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Swahili coast people and its history

6 top -rated tourist attractions in Swahili speaking town Mombasa

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Months
The names of the months in Swahili are in two versions: one is taken directly from English and the other is counting the moons.

Here are the Swahili months of the year:

Kiswahili English Kiswahili
Januari January Mwezi wa kwanza
Februari February Mwezi wa pili
Machi March Mwezi wa tatu
Aprili April Mwezi wa nne
Mei May Mwezi wa tano
Juni June Mwezi wa sita
Julai July Mwezi wa saba
Agosti August Mwezi wa nane
Septemba September Mwezi wa tisa
Oktoba October Mwezi wa Kumi
Novemba November Mwezi wa kumi na moja
Desemba December Mwezi wa kumi na mbili

As with the days of the week, when using months in a sentence the month is placed in the same way as in English, either directly before the subject or at the end of the sentence. So the preceding examples in this section could have been written as:

Niliogelea Aprili. – I went swimming in April.
Niliogelea katika mwezi Aprili. – I went swimming in the month of April.
Niliogelea katika mwezi wa Aprili. – I went swimming in the month of April.
Niliogelea katika mwezi wa nne. – I went swimming in the fourth month. (April)

When naming the months directly, the months are N- class nouns, however if the word mwezi is used before the name of the month then noun class agreement must be with mwezi which is in the M-/MI- noun class.

Negation of the Verbs ‘To Be,’ and ‘To Have’

The verb kuwa means “to be” or “to become,” the verb kuwa na means “to have” or “to be with”. All of these verbs are derived from the monosyllabic verb wa which means “be.”
Since these verbs are derived from a monosyllabic verb. Kuwa and kuwa na can be used with all tenses, however, in the present tense, they take irregular forms. In the present tense, the verb kuwa becomes ni, the and verb kuwa na becomes –na.

Kuwa (to be or to become)
The verb kuwa means “to be” or “to become.” As you may recall, verbs are used in the following structure in a simple sentence:
Subject prefix + Tense marker + Verb
The following are a few examples of sentences using kuwa in the simple past, past perfect and future tenses.
Alikuwa hodari. – He/She was clever.
Wamekuwa matajiri. – They have become wealthy people.
Nitakuwa mwalimu. – I will become a teacher.

Negation of Kuwa

The above sentences are negated as follows:
Hakuwa hodari. – He/She was not clever.
Hawajakuwa matajiri. – They have not yet become wealthy people.
Sitakuwa mwalimu. – I will not become a teacher.
When we use kuwa in the present tense, the verb kuwa is substituted by ni. In this context the word ni is translated as “am,” “is” or “are” and carries the meaning of “be.” It should not be confused with the subject prefix ni- which translates as “I.”

Subject prefix + Tense marker + Irregular form of the Verb (ni)
The following are a few examples of sentences using ni.
Baba yake ni mhasibu. – His/her father is an accountant.
Sahani hizi ni ghali. – These plates are expensive.
Maembe yale ni mabivu. – Those mangoes are ripe.
In order to negate sentences using ni in the present tense, the verb ni is replaced by its negative form, which is si and is translated as “am not,” “is not” or “are not” and carries the meaning of “not to be.”
Therefore, the above sentences are negated as follows:
Baba yake si mhasibu. – His/her father is not an accountant.
Sahani hizi si ghali. – These plates are not expensive.
Maembe yale si mabivu. – Those mangoes are not ripe.

Kuwa na (to have or to be with)
The verb kuwa na means “to have” or “to be with.” As you may recall from, verbs are used in the following structure in a simple sentence:
Subject prefix + Tense marker + Verb
The following are a few examples of sentences using kuwa na in the simple past, past perfect and future tenses.
Nilikuwa na watoto wangu. – I was with my children.
Watakuwa na gari kesho kutwa. – They will have a car the day after tomorrow.
Mmekuwa na bahati nzuri. – You (pl.) have had good luck.
Palikuwa na wadudu wengi. – The place (definite) had many insects.
The above sentences are negated as follows:

Sikuwa na watoto wangu. – I was not with my children.
Hawatakuwa na gari kesho kutwa. – They will not have a car the day after tomorrow.
Hamjakuwa na bahati nzuri. – You (pl.) have not yet had good luck.
Hapakuwa na wadudu wengi. – The place (definite) did not have many insects.

When we use kuwa na in the present tense, the verb kuwa na is substituted by -na. In this context, the word -na still carries the meaning of “have” and it should not be confused with -na which is used to construct reciprocal verbs.

Subject prefix + Tense marker + Irregular form of the Verb (-na)
The following are a few examples of sentences using -na:

Kiti hiki kina rangi nyekundu. – This chair has a red colour. (This chair is red).
Wana mboga za aina nyingi sokoni. – They have many kinds of vegetables in the market.
Seremala ana wateja wapya. – The carpenter has new customers.

As you can see in the sentences above, the present tense is implied and therefore, the present tense marker -na- is omitted.
The above sentences are negated as follows:

Kiti hiki hakina rangi nyekundu. – This chair does not have a red colour. (This chair is not red).
Hawana mboga za aina nyingi sokoni. – They do not have many kinds of vegetables in the market.
Seremala hana wateja wapya. – The carpenter does not have new customers.

Swahili verbs are always “constructed”—they are built, piece by piece, according to a permanent design. There are six basic building blocks that can be used to construct a Swahili verb. […]

The Swahili language or “Kiswahili” is discussed in relation to its history, geography, different dialects, and the spread of Kiswahili through the centuries. This chapter will also cover the status of the language in the world today and some aspects of cultural significance that the Swahili learner should be familiar with.
Kiswahili is a Bantu language that belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. The word Bantu means “people.” The languages of Baganda in Uganda, Sotho in Lesotho, Zulu in South Africa and Kamba in Kenya are other examples of Bantu languages. Although these languages are not mutually intelligible, they are all derived from one common ancestral language and share some basic vocabulary, word building processes and sentence structure.1 For example, the word for person in Kiswahili is mtu meaning “person” or watu meaning “people.” Both the singular and plural forms of the word are very similar in many Bantu languages as shown

Bantu Language Country Singular Plural

Baganda Uganda omuntu abantu
Sotho Lesotho motho bantu
Zulu South Africa Umuntu abantu
Kamba Kenya mundu andu

Kiswahili was originally spoken along the East African Coast from Southern Somalia to the Northern part of Mozambique and has existed for more than 1,000 years. The word “Swahili” has been derived from the Arabic word “Sahel” meaning “coast.” The expansion of Swahili into the hinterland was facilitated by Coastal slave traders, merchants, missionaries and colonialists. The late Presidents Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Prime Minister Milton Obote of Uganda promoted Kiswahili during the struggle for independence (uhuru). President Nyerere promoted Swahili in many ways including the translation of two Shakespearean plays: The Merchant of Venice (Mabepari wa Venice) and Julius Caesar (Juliasi Kaisari). Nyerere also made Swahili the medium of instruction in elementary schools. Currently Kiswahili is mainly spoken in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
In addition it is spoken to some extent in seven other countries or regions
in East and Central Africa, namely, Rwanda, Burundi, the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern Somalia, Northern Mozambique, Malawi and Northern Zambia which together have a Swahili speaking population of roughly 50 million. Outside the East and Central Africa Region, Kiswahili is spoken in Oman, some parts of Madagascar, South Africa and Djibouti.
Kiswahili is spoken in more than 15 dialects throughout East and Central Africa. The Kiunguja dialect of Zanzibar has been adopted as Standard Swahili since 1935 and is used by the media, as a medium of instruction in schools and in business transactions.
Other major dialects are Kimvita, Kiamu, Kipemba and Kitumbatu based in Mombasa, Lamu, Pemba and Unguja Islands respectively. Apart from these dialects, there are other dialects of people living in the interior of East and Central Africa, which tend to reflect the tribal languages of different Bantu speaking peoples.
As a consequence of interaction between the local people and foreigners, Kiswahili has many loan words from other languages such as Arabic, English, German, Portuguese, Persian and Hindi. It has been estimated that foreign words in the Swahili language make up approximately 30% of the vocabulary, with the majority coming from Arabic.
While it is true that Swahili uses many foreign words, it is also true to say that the Swahili people have adapted foreign words to meet their own needs. For example, borrowed words that have closed vowels (i.e. ending with consonants) have been changed so that they have open vowels (i.e. ending with a vowel). Also some loan words have completely changed their meaning. For example, the word rafiki (friend) is originally taken from the Arabic word “rafiki” meaning “trusted one.” Furthermore, it has been shown that the origin of some loan words cannot be traced to any particular language. In addition, Swahili has contributed words to the English vocabulary such as the word safari, which means “journey.” The great explorer, Sir Richard Francis Burton, who visited the East African Coast in the middle of the 19th Century, had this to say about the language:
Kiswahili is both rich and poor. . . . It abounds in names of sensuous objects; there is a term for every tree, shrub, plant, grass, and bulb, and I have shown that the several ages of cocoa-nut are differently called. . . . Abounding in vowels and liquids, the language admits a vast volubility of utterances; in anger or excitement, the words flow like a torrent, and each dovetails into its neighbor until the whole speech becomes one vocabule.
Kiswahili has attained an international status. The African Union, formerly the Organization of African Unity (OAU), has adopted Kiswahili as one of the official languages of Africa. For many years, major radio networks have been broadcasting Swahili programs. They include the BBC, Voice of America, Radio South Africa, Deutschewel (Germany), Radio Cairo, Radio Japan, Radio Beijing, All India Radio and Radio Moscow International. Many universities and colleges in Europe, Asia, North America and other parts of Africa have Swahili programs.
Also, Swahili has been used in some North American movies such as Hotel Rwanda, the Last King of Scotland, the Lion King and Darwin’s Nightmare.There are also several popular Swahili songs known throughout the world such as Hakuna Matata (No worries), Malaika Nakupenda Malaika (Angel, I love you Angel) and Jambo Bwana (Hello Mister). In addition, some English songs such as All Night Long (by Lionel Ritchie) and Liberian Girl (by Michael Jackson) have Swahili phrases in them.