Table of Contents
Is Swahili a creole?
No, Swahili is not a creole language. Swahili is a Bantu language that includes many terms that are from Arabic.
What kind of language is Swahili?
Bantu language
Swahili language, also called kiSwahili, or Kiswahili, Bantu language spoken either as a mother tongue or as a fluent second language on the east coast of Africa in an area extending from Lamu Island, Kenya, in the north to the southern border of Tanzania in the south.
What languages make up creole?
Since most creole languages developed in the colonies they are typically based on English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, the languages of the superpowers of the time. However, there are also numerous creoles based on other languages such as Arabic, Hindi, and Malay.
What is the Swahili language a mix of?
Someone who speaks Arabic may find it easier to learn Swahili because Swahili is a combination of words from Arabic and the Bantu-speaking communities of East Africa.
Is Swahili creole or pidgin?
Mazrui (1992) argues that Swahili emerged as an Arabic-based pidgin that evolved into a creole before going through a process of decreolization (ibid., 95–98). As we saw above, a pidgin becomes a creole when it becomes the first or native language of a speech community.
Is Swahili a tribe?
The Swahili people (Swahili language: WaSwahili) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting East Africa….Swahili people.
| Waungwana | |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Tanzania (particularly Zanzibar), Kenya, Somalia, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Congo | |
| Swahili Coast | c. 1.2 million |
Why Swahili is an international language?
It is argued that the early visitors and traders, such as the Arabs and Persians who came to the East African coast, used to speak with the natives in Kiswahili. They have also claimed that the language is spreading fast across Africa and beyond hence gaining the status of an international language.
Is Jamaican Creole a language?
Jamaican Patois (/ˈpætwɑː/), (known locally as Patois, Patwa, and Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. It is spoken by the majority of Jamaicans as a native language.
What race is Swahili?
The Swahili people (Swahili language: WaSwahili) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting East Africa. Members of this ethnicity primarily reside on the Swahili coast, in an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago, littoral Kenya, the Tanzania seaboard, northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands, and Northwest Madagascar.
Is Bantu a Swahili?
Swahili is a Bantu language of the Niger-Congo family and has a typical, complicated Bantu structure.
Why is Swahili a Creole language?
The creole hypothesis suggests that Swahili emerged as a language of contact when Arab traders arrived and began to interact with the people of the east African coast. They speculated that Swahili emerged as an Arabic- based pidgin that became a creole through a process of indigenization.
What is the difference between Swahili and Waswahili?
(The Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.) People who speak Swahili as their sole mother tongue are usually referred to as Waswahili, but this name refers to their language only and does not denote any particular ethnic or tribal unit.
What countries use Swahili as a lingua franca?
Swahili is widely used as a lingua franca in: (1) Tanzania, where it is the language of administration and primary education; (2) Kenya, where it is, after English, the main language for these purposes; (3) Congo (Kinshasa), where a form of Swahili is one of the four languages of administration,…
What are the different types of Creoles?
A number of creoles have achieved the status of official languages: Bislama is the official language of Vanuatu. Haitian Creole is the official language of Haiti. Tok Pisin is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea. Sãotomense is the national language of São Tomé Island.
When did Swahili become the official language of Kenya?
In June 1928, an interterritorial conference attended by representatives of Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, and Zanzibar took place in Mombasa. The Zanzibar dialect was chosen as standard Swahili for those areas, and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted.