
| I don't know | Sijui |
| Where? | Wapi? |
| Here | Hapa |
| When? | Lini? |
| Now | Sasa |
| Soon | Sasa hivi |
| Why? | Kwa nini? |
| Because | Kwa sababu |
| Who? | Nani? |
| What? | Nini? |
| Which? | Gani? |
| Right | kweli |
| I/s | na |
| Or | au |
| (this) (these) | Ni (connector when you can't find the right word) |
| Isn't it true? | Siyo? |
| I am English/American/German/French/Italian | Mimi Mwingereza / Mwamerika / Mdachi / Mfaransa / Mwitaliano |
| DAILY NEEDS | |
|---|---|
| Where can I stay? | Naweza Kukaa wapi? |
| Can I stay here? | Naweza kukaa hapa? |
| Room(s) | Chumba/vyumba |
| Bed(s) | Kitanda/vitanda |
| Chairs) | Kiti/viti |
| Table(s) | Meza |
| Toilet, bathroom | Choo, bafu |
| Water for washing | Maji ya kuosha |
| Water for washing | Maji moto/baridi |
| I'm hungry | Ninasikia njaa |
| I'm thirsty | Nina kiu |
| Is there...? | Iko... or Kuna...? |
| Yes, I have... | Iko... or kuna... |
| This is not the case | Hakuna |
| How many? | Ngapi? |
| Money | Pesa |
| What's the price? | Bei gani? |
| How much does it cost? | Pesa Ngapi? |
| I want... | Nataka |
| I don't want | Sitaki |
| Give me / bring me (may I...?) | Nipe/Niletee |
| Again | Tena |
| Enough | Tosha/basi |
| Expensive | Ghali/sana |
| Cheap (also "light") | Rahisi |
| fifty cents | Sumni |
| Lower the price, save a little | Punguza kidogo |
| Shop | Duka |
| Bank | Benki |
| Posta | |
| Cafe, restaurant | Hoteli |
| Telephone | Simu |
| Cigarettes | Sigara |
| I'm ill | Mimi mgonjwa |
| Doctor | Daktari |
| Hospital | hospitali |
| Police | Polisi |
| Transport and directions | |
|---|---|
| Bus(es) | Bas,basi/mabasi |
| Car(s), vehicle(s) | Gari/ Magari |
| Taxi | Teksi |
| Bike | Baiskeli |
| Train | Treni |
| Airplane | Ndege |
| Boat/vessel | Chombo/Meli |
| Petrol | Petroli |
| road, path | Njia/ ndia |
| Highway | Barabara |
| On foot | Kwa miguu |
| When does it leave? | Inaondoka line? |
| When will we arrive? | Tutafika line? |
| Slowly | Pole pole |
| Fast | Haraka |
| Wait! Just a second! | Ngoja!/ ngoja kidogo! |
| Stop! | Simama! |
| Where are you going? | Unaenda wapi |
| Where? | Mpaka wapi? |
| Where? | Kutoka wapi? |
| How many kilometers? | Kilometa ngapi? |
| I'm going | Naenda |
| Move forward, make room a little | Songa!/ songa kidogo! |
| Let's go, carry on | Twende, endelea |
| Directly | Moja kwa moja |
| Right | Kulia |
| Left | Kushoto |
| Up | Juu |
| Down | Chini |
| I want to get off here | Nataka kushuka hapa |
| The car broke down | Gari imearibika |
| Time, days of the week and numbers | |
|---|---|
How much time? | Saa ngapi |
| Four o'clock | Saa kumi |
| Quarter... | Na robo |
| Half... | Na nusu |
| Quarter to... | Kaso robo |
| minutes | Dakika |
| Early | Mapema |
| Yesterday | Jana |
| Today | Leo |
| Tomorrow | Kesho |
| Day | Mchana |
| Night | Usiku |
| Dawn | Alfajiri |
| Morning | Asubuhi |
| Last/this/next week | Wiki iliopita/ hii/ ijayo |
| This year | Mwaka huu |
| This month | Mwezi huu |
| Monday | Jumatatu |
| Tuesday | Jumanne |
| Wednesday | Jumatano |
| Thursday | Alhamisi |
| Friday | Ijumaa |
| Saturday | Jumamosi |
| Sunday | Jumapili |
| 1 | Moja |
| 2 | Mbili |
| 3 | Tatu |
| 4 | Nne |
| 5 | Tano |
| 6 | Sita |
| 7 | Saba |
| 8 | Nane |
| 9 | Tisa |
| 10 | kumi |
| 11 | Kumi na moja |
| 12 | Kumi na mbili |
| 20 | Ishirini |
| 21 | Ishirini na moja |
| 30 | Thelathini |
| 40 | Arobaini |
| 50 | Hamsini |
| 60 | Sitini |
| 70 | Sabini |
| 80 | Themanini |
| 90 | Tisini |
| 100 | Mia moja |
| 121 | Mia moja na ishirini na moja |
| 1000 | Elfu |
| Words you need to know | |
|---|---|
| Good | -zuri (with a prefix before the word) |
| Bad | -baya (with a prefix before the word) |
| Big | -kubwa |
| Small | -dogo |
| Many | -ingi |
| Another | Ingine |
| Not bad | Si mbaya |
| Okay, okay | Sawa |
| Great, great | Safi |
| Fully | Kabisa |
| Just, just | Tu (kitanda kimoja tu - just on the bed) |
| Item(s) | Kitu/ vitu |
| Problems, troubles | Wasiwasi, matata |
| No problem | Hakuna wasiwasi/ Hakuna matata |
| Friend | Rafiki |
| Sorry, sorry | Samahani |
| Nothing | Si kitu |
| Sorry (permit me to pass) | Hebu |
| What's happened? | Namna gani? |
| Everything is God's will | Inshallah (often used on the coast) |
| Please | Tafadhali |
| Take a photo of me! | Piga picha mimi! |
Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa. 5 million people consider this language their native language, 70 million know Swahili and use it as a second language. In , and Swahili is a state language, and in the African Union it is a working language. Almost the entire Tanzanian population and educated Kenyans prefer to communicate in Swahili as the language is taught in all schools. Swahili maintains ethnic neutrality, which has allowed it to become pan-African. Swahili writing is based on the Latin alphabet.
History of Swahili
The language began to take shape in the 8th-10th centuries, along with the development of trade relations between the east coast and Arab world. The influence of Arabic is evident in the vocabulary and grammar of Swahili. It is generally accepted that ethnic Swahili are descendants of Arabs, Hindus and Bantu tribes. Two waves of migrations led to the formation of a new ethnic group with its own culture and language. TO 19th century there was a merger of African traditions with Arab-Muslim ones. The writing of this period developed on the basis of the Arabic alphabet.
The first written monuments in the form of recordings of songs, poems and chronicles date back to XVIII century in Old Swahili language. Some dialects of that period evolved over time into independent languages. Modern standard language was formed on the basis of the Kiunguja language, which existed in Zanzibar.
As trade began to expand on the continent, Swahili became a means of interethnic communication in Africa. With the end of the period of colonization, this meaning strengthened; Swahili replaced the languages of the colonialists, in particular English.
In the second half of the 19th century, attempts were made to describe Swahili grammar, and by the end of the century, textbooks and dictionaries were out of print. In the twentieth century, the language actively spread in all spheres of life, it began to be taught in universities, Swahili is studied and researched in many scientific centers in Europe and other countries. There is a research institute in Tanzania and a linguistic journal covering issues of culture, literature and language.
- Swahili literally translates to “the language of the coastal people.”
- Safari is an international word that means “travel” in Swahili.
- In the cartoon "The Lion King", the names of the main characters are taken from the Swahili language: Simba - lion, Rafiki - friend, Pumbaa - lazy, Sarabi - mirage. “Hakuna matata” translated from Swahili means “No problem.”
- The alien language in the film “Hangar 18” is a modified fragment of text from a Swahili phrasebook.
- In Zanzibar there is a legend about the spirit of Popobawa. Evil Popobava comes into houses at night and commits violent acts of a sexual nature, and demands that the victim tell everyone what happened. Refusal is punishable by a return visit. Popobawa is a Swahili word for bat wing.
- Swahili is rich in synonyms. For example, for the word “girl” there are about 15 symbols in this language. If there are separate words for miniature, beautiful, young and not so, etc.
We guarantee acceptable quality, since texts are translated directly, without using a buffer language, using technology
Tanzania
Comoros (Comorian language)
Swahili is the official language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
Swahili is the only African language to receive the status of a working language of the African Union (since 2004) [ ] and the official language of the East African Community.
Modern Swahili is written using the Latin script.
Self-name
Name Kiswahili comes from plural Arabic word sāhil ساحل: sawāhilسواحل meaning “coast”. With prefix wa- the word is used to refer to "coast dwellers", with the prefix ki-- their language ( Kiswahili- “the language of the coastal inhabitants”).
Classification
Linguogeography
Sociolinguistic situation
Swahili is spoken by approximately 90% of Tanzanians (approximately 39 million). The majority of Kenya's educated population can speak it fluently because it is compulsory subject at school from first grade. 5 provinces are Swahili-speaking. It is also used by relatively small populations in Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Somalia, Malawi [ ] and northern Zambia.
Dialects
Modern Standard Swahili is based on the Zanzibar dialect. Separating dialects from each other, on the one hand, and dialects from languages, on the other, is quite difficult and there are a number of discrepancies regarding their list:
- kiunguja: dialect of Zanzibar city and its environs;
- kutumbatu And Kimakunduchi: dialect of the regions of Zanzibar;
- Kisetla: A highly pidginized version of Swahili. Used for conversations with Europeans;
- Nairobi Swahili: Nairobi dialect;
- kipemba: local dialect of Pemba;
- kingwana: dialect of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Writing
Modern Swahili uses the Latin script (introduced by European missionaries in the mid-19th century). Earlier, from the 10th century, Arabic (Old Swahili script) was used, the largest monument of which is the epic “Book of Heraclius” of the 18th century. The first monument dates back to 1728.
The modern alphabet has 24 letters, no letters are used Q And X, and the letter C used only in combination ch.
History of the language
The formation of Swahili dates back to a period of intense trade between the peoples who inhabited the east coast of Africa and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba (and other nearby ones), and Arab sailors. Today, Arabic influence is evident in Swahili vocabulary and grammar, the extent of which is explained by the powerful cultural and religious influence of the Arabs. The ancestors of the ethnic Swahili (or so-called waswahili), apparently, were descendants of Arab and Indian settlers (mainly traders) and inhabitants of the interior regions of East Africa, belonging to various Bantu tribes. Two powerful waves of migrations date back to the 8th - centuries, respectively. and XVII-XIX centuries, which allows us to name the approximate date for the beginning of the development of the language.
Ethnic Swahili of the East African coast were created in the 13th -19th centuries. its culture, which is a fusion of local African traditions and eastern (primarily Arab-Muslim) influences; they used Arabic-based writing. Monuments of this time (poems, songs, historical chronicles and other documents, the earliest of which date back to the 18th century) reflect the so-called Old Swahili language (represented by a number of dialect varieties; some variants of Swahili that arose in that era are now considered as independent languages, like , for example, Comorian is the language of the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean). The formation of the modern, widely used standard Swahili took place on the basis of the Kiunguja dialect (Zanzibar island; the Zanzibar version of Swahili is traditionally considered one of the most “pure” and “correct”).
With the expansion of continental trade, Swahili is gradually becoming the language of interethnic communication. This vital social role of Swahili was further strengthened in the post-colonial period when independent states Africa began to view Swahili as a real alternative to the languages of the former metropolises (primarily English). The successful spread of the Swahili language is facilitated by the fact that it is perceived by most speakers as a “pan-African” language, but also as a neutral language, not associated with any narrow ethnic group; Thus, at least in Tanzania (populated predominantly by Bantu peoples), the Swahili language managed to become a kind of symbol of national unity.
Linguistic characteristics
The syllable is open. Moreover, [m] and [n] can be syllabic. The most frequent syllable structures: 1) C m/n, 2) V, 3) CV, 4) CCV/C m/n V, 5) CCCV/C m/n CC y/w V.
Vowels
Consonants
| Labiolabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Nasal stops | m | n | ny | ng' | ||||
| Prenasalized stops | mb | nd | nj ~ | ng | ||||
| Implosive stops | b | d | j [ʄ ] | g [ɠ ] | ||||
| Plosive stops | p | t | ch | k | ||||
| Aspirated stops | p | t | ch | k | ||||
| Prenasalized fricatives | mv[v] | nz | ||||||
| Voiced fricatives | v | (dh ) | z | (gh ) | ||||
| Voiceless fricatives | f | (th ) | s | sh | (kh ) | h | ||
| Trembling | r | |||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Approximant | y | w |
Prenasalization is a typical phenomenon in African languages. Aspirated velars are borrowings from Arabic.
Morphology
Swahili has a very rich nominal and verbal morphology. For him, like for most Bantus, it is characteristic complex system nominal concordant classes.
Name
The system of Swahili concordant classes has undergone significant changes during its existence, having largely lost its original semantic motivation. The original system contained 22 matching classes. Researchers identify between 16 and 18 currently remaining. In the currently accepted interpretation, six of them denote singular nouns, five plural nouns, one class for abstract nouns, a class for verbal infinitives, and three locative classes.
Nouns 1st and 2nd grades, basically denote animate objects and, in particular, people: mtu watu, mtoto-watoto;
grades 3 and 4- the so-called “tree” classes, however, in addition to trees and plants, it also includes such physical objects as mwezi - " moon", mto - " river", mwaka - " year”, as a result of which the semantic motivation of the class is called into question;
15th grade on ku- - class of infinitives; Class 7 is often called the "things" class because it often includes items such as kitu - " thing" and kiti - " chair", however it also contains words such as kifafa - " epilepsy"; u- - prefix of abstract classes that do not have a plural.
Spatial relations in Swahili are expressed using locative classes.
The criterion for determining the nominal class to which a word form belongs is a concordant chain consisting of a class prefix, an adjective indicator for a given class, a verb concordant, a demonstrative concordant and a possessive concordant.
For example, let's compare chains of 3 and 1 classes:
This method allows us to identify 18 consonant classes and shows the increasing desemantization of the consonant class in Swahili.
Syntax
Standard word order in SVO syntagma. The definition is in postposition to the word being defined.
The type of role encoding in predication is accusative.
The abundance of passive constructions also speaks in favor of the accusative nature of the language.
Language description
Swahili entered scientific use relatively late - from the second half of the 19th century, when the first attempts were made to describe its grammatical structure. TO end of the 19th century V. The first practical grammars and dictionaries already existed.
In the 20th century interest in Swahili has increased significantly. Currently, Swahili is taught and studied in almost all major universities and research centers in Germany, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Japan, China, the USA and other countries. African scientists are also engaged in its research. In Tanzania there is an Institute of Swahili Research at the University of Dar es Salaam, which publishes a journal scientific works on various issues of Swahili language, literature and culture." For example, Our Father, E. B. Demintseva. M.: Institute for African Studies RAS, 2007. pp. 84-93.
SWAHILI, the most famous language of Africa; its self-name, kiswahili “language of the coast” (from Arabic sawahil “coastal villages, harbors”; ki- is an indicator of the nominal class to which the names of languages belong), indicates the original territory of distribution of this language - the narrow coastal strip of East Africa (included now part of Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania) with the adjacent islands (Zanzibar, Pemba, Mafia, Comoros, Lamu Archipelago), where, under the influence of Arab migrant traders (in the 9th–10th centuries AD), a unique for Africa, the Muslim civilization is Swahili.
The Swahili language supposedly originated in the 12th and 13th centuries. as a complex of urban Koine, formed as a result of the creolization of local Bantu languages in close contact with the Arabic language and serving linguistically heterogeneous shopping centers coast of East Africa. Until the beginning of the 19th century. Swahili was not used outside its own range.
The original speakers of Swahili are a mixed Islamized Afro-Arab population of the East African coast. There has never been any local people (autochthonous ethnic group) whose native language was Swahili. Because of this, Swahili turned out to be ethnically and, as a result, politically neutral, which ultimately determined its unique position for the local language as the dominant interethnic and supraethnic means of communication in East and Central Africa.
The penetration of Swahili into the depths of the African continent, inhabited by numerous ethnic groups with their own languages, began in the first quarter of the 19th century. through the efforts of first merchants and slave traders from the coast, and later missionaries and colonial officials, and was carried out relatively quickly (the whole process took about a century). Local ethnic groups willingly accepted Swahili as a means of interethnic communication, the language of Islam, Christianization, and colonial administration, since it, firstly, was perceived as “nobody’s” language, the use of which did not infringe on the self-awareness of local tribes, and secondly, it possessed high social prestige.
Currently, the distribution area of Swahili covers all of Tanzania, Kenya, large areas of Uganda and Zaire, parts of Rwanda and Burundi, northern Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, the southern coast of Somalia and the north-west of the island of Madagascar. The total number of Swahili speakers varies by different sources from 35 to 70 million. Of these, those for whom Swahili is a native language make up a little more than 2 million.
According to the classification of M. Gasri, Swahili is included in the zone G of the Bantu languages. K.Dok considered it the main language of the northeastern subzone of Bantu languages. According to J. Greenberg's classification, Swahili is one of the many Bantu languages; it belongs to the Bantu branch of the Benue-Congo languages, part of the Niger-Congo language family.
Swahili is national (or "national") and the first official language in the United Republic of Tanzania and in Kenya (the second is English). It enjoys official status in Zaire and Uganda as one of the largest languages of interethnic communication. In the rest of East and Central Africa, Swahili is primarily the lingua franca.
Swahili is most widespread in Tanzania, where it functions as a supra-ethnic means of communication with the widest possible range: it serves as the working language of parliament, local courts and authorities, the army, the police, the church; radio broadcasting is conducted on it, national literature is formed, the press is developed; Swahili is the only language of instruction in elementary school. Language policy in Tanzania is aimed at transforming Swahili into a universal system, comparable in terms of the scope of functions performed with the official languages of highly developed countries.
In reality, Swahili in Tanzania is currently excluded from the traditional spheres of communication served by local ethnic languages (there are more than 100 of them in the country), and coexists with English, which plays a leading role in the “higher” spheres of communication (middle and graduate School, science, technology, international contacts). In Kenya, Swahili, along with ethnic languages (there are just under 40 of them) and English, serves all areas of communication. Its main functional load is to ensure communication between representatives of different ethnic groups.
In the 1930s, through the efforts of the East African Swahili Language Committee, a “standard Swahili” was created. It is a standardized and codified form of language with a single standard recorded in normative grammars and dictionaries, the use of which is officially prescribed in Tanzania and encouraged in Kenya. It operates a modern fiction, developing without any connection with classical literature in Swahili.
Literary (“classical”) Swahili in its original area historically existed in two variants. One of them, which developed in the 17th–18th centuries. in the Pate and Lamu sultanates, based on the qipate and kiamu variants, served the genre of epic and didactic poems (tendi). The second option was formed by the beginning of the 19th century. based on the Koine of Mombasa, known as kimwita. Poems (mashairi) were created on it. Classical literature in Swahili is inextricably linked with the Arab dynasties that ruled the coast, and used the Old Swahili script, based on Arabic script, which was poorly adapted to convey sound structure. At the beginning of the 20th century. the colonial authorities replaced it with the Latin script, now generally accepted. The African population of mainland East Africa knows neither classical literature in Swahili nor old Swahili writing.
Based on the available evidence, it can be assumed that throughout its history, Swahili has been a complex of territorial variants, each of which had the status of a supra-dialectal "trade language" or city-wide Koine, rather than a dialect in the usual sense of the word. The territorial variants were probably based on local Bantu languages creolized under strong Arabic influence (and perhaps just one language). The proximity of the ethnic languages and dialects of the coastal Bantu tribes, the uniform influence of the Arabic language for the entire region, the similarity of communicative functions and operating conditions, and extensive contacts along the entire coast contributed to the convergence of the territorial variants of Swahili. Gradually they began to serve as the first language for the Islamized Afro-Arab population of the coast and subsequently received common name“Swahili language”, although each local variety had its own name, for example Kipat - the language of Pate, etc. European explorers in the 19th century. they called these idioms dialects of the Swahili language and combined them into three bundles - northern (kiamu, kipat, etc.), central and southern (formed by the Kiunguja variant on Zanzibar Island and its continental variety Kimrima); An intermediate position between the northern central bundles is occupied by kimvita. A special subgroup is formed by the variants used by the Swahili-speaking population of the Comoros.
All varieties of Swahili demonstrate a clear commonality of grammatical structure, have a significant common Bantu vocabulary and a common layer of Arabisms; the differences between them are usually not so significant as to completely exclude mutual understanding. These idioms do not constitute a dialectal continuum, since the immediate environment of each of them consists of the ethnic languages of the autochthonous African population of this region - mainly Bantu. In Tanzania, the native territorial variants of Swahili are currently being replaced by the standard variant.
A special place in the system of coastal territorial variants of Swahili belongs to the Zanzibar Koine Kiunguja - the only one of the “dialects” of Swahili that went beyond the coast and became the dominant means of interethnic communication in East and Central Africa. It was to it that the name “Swahili language” was assigned on the continent, and it was subsequently used as the basis for the literary standard. On the basis of Kiunguja, in the territory of distribution of ethnic Bantu and non-Bantu languages, secondary “continental dialects” of Swahili were also formed. For the most part, they are pidginized in nature, representing extremely impoverished colloquial forms with destroyed morphology. They are not known in Tanzania, since 94% of the country's ethnic languages are Bantu, showing structural affinity with Kiunguja. On the contrary, Kenya became the birthplace of such colloquial pidginized variants of Swahili as Kisetla, which arose from contacts between Europeans and Africans; "internal" Swahili, used when communicating between Africans of various ethnicities; Nairobi Swahili, which is widely used among the ethnically diverse population of Nairobi, etc. Numerous variants of Swahili that exist in Zaire have the common name “Kingwana”, while obvious similarities with Kiunguja are revealed only by Kingwana itself (literally “the language of the freeborn”), in which is spoken as a native language by the descendants of Swahili merchants living in Zaire who came here in the early 19th century. An obvious functional advantage over other variants that serve only interethnic ties in Zaire is that variant of Swahili, which is now becoming native and functionally first for the de-ethnicizing residents of the largest industrial city of Lubumbashi, in which, thus, the process of creolization of one of the pidginized variants of Swahili is observed.
The vast majority of Swahili speakers speak more than one language. At the same time, both diglossia is represented (in Tanzania and Kenya, where it manifests itself in the possession of the primary territorial variant of Swahili, used only in everyday communication, plus Kiunguja or standard Swahili, used in more formal situations), and bilingualism (among a huge number of autochthonous inhabitants of Eastern Europe). and Central Africa, which is manifested in proficiency in the native language plus Swahili, used for interethnic communication, the degree of proficiency of which varies widely). In Tanzania, there is currently a growing number of residents for whom the national Swahili has become their native and functional first language; In addition to linguistically assimilated speakers of the primary territorial variants of Swahili, they are represented by the population of cities and multi-ethnic agricultural settlements that have lost their tribal and ethnic identity, as well as migrants who have lost contact with their native ethnic group.
In terms of its intralinguistic properties, Swahili is a typical Bantu language with characteristic phonetics and a developed system of nominal classes, but at the same time with a large layer of Arabic vocabulary and borrowed phonemes (only in roots of Arabic origin). In the process of codification and normalization, many Arabic words were replaced by English and Bantu, the language underwent significant lexical enrichment, under certain influence syntactic norms The English language has also become more complex in its syntax.
