Teach Yourself Swahili © Hassan O. Ali & Ali M. Mazrui August 3, 2004 i Contents ABOUT THIS COURSE 1 ABOUT SWAHILI 1 LESSON 1: ALPHABET 3 LESSON 2: PRONUNCIATION GUIDE 3 VOWELS 3 SYLLABLES 3 SAME SOUND AS IN ENGLISH: F, H , L, M, N, S, V, W, Y, Z 4 “HARD” CONSONANTS: B, D, G, J 4 “ROLLING” R 4 TWO-CONSONANT COMBINATIONS: CH, DH, GH, KH, MB, MY, ND, NG, NG’, NJ, NY, SH, TH, VY 5 TWO DISTICT SOUNDS: CH, K, P, T 5 ADDITION OF “W” 6 LESSON 3: LETTER SOUNDS 7 LESSON 4: SYLLABLE SOUNDS 12 LESSON 5: EMPHASIS 13 TEST YOURSELF 1 14 LESSON 6: PERSONAL PRONOUNS 15 LESSON 7: PREFIXES – THE BASICS 15 LESSON 8: PREFIXES FOR PRONOUNS AND TENSES 17 LESSON 9: VERBS 19 LESSON 10: SENTENCE EXAMPLES 20 TEST YOURSELF 2 27 LESSON 11: GREETINGS 28 LESSON 12: SELF-INTRODUCTION 28 LESSON 13: ASKING FOR DIRECTION 29 LESSON 14: ASKING FOR HELP 30 LESSON 15: RELATIONS 30 LESSON 16: HUMAN BODY PARTS 31 LESSON 17: FOOD 32 LESSON 18: NUMBERS 33 LESSON 19: DAYS OF THE WEEK 35 LESSON 20: TIME 35 LESSON 21: CLOTHES AND ADORNMENT 37 LESSON 22: ANIMALS AND INSECTS 38 LESSON 23: PROFESSIONS 46 LESSON 24: COURTESY AND EMERGENCY 46 ii LESSON 25: ENTERTAINMENT 47 LESSON 26: HOME 48 LESSON 27: OFFICE 49 LESSON 28: TRAVEL 50 LESSON 29: SHOPPING 51 DICTIONARY 52 1 Teach Yourself Swahili Hassan O. Ali & Ali M. Mazrui ABOUT THIS COURSE This is a unique Teach Yourself Swahili course. We have designed it to give you a very easy way to learn to speak, read, and even write Swahili words correctly. It gives you the ability to learn new Swahili words not only by the way they are written, but also with correct pronunciation. We have made great efforts to provide in this course many useful Swahili words that you will sure find handy in many practical situations. Just click on the words written in blue 1 to listen to the way the words are correctly pronounced. We hope you’ll enjoy this course! ABOUT SWAHILI First of all, is it “Swahili” or “Kiswahili”? It’s both! It’s “Swahili” if you say it in English, and “Kiswahili” if you say it in Swahili. The following example will make it more clear. The language spoken in France is “French” in English, “Français” in French, and “Kifaransa” in Swahili. Calling the language spoken in Tanzania, “Kiswahili”, while speaking in English is like calling the language spoken in France, “Français”, while speaking in Swahili instead of “Kifaransa”. Now, what is this language called “Swahili”? It belongs to a family of Bantu (African) languages spoken mostly in eastern, central, and southern Africa. Due to historical reasons, it has borrowed heavily from Arabic, Persian, Kutchi (Indian), and English languages. It has also borrowed to a lesser extent from other languages such as German, and Portuguese. While the vocabulary is of mixed origins, the language syntax and grammar is purely Bantu. For centuries, Swahili remained as the language of the people of the East African coast. In fact the word “Swahili” itself was originally used by early Arab visitors to the coast and it means "the coast". Ultimately it came to be applied to the people and the language. Long-time interactions with other people bordering the Indian Ocean spread the Swahili language to distant places such as on the islands of Comoro and Madagascar and even far beyond to South Africa, Oman and United Arab Emirates. Trade and migration from the 1 Pronunciation of the words is provided only in the Teach Yourself Swahili CD that can be ordered from http://www.glcom.com/swahili/lessons/teach_yourself_swahili.html for only US$25. This document represents the CD content – minus the sound. 2 Swahili coast during the nineteenth-century helped spread the language to the interior of particularly Tanzania. It also reached Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Central African Republic, and Mozambique. Christian missionaries adopted Swahili as the language of communication to spread the Gospel in Eastern Africa. So, the missionaries also helped to spread the language. As a matter of fact the first Swahili-English dictionary was prepared by a missionary. During the colonial time, Swahili was used for communication with the local inhabitants. Hence the colonial administrators pioneered the effort of standardizing the Swahili language. Zanzibar was the epicenter of culture and commerce. For that reason, colonial administrators selected the dialect of the Zanzibar (Unguja) town as the Standard Swahili. The Unguja dialect (Kiunguja) was then used for all formal communication such as in schools, in mass media (newspapers and radio), in books and other publications. Now Swahili is spoken in many countries of eastern, central, and southern Africa. For Tanzania, deliberate efforts were made by the independent nation to promote the language (thanks to the efforts of the former head of state, Julius K. Nyerere). Tanzania's special relations with countries of southern Africa was the main reason behind the spread of Swahili to Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, and other neighboring countries to the south. Swahili is the national as well as the official language of Tanzania - almost all Tanzanians speak Swahili proficiently and are unified by it. In Kenya and Uganda, it is the national language, but official correspondence is still conducted in English. Swahili is the most widely spoken language of eastern Africa. It is one of the languages that feature in some world radio stations such as, the BBC, Radio Cairo (Egypt), the Voice of America (U.S.A.), Radio Deutschewelle (Germany), Radio Moscow International (Russia), Radio Japan International, Radio China International, Radio Sudan, and Radio South Africa. The Swahili language is also making its presence in the art world - in songs, theatres, movies and television programs. For example, the lyrics for the song titled “Liberian girl” by Michael Jackson have Swahili phrases: "Nakupenda pia, nakutaka pia, mpenzi we!" (I love you, and I want you, my dear!). The well- celebrated Disney movie, "The Lion King" featured several Swahili words, for example "simba" (lion), "rafiki" (friend), as the names of the characters. The Swahili phrase "hakuna matata" (No troubles or no problems) was also used in that movie. The promotion of the Swahili language is not only in its use but also deliberate efforts are made throughout the world to include it in education curriculums for higher institutions of learning. It is taught in many parts of the world. 3 LESSON 1: ALPHABET The Swahili language doesn’t have its own alphabet. It was originally written using the Arabic alphabet. For the sounds missing in the Arabic alphabet like CH and G, Farsi characters were used. Later on in history, the colonial rulers in East Africa and Christian missionaries started to write Swahili words using the English alphabet. Swahili words can be written fully using the English alphabet. Some sounds are represented by letter combinations – just like in English. For example, the “TH” letter combination in Swahili sounds the same way as in the English word “THINK”. No words, however, use letters “Q”, “X”, and lone “C”. Letter “C” only appears in a “CH” letter combination that sounds like in the English word CHURCH. LESSON 2: PRONUNCIATION GUIDE Swahili pronunciation is extremely easy. You’ll learn in this lesson how syllables are constructed in Swahili and how to pronounce them. We’ll start our lesson with vowels – the most important building blocks of most Swahili syllables. Vowels Vowels are called “vokali” in Swahili. They are, a, e, i, o, u - just as in English, but pronounced a little differently. In every Swahili word the vowels make exactly the same sounds – no exception what-so-ever! For example, in English, the vowel “e” sounds differently in words “Peter” and “elephant”. It’s not like that in Swahili. Vowel “e” in every word sounds like “e” as in “elephant”. Syllables Syllables in Swahili are made of vowels alone, or combinations of consonants and vowels. The exception is with letters “m” and “n” which form syllables just by themselves in some words e.g. “m tu” (person), “nchi” (country). Swahili people don’t like “hanging consonants” – consonants that are not followed by vowels. Therefore, if your name is “John” with a hanging “n”, they’ll call you “Joni” – with a vowel “i” added at the end. If you’re “Bruce” – with a hanging “s” sound – they’ll call you “Brusi”. If you’re “Rose” – with a hanging “z” sound – they’ll call you “Rozi”. Of course the Arabic name “Salim” becomes “Salimu”. You have to watchout if your name is “Cook” or “Cooke” because they will call you “Kuku” which actually means “chicken” in Swahili! The most common consonants that can be forgiven to appear in a “hanging” state are “f”, “k”, “l”, “m”, “n”, and “s”, appearing in the middle. For 4 example, “afya” (health), “maktaba” (library), “almasi” (diamond), “mamlaka” (authority), “mantiki” (logic), and “mstari” (line). Same sound as in English: f, h , l, m, n, s, v, w, y, z The above-listed letters make exactly the same sounds as in English: f farasi (horse), fedha (silver), figo (kidney), foronya (pillow-case), kifua (chest) h hatari (danger), hewa (air), historia (history), hoteli (hotel), huduma (service) l saladi (salad), leseni (license), limau (lemon), lozi (almond), lugha (language) m maji (water), meza (table), mimi (I), moja (one), muhimu (important) n nazi (coconut), nane (eight), nani (who), neno (word), nusu (half) s safari (journey), serikali (government), siri (secret), sokwe (chimpanzee), kasuku (parrot) v vanila (vanilla), veli (veil), vita (war), volkano (volcano), vumbi (dust) w watu (people), wembe (razor blade), wiki (week), woga (fear) y yaya (maid), yeye (he/she), yeyote (anyone), yunifomu (uniform) z zabibu (grape), zege (concrete), ziwa (lake), zoezi (exercise), zulia (carpet) “Hard” consonants: b, d, g, j The above four letters make sounds that are slightly different from English. They are pronounced in a “hard” way rather than the English “soft” way. For example, the word for “father” should correctly be pronounced as “baba”, not “baba”. The word for “boat” is “boti”, not “boti”. The word for “sister” is “dada”, not “dada”. The word for “cheetah” is “duma”, not “duma”. The word for “car” is “gari”, not “gari”. The word for “knee” is “goti”, not “goti”. The word for “yesterday” is “jana”, not “jana”. The word for “jinni” is “jini” not “jini”. “Rolling” r The letter “r” is always pronounced with a “rolling” tongue. For example, “rangi” (color), “redio” (radio), “habari” (news), “robo” (quarter), “rubani” (pilot). 5 Two-consonant combinations: ch, dh, gh, kh, mb, my, nd, ng, ng’, nj, ny, sh, th, vy Some Swahili sounds are created using two-consonant combinations as listed above. The following are examples of words with those consonant combinations: ch chakula (food), cheche (spark), chizi (cheese), choo (toilet), chupi (underwear) dh dhahabu (gold), fedheha (shame), dhiki (hardship), dhoruba (storm), dhumna (domino) gh ghali (expensive), ghorofa (storey), ghuba (gulf), kh Alkhamisi (Thursday) mb mbali (far), mbegu (seed), mbili (two), mboga (vegetable), mbuzi (goat) my kimya (quiet) nd ndama (calf), ndevu (beard), ndizi (banana), ndoto (dream), bunduki (gun) ng ngamia (camel), kengele (bell), ngisi (squid), ngome (fort), nguva (mermaid) ng’ ning’iniza (hang), ng’ombe (cow), mung’unye (squash) nj njaa (hunger), njegere (green peas), njiwa (dove), njozi (dream), njugu (peanuts) ny nyama (meat), nyeti (sensitive), nyika (bush), nyoka (snake), nyumba (house) sh shavu (cheek), sheria (law), shingo (neck), shoka (axe), shule (school) th thamani (value), theluji (snow), ithibati (proof), kitunguu-thomu (garlic), thuluthi (one-third) vy vyama (parties), vyema (well), vyovyote (anyhow), vyuma (pieces of iron) Two distict sounds: ch, k, p, t Letter combination “ch”, and letters “k”, “p”, and “t” have two distinct sound formats in Swahili. One format is “light” and the other is “heavy”. The “light” format is exactly the same as in English. That is, “ch” as in “chat”, “k” as in “keep”, “p” as in “put”, and “t” as in “take”. The “heavy” format can easily be understood through examples. In English it is “chat”, not “chat”; “keep”, not “keep”; “put”, not “put”; “take”, not “take”. However, in Swahili both two sound formats exist and give different meanings to words that have otherwise same spellings. See example below: Light Heavy ch changu (snapper fish) changu (mine) k kaa (crab), mkunga (midwife) kaa (charcoal), mkunga (eel) p paa (deer), pima (two-arm length) paa (roof), pima (measure) t taa (rayfish) taa (lamp/light) 6 Addition of “w” Letter “w” can be added to some consonants and consonant combinations to give some interesting sounds. The following are the possible combinations: bw, chw, gw, jw, kw, lw, mbw, mw, ndw, ngw, ng’w, njw, nyw, pw, shw, sw, tw, zw. Syllables made up of those consonant combinations rarely carry vowels “o” and “u”. The table below provides some word examples for those letter combinations: bw Bwana (Mister), bweha (jackal), chubwi (sinker) chw kichwa (head), uachwe (you should be freed), huachwi (you won’t be freed) gw amepigwa (he/she has been beaten), apigwe (he/she should be beaten), hapigwi (he/she won’t be beaten) jw ametajwa (he/she has been named), atajwe (he/she should be named), hatajwi (he/she won’t be named) kw kwapa (armpit), kweli (true), kwikwi (hiccup) lw Kilwa (Kilwa – name of a town in Tanzania) mbw mbweu (burp) mw mwaka (year), mwezi (month/moon), mwili (body) ndw ninapendwa (I’m loved), nipendwe (so that I get loved), sipendwi (I’m not loved) ngw Imetungwa (It’s been authored), kongwe (very old), haijengwi (it won’t be built) ng’w ng’wafua (bite forcefully), ng’weng’we (big shot/big boss) njw ugonjwa (disease), isionjwe (It should not be tasted) nyw kinywaji (a drink), nywele (hair), sinywi (I don’t drink), pw pwani (by the acean/coastal), pweza (octopus), kupwita (to pulsate) shw imepitishwa (it has been passed), ipitishwe (it has to be passed), haipitishwi (it will not be passed) sw swala (impala), sweta (sweater), swichi (switch) tw kutwa (all day), tweka (set sail), twiga (giraffe) zw kuongozwa (to be led), niongezwe (I should be given more), siongezwi (I won’t be given more) 7 LESSON 3: LETTER SOUNDS Here is a list of various Swahili letters and letter combinations with distinct sounds. Please click on the words written in blue to learn how they sound like in Swahili. A B CH CH Almasi (Diamond) Bakuli (Bowl) Chungwa (Orange) Chui (Leopard) D DH Darubini (Microscope) Dhumna (Domino) [...]... Tulipenda Swahili kusema Kiswahili We have liked to Tumependa speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We like to speak Tunapenda Swahili kusema Kiswahili We are liking to Tunapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We will like to Tutapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili SECOND PERSON SINGULAR TENSE SWAHILI ENGLISH You liked to Past Ulipenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You have liked Present Umependa to speak Swahili. .. Anapenda to speak Swahili Continuous kusema Kiswahili He/She will like Future Atapenda to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili TENSE Past THIRD PERSON PLURAL SWAHILI ENGLISH They liked to Walipenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili They have liked Wamependa to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili They like to Wanapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili They are liking Wanapenda to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili They will... Mnapenda Swahili kusema Kiswahili You are liking to Mnapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You will like to Mtapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili 22 THIRD PERSON SINGULAR SWAHILI ENGLISH He/She liked to Alipenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili He/She has liked Present Amependa to speak Swahili kusema Perfect Kiswahili H/She likes to Present Anapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili He/She is liking... kusema Kiswahili You like to Present Unapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You are liking to Present Unapenda speak Swahili Continuous kusema Kiswahili You will like to Future Utapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili SECOND PERSON PLURAL SWAHILI ENGLISH You liked to Mlipenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You have liked Mmependa to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You like to speak Mnapenda Swahili kusema... not like to speak Swahili Sitapenda kusema Kiswahili FIRST PERSON PLURAL SWAHILI ENGLISH We didn’t like to Hatukupenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We have not liked Hatujapenda to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We don’t like to Hatupendi speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We are not liking to Hatupendi speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili We will not like to Hatutapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili 23 SECOND... SWAHILI ENGLISH You didn’t like to Hamkupenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You have not liked Hamjapenda to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You don’t like to Hampendi speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You are not liking Hampendi to speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You will not like to Hamtapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili THIRD PERSON SINGULAR SWAHILI ENGLISH He/She didn’t like Hakupenda to speak Swahili. .. PERSON SINGULAR TENSE SWAHILI ENGLISH I liked to Past Nilipenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili I have liked to Present Nimependa speak Swahili kusema Perfect Kiswahili I like to speak Present Ninapenda Swahili kusema Kiswahili I am liking to Present Ninapenda speak Swahili Continuous kusema Kiswahili I will like to Future Nitapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili FIRST PERSON PLURAL SWAHILI ENGLISH We... kusema Kiswahili He/She has not Hajapenda liked to speak kusema Swahili Kiswahili Hapendi kusema He/She doesn’t like to speak Swahili Kiswahili THIRD PERSON PLURAL TENSE SWAHILI ENGLISH They didn’t like to Past Hawakupenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili They have not liked Present Hawajapenda to speak Swahili Perfect kusema Kiswahili They don’t like to Present Hawapendi speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili... Watapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili And now the corresponding negative sentences: TENSE Past Present Perfect Present FIRST PERSON SINGULAR SWAHILI ENGLISH I didn’t like to Sikupenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili I have not liked to Sijapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili Sipendi kusema I don’t like to speak Swahili Kiswahili Sipendi kusema Present Continuous Kiswahili I am not liking to speak Swahili. .. SECOND PERSON SINGULAR SWAHILI ENGLISH You didn’t like to Hukupenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You have not liked Present Hujapenda to speak Swahili kusema Perfect Kiswahili You don’t like to Present Hupendi speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili You are not liking Present Hupendi to speak Swahili Continuous kusema Kiswahili You will not like to Future Hutapenda speak Swahili kusema Kiswahili TENSE Past SECOND . several Swahili words, for example "simba" (lion), "rafiki" (friend), as the names of the characters. The Swahili phrase "hakuna matata" (No troubles or no problems). same! Mwenu au mwetu mote sawa tu! In your places or in our places, all the same! Damu imo mwilini mwangu Blood is in my body Damu imo mwilini mwetu Blood is in our bodies LESSON. tall person has come Watu warefu wamekuja Tall persons have come Mtoto wako mdogo analia Your small child is crying Watoto wako wadogo wanalia Your small children are crying M- WA Wewe