Swahili: A Guide to This Fascinating Language

by Hammed Sonny | Dec 17, 2024 | Africa

Swahili is an extremely extensive language, in order to understand it further, we have put together a guide to aid your understanding.

Swahili is a language native to the Swahili people and part of the Bantu language family.

Where is Swahili spoken?

Spanning across a vast string of regions, Swahili has official language status within Kenya and Tanzania. In addition, it is widely spoken within Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and serves as a national language. The influence of this language extends even further with Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Northern Zambia and Malawi having speakers in smaller proportions.

How many people speak Swahili?

It is estimated that between 50-150 million people speak the language either as a native tongue or a second language. The exact number is not known, it varies greatly and is a matter of debate.

People who speak Swahili as their soul language are known as Waswahili people.

Swahili Origins

Research has found that approximately 20% of the Swahili language consists of loan words. Many these are taken from Arabic, and interestingly enough the name ‘Swahili’ is in fact Arabic in itself. It first came about as a language used by Bantu tribes and from then on it spread and evolved throughout many east African regions.

It’s not just Arabic that Swahili is influenced by it has been discovered that dialects such as Malay, Portuguese and Persian also have influence.

The main Swahili dialects

There are 15 dialects within the language, however only 3 of these are considered main dialects. They vary based upon region. Standard Swahili is based upon Kiunguja .

Kiunguja- Spoken in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Kimvita- Spoken in Kenya and Mombasa.

Kiamu- Spoken on the island of Lamu and surrounding areas.

Day to day uses

Dependent on where you find yourself, the uses of Swahili differ. For instance, places such as Kenya, Tanzania and Congo use the language for business and administration purposes- meaning that it is considered a working language. It is important to note that many of these regions also used Swahili along with English and French in educational settings.

Some interesting facts about the Swahili language

• It is thought that Swahili is the easiest African language for English speakers to learn- this is because like English, Swahili is a language without lexical tone.
• There is a hybrid English/Swahili dialect called ‘Sheng’- it originated within Nairobi amongst youths.
• The first Swahili script dates back to the 17^th

Final Thoughts

We have discovered that Swahili has a rich cultural history, which spans across multiple regions. It was first introduced as a trade language and later evolved into an extremely widely spoken language throughout many regions of Africa. Although, we cannot be sure of the exact number of speakers, we can be certain that it will continue to evolve, and it will be kept rife by its ample speakers.

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Do You Know the Top 7 Languages Spoken in Guinea-Bissau? 

by Hammed Sonny | Dec 11, 2024 | Africa

Do You Know the Top 7 Languages Spoken in Guinea-Bissau? 

Laying near the coast of West Africa, Guinea-Bissau is a country of rich cultural history. From the Portuguese colonisation in the 15^th century to gaining their independent status in the early 1970’s, the country is home to a rich tapestry of historical events, which have aided in the development of the region.

With a population of around 1.9 million, Guinea-Bissau natives speak an assortment of languages and varying dialects, but what if the official language? What other languages are spoken? We will look at the linguistic diversity present in Guinea-Bissau and the top 7 spoken languages throughout the West African country.

Portuguese

The official language of Guinea-Bissau is Portuguese. The Portuguese language was dominant in the country during Portugal’s occupation of Guinea-Bissau, which ended in 1973 when the country unilaterally declared its independence, and after the 1974 Carnation Revolution which overthrew the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. Despite these events, the Portuguese language has remained the official language of Guinea-Bissau, although it is spoken by 167,000 people, a much smaller proportion of speakers than other languages in the country.

As well as Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique are two other African countries within which Portuguese is an official language. These countries are known as Lusophone countries and are part of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), an international organisation of countries, made up of nine member states, where Portuguese is the official language. The organisation also includes Brazil. Portugal, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.

Guinea-Bissau Creole

Guinea-Bissau Creole is a Creole language based on Portuguese. Despite not being an official language, it is in fact the most spoken language- making it the lingua franca of the country. Sometimes known as Crioulo or Kiriol, the highly popular language is spoken as a first language by 15% of the Guinea-Bissau population. Increasingly more people are known to have adopted it as a second language, with statistics showing us that approximately 50% of the entire population are fluent in the tongue.

Guinea-Bissau Creole is known to be used widely throughout many official settings, including political and business sectors. As well, the strong social status of the language means it is utilised heavily in the media and more informal settings like shops.

Balanta-Kentohe

Balanta-Kentohe is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Guinea-Bissau. In total, the language is spoken by 354,000 people, who account for 26% of the country’s population. Balanta-Kentohe is one of two languages that constitute the Balanta language, the other being Balanta-Ganja, which is spoken primarily in Gambia and Senegal.The Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken by the Balanta people, who make up 30% of Guinea-Bissau’s population.

There are two dialects of Balanta-Kentohe: Nhacra (also known as Fora) and Kantohe (also known as Kentohe, Queuthoe). The Nhacra dialect of the Balanta-Kentohe language is spoken in the Oio region, located in northern Guinea-Bissau, whereas the Kantohe dialect is spoken in south-eastern and southern Guinea-Bissau, such as in the Tombali region.

Manjak

Manjak, also known as Mandjak, Manjaco or Njak, is one of the Bak languages, which are spoken primarily in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. It is part of the West Atlantic language group, a West African subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family, which, for instance, also features the Wolof and Fula languages. In Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, there are 215,000 Manjak speakers, and an estimated 356,800 Manjak speakers globally. In Guinea-Bissau, the Manjak language is spoken by 12% of the country’s population. Most of the speakers of Manjak in the country are part of the Manjak people. This ethnic group lives mainly in Guinea-Bissau, but also in Senegal, Gambia, as well as Portugal. The Manjak comprise 14% of the country’s total population. There are several dialects of the Manjak language such as Bok, Likes-Utsia, Cur, Lund, and Yu.

Fula

Making up part of the Niger-Congo web of languages, Fula is classified as the native tongue of the Fulani people in Africa. The language is not exclusive to Guinea-Bissau, with its widespread use across western and central Africa- it is prevalent within about 20 different countries. Fula is often used in more informal settings as a pose to official settings. There is no official status for the language in the country, but it is still richly spoken within the Fulani community. Within Guinea-Bissau, approximately 16% of the total population speak Fula as their first language- this accounts for an estimated 516,000 people.

Mandinka 

Mandinka (also known as Mandingo) is a language spoken by the Mandinka (or Malinke) people; an ethnic group spread across West Africa who are descended from the Mali Empire. Mandinka is one of the Mande languages, which are spoken on the west coast. In Guinea-Bissau, Mandinka is spoken primarily in the north of the country and by around 154,000 people (approximately 7% the overall population), also being widely used in the Casamance region of Senegal and The Gambia, with some variants in Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and Mali, numbering 1.3 million speakers worldwide as of 2016. Mandinka is a tonal language, meaning that shifts in spoken pitch indicate and distinguish grammatical and lexical meaning. Mandinka has two of these tones – either ‘high’ or ‘low’ – and uses no ‘nasal’ vowels. In terms of a writing system, the Mandinka language has three; Latin, Arabic, and N’ko. Whilst the Latin writing system and alphabet are ‘official’, the Arabic alphabet is also very widely used. In the former system, the letters v, x, z, and q are not used (the letter g is also rare) and any long vowels are written as doubled; aa, oo, ii, ee, uu. The third writing system, N’Ko, was developed by Solomana Kante in 1949 to serve as a script for all Manding languages (languages within the Mande family) in West Africa. N’Ko means I say in all Manding languages and shares some similarities with Arabic in that it is written from right to left, with letters joined at the base. In Guinea-Bissau, it is mostly used in the north-east of the country and the bordering regions in the Ivory Coast and Mali. For those curious, here are some everyday expressions in Mandinka:

I ni ke / I ni wale – Hello

Abaraka – Thank you/Blessings

Fowati koten – Goodbye

Ibe Nyaadi – How are you?

Mbe karaito – I am fine

Ntomu (name) leti – My name is…

Dasamo – breakfast

Kontongo – lunch

Simango – dinner

Papel

Also known as Pepel, Papei, Oium, or Moium, Papel is spoken by the people of the same name who live mostly in the central coastal regions of Guinea-Bissau. Papel belongs to the Bak language family, a group of languages spoken mostly in the Guinea-Bissau – Senegal region and is linguistically similar to Mankanya and Mandjak. Having 140,000 speakers globally (as of 2006), Papel is used by around 3% of Guinea-Bissau’s population. 79,000 of these speakers live in the Bissau Island region – the country’s capital – with the country’s former president João Bernardo Vieira as a member of this group. In the Bissau area, the use of Papel can be separated into two separate dialects – Biombo in the southwest of the area, and Safim in the northeast. Papel is a non-tonal language and uses a Latin – based script.

In conclusion

Despite its relatively small size, Guinea-Bissau is home to a diverse group of languages of various origins, representing multiple ethnic groups and demonstrating the (often overlooked) rich cultural and linguistic history and reality of Africa. If you require interpretation or translation of any of these languages (particularly Portuguese) or any other language-based services, visit Crystal Clear Translation for a quote to find out more.

The Zarma Language: One Of The Fascinating Songhay Languages

by Hammed Sonny | Nov 12, 2024 | Africa

Zarma (also known as Djerma) is one of the Songhay languages, which derive from Nilo-Saharan language family. The Songhay languages comprise two dialects, Northern Songhay and Southern Songhay (Zarma is a Southern Songhay language). The primary speakers of the Zarma language are the Zarma ethnic group, who live in Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso. Most Zarma people live in Niger, accounting for around 21.2% of the population (around 4.92 million people). Of the approximately 4.92 million people of the Zarma group that live in Niger, around 3.12 million people are Zarma speakers.

Linguistic Features of the Zarma Language

Zarma is written in both the Arabic script and the Latin script, although, most speakers use a Latinised version of the language. Those Zarma speakers who write the language in the Arabic script utilise the Maghrebi and Naksh styles of writing. The Latinised Zarma alphabet is comprised of the same letters as the English language, albeit with the inclusion of the two letters “ŋ” (eng) and “ɲ”, which are written after vowels to indicate that they are nasalised vowels (pronounced using breath from the nose).

There are a number of different vowels and consonants in the Zarma language. The primary vowels of the Zarma language are “a” (pronounced as “ah”, like “father”), “e” (pronounced as “ey” like “obey”), “ay”, “I”, “o” and “u”. Regarding consonants, the majority used in Zarma are similar to those used in the English language, with a few exceptions. For example, the Zarma language uses the consonant “g” (a hard consonant pronounced in the same way as the “g” in “goose”),

In addition to this, the Zarma language uses the SOV (subject-object-verb) word order, and verbs written in the language do not use different forms when used for different tenses. For instance, sentences written in the negative form of the past tense feature the word “man” before the verb to indicate the negative. In the sentence, “Yesterday, I didn’t go to the market”, which translated into the Zarma language is  “Bi ay man koy habu”, the verb “koy” (meaning “to go”) is prefixed by the word “man”.

Key Zarma phrases

• Hello – “Fo”
• Please – “Alhanan”
• My name is – “Ay ma…”
• I’m fine – “Bani samay walla”
• See you later – “Kala tonton”
• How much is…? – “Marje no…?”
• I want/I’d like – “Ay ga ba”

Is Zarma an official language?

The Zarma language is not an official language in Niger, or any of the West African countries within which the Songhay languages are most widely spoken. In fact, the official language in Niger is actually the French language. However, Zarma is regarded as a national language in Niger, and is used in both social and business environments. In addition to this, Zarma is also taught in primary education in Niger alongside English and French, and is also one of the languages used in media as well as publishing in Niger.

In Conclusion

Zarma may not be as widely spoken as the Hausa language, Zarma is an important lingua franca utilised by millions of speakers across West Africa, and is the most widely spoken language in Niamey, the capital city of Niger. The language has a fascinating history, used throughout the Songhai Empire in the 15^th century, and as a growing language, Zarma is spoken by an increasing number of people in Niger and in other West African countries, like Nigeria, Mali, Benin and Ghana.

Since Zarma is not mutually intelligible with the other Songhay languages, it is important that any translator or interpreter you need to translate Zarma is fluent in the Zarma language. If you should require translation or interpretation of the Zarma language, or any language or dialect, you may be interested in the excellent services provided by Crystal Clear Translation. At CCT, we employ many efficient and reliable translators able to navigate the intricacies of many different languages and cultures. Click here for a quote if you should need interpretation or translation services in a multitude of different languages.