Swahili

See also: swahili

English

Etymology

From Swahili swahili, from Arabic سَوَاحِلِيّ (sawāḥiliyy, “(people) of the coasts”), from سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coasts”), plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil, “coast”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swəˈhiːli/
• (US) IPA^(key): /swɑˈhili/, /swəˈhili/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Proper noun

Swahili

1. An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.

Synonyms

• KiSwahili, Kiswahili

Translations

language

• Amharic: ስዋሂሊኛ (səwahiliña)
• Arabic: السَّوَاحِلِيَّة f (as-sawāḥiliyya)
• Armenian: սվահիլի (hy) (svahili)
• Assamese: চোৱাহিলি (süahili)
• Asturian: suaḥili (ast)
• Azerbaijani: suahilicə

  Cyrillic: суаһилиҹә

• Basque: swahili (eu)
• Belarusian: суахі́лі m (suaxíli)
• Bulgarian: суахи́ли m (suahíli)
• Carpathian Rusyn: свагілі m (svahili), кісвагілі m (kisvahili)
• Catalan: suahili (ca) m
• Chichewa: Chiswahili
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 斯瓦希里語 (si¹ ngaa⁵ hei⁵ lei⁵ jyu⁵)

  Mandarin: 斯瓦希里語 (zh) (Sīwǎxīlǐ yǔ)

• Czech: svahilština (cs) f
• Dutch: Swahili (nl) n
• Esperanto: svahila
• Finnish: swahili (fi)
• French: swahili (fr) m
• Galician: suahili (gl) m
• Georgian: სუაჰილი (suahili)
• German: Suaheli (de) n, Swahili (de) n
• Greek: σουαχίλι (el) f (souachíli)
• Greenlandic: swahilimiutut
• Hebrew: סווהילי / סְוָהִילִי (swahíli), סווהילית / סְוָהִילִית f (swahílit)
• Hindi: स्वाहिली (hi) f (svāhilī)
• Hungarian: szuahéli (hu)
• Icelandic: svahílí (is) n
• Inuktitut: ᔅᕙᐦᐃᓕᑐᑦ (sfahilitot)
• Irish: Svahaílis f, Ciosvahaílis f
• Japanese: スワヒリ語 (ja) (Suwahiri-go)
• Kazakh: Суахили (Suaxili)
• Kikuyu: Gĩthweri
• Korean: 스와힐리어 (Seuwahilli-eo)
• Latin: lingua Suahelica f, lingua Swahelica f
• Macedonian: свахи́ли n (svahíli)
• Marathi: स्वाहिली (svāhilī)
• Navajo: Swahííli bizaad
• Nepali: स्वाहिली (svāhilī)
• Norman: Souahili m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: swahili (no) m

  Nynorsk: swahili m

• Persian: سواحیلی (svâhili)
• Polish: suahili (pl) n
• Portuguese: suaíli (pt) m, suaíle (pt) m
• Russian: суахи́ли (ru) m (suaxíli)
• Scots: Swauheely
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: свахили m

  Roman: svahili (sh) m

• Slovak: svahilčina (sk) f, swahilčina f
• Slovene: svahilščina f
• Somali: please add this translation if you can
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: swahilšćina f

  Upper Sorbian: swahilšćina f

• Spanish: suajili (es) m, swahili (es) m, suajelí m
• Swahili: Kiswahili
• Swedish: swahili (sv)
• Tigrinya: ሰዋሂሊኛ (säwahiliña)
• Turkish: Savahili
• Ukrainian: суахі́лі (uk) m (suaxíli), кісуахілі m (kisuaxili)
• Urdu: سواحلی f (svāhilī)
• Vietnamese: tiếng Swahili
• Yiddish: סוואַהילי n (svahili)

Noun

Swahili (plural Swahilis or Swahili)

1. A member of various ethnic groups — mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian — inhabiting the Swahili coast.

   Synonym: (plural) Waswahili

   • 2000, Arye Oded, Islam and Politics in Kenya, page 12:

     The Swahilis are a unique and important community that began to form before the arrival of Islam, as a result of intermarriage between Arab traders who came to the coast and women from local ethnic groups.

   • 2017, Derek Nurse, Thomas Spear, The Swahili, page 29:

     The final sources for the early history of the Swahili are the oral traditions related by them about their own past.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Swahili terms
• Appendix:Swahili Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Swahili

Further reading

• ISO 639-1 code sw, ISO 639-3 code swa (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Swahili, swa ⁠, a macrolanguage including:

• Ethnologue entry for Swahili (specific), swh ⁠
• Ethnologue entry for Congo Swahili, swc ⁠

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English Swahili.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsʋaːˈɦi.li/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Swa‧hi‧li
• Rhymes: -ili

Proper noun

Swahili n

1. Swahili (language)