The Swahili Language

This video is all about Swahili, one of Africa's major languages and a lingua franca in much of East Africa.

Thanks to Mugizi Robert Rwebangira for the Swahili audio samples in this video.

Special thanks to: Nicholas Shelokov, Sebastian Langshaw, Brandon Gonzalez, 谷雨 穆, Adrian Zhang, Vadim Sobolev, Yixin Alfred Wong, Kaan Ergen, Sky Vied, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Ulrike Baumann, Ian Martyn, Justin Faist, Jeff Miller, Stephen Lawson, Howard Stratton, George Greene, Panthea Madjidi, Nicholas Gentry, Sergios Tsakatikas, Bruno Filippi, and Brian Michalowski for their generous Patreon support.

Music:

Intro music: “Foundation” by Vibe Tracks.

Outro music: “Circular” by Gunnar Olsen.

[Langfocus]

(Note: if you upgrade to a paid plan, Langfocus gets a small referral fee that helps support this channel, at no extra cost to you. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it!)

[SaidSaid]

I am from Zanzibar, Tanzania and this is the most accurate video about Swahili language I have ever seen. Thanks a lot for doing this.

[baltazar]

I’m a native portuguese speaker and the sounds of the combination of the words are very similar, I’m learning Swahili with a Kenyan friend and it’s been very funny and cool. Ninaipenda.

[isaac]

I’m Kenyan norm but currently live in the USA. Since I grew up in Nairobi, we spoke both English and Kiswahili but mostly a mixture of the two, as teenagers we spoke a corrupt version of the two called ‘Sheng which was pretty cool. The older folks didn’t have a clue of what most of our conversations were about when they tried to be nosey. Ha!

People in Nairobi always were jealous of the folks from Mombasa and even Tanzania for their fluent Swahili language. Haha!

Shoutout from Atlanta! 😎

[cedrickiplimo]

I am from Kenya and the accuracy of this is just astounding.

[malikhuska]

I am from Somalia
I studied Kiswahili in Kenya
Swahili the African language 👍👍👍

[jnyerere]

I'm a native Swahili speaker from Tanzania. The only problem when it comes to the subject of native speakers is that western sources tend to group "ethnicity" and "native speaker" as being one in the same. I'm not ethnically Swahili. Very few people in Tanzania are ethnically Swahili. However, tens of millions of Tanzanians (especially those born after 1960) would definitely consider themselves as native Swahili speakers only because in many parts of Tanzania your ethnic language is almost always secondary to Kiswahili. Also, in most cases (especially today), coming from a certain ethnic group does not necessarily mean you are able to communicate in that ethnic language. Kiswahili is such a widely spoken language that most people don't even put emphasis on their ethnic language. My father is of the Zanaki ethnic group but he doesn't know how to speak the language. His "native" language is Swahili by default. Most Tanzanians' native language is Swahili by default, even though we represent some 120+ different ethnic groups. So in reality (and as far as most Tanzanians are concerned), the actual number of native Swahili speakers should be higher while the number of second-language speakers should probably decrease a bit.

[SUBtheDon]

I'm Kenyan, and I have learnt Kiswahili up till I was 18 years old. I love this language because you get to appreciate the rich literal (literature) culture of the Swahili people. Beautiful poems and captivating stories cannot be appreciated succinctly in any other language. Although we share similar grammar and vocabulary library as Tanzanians, these two countries use the language in very different contexts. Tanzanians speak a more fluid and rich vocabulary and the emphasis is on polite conversation. Kenyan Kiswahili is a lot more direct and formal.

This is a well down video, highly recommended! Great job.

[SvenRingling]

As a native German speaker, I find the pronunciation exceptionally easy (even easier than English - or Bavarian German 😂). The noun classes and the many prefixes in verbs are a challenge - by the time I’ve put a future verb together, I need to change the tense marker to past, because it takes me too long 😁
In my early stages of learning, though. Hope it will get better.

[lvwnwqn]

Born in Nairobi I studied Swahili till I was ten.This video brought back sweet memories."Kitab" means book in Hindi too

[Livio]

This made me want to learn Swahili, I like the sound of it

[umojaafrika]

Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan Kusini, Burundi na Uganda ! Umoja wetu ni nguzo yetu !

Kiswahili chetu ni umoja wetu !

[gyurto]

I'm Hungarian and somehow this is the most logical language, that I've ever encountered besides Hungarian. I really like it!

[luckygirl]

I am from Tanzania and a native swahili speaker and this is the most accurate video about Swahili I have ever seen so far.

[moon]

I' m from Comoros and I'm so glad you have talked about us 😊😊. Our language is 30% arabic vocabulary, 60% swahili and 10 % French and other languages words 😂. But generally, we are considering that our language is In the same family as swahili. I was, once, shocked when I Heard Lupita Nyongo said in a interview an expression exactly the same way as us comorian say it 😳😨😂😂😂😂. Love y'all ❤️ # EastAfricaPower

[MoRasheed]

Swahili is becoming the African language. More and more people are learning Swahili. I am a native Swahili speaker from Burundi, I also make videos in Swahili often.

[MunizDH]

I'm teaching myself swahili, it's a great language... Noun classes (ngeli) have been really challenging for me. Nobody speaks swahili over here (I'm Brazilian) and it makes things even more challenging. Great explanation, by the way.

[hassangingi]

This is the most accurate Swahili analysis I have ever seen from a white man!!! Kudos from Kenya🇰🇪

[MrEdman]

The best part about Swahili is that if you’re from Africa, every American will ask if you speak it because its the only African language we’ve heard of.

[TacticusPrime]

I love how you dig into the actual structure of the language. Fascinating.