Swahili
Around the eighth century, Arabs trading on the East African Coast referred to the varieties of Swahili spoken in the area as "languages of the coast" and the name Swahili is from the Arabic word sawaahil, meaning coast. The name was further adapted to the Swahili language by the addition of the prefix ki, so that the Swahili name for the language is Kiswahili. Swahili is a complex language spoken in East Africa. The language has ancient roots in the Bantu language family, thought to have originated in the early part of the first millennium A.D., and extends now across Central Africa. Swahili grammar is based on a complicated Bantu structure that learners often find difficult to master. Many words have entered Swahili from Arabic, the result of centuries of interaction between peoples along the coast. (I.E. Intermarriages between the Omani Arabs and the Mijikenda communities, which consisted of 9 Bantu tribes who settled along the Kenyan coast line.) As with many other languages, loan words have entered Swahili from many places, particularly to name objects or concepts without pre-existing Swahili equivalents. Derivations of non-Bantu Swahili words can be traced to languages including English, German, Portuguese, Persian, Gujurati, Hindi, Hebrew, and even Chinese. Some Swahili words have entered other languages, most famously safari. The term "Waswahili" or Swahili people, sometimes refers to all Swahili speakers, and sometimes refers more specifically to some of the millions of people who live along the "Swahili Coast." Have fun!
Here are the ‘Big 5’:Buffalo - mbogo And some of the most known Kenya Animals:Antelope - pofu/kulungu/pala hala
The basic Food terms in Swahili:Bill - Hesabu
BASIC Swahili:Hello - Jambo
Numbers:zero - sifuri "The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary is a collaborative work by people all over the world. Together we are working to establish new dictionaries of the Swahili language - Kiswahili - both within Swahili and between Swahili and English. We are preparing print-based dictionaries and multi-media Swahili learning applications, all accessible to you through this home page. We invite you to become a contributing editor - help refine our lexicon by using our unique Edit Engine. Swahili is the most widely spoken African language, with more than 50 million speakers in East Africa and Central Africa, particularly in Tanzania (including Zanzibar) and Kenya".
The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary
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