Kiswahili!
This page is dedicated to providing English - Swahili vocabulary words according to subject, as well as other teaching tools. Feel free to download any of the documents below but please do not charge for them. There is also a list of websites at the bottom that have been helpful in our research on Swahili.
The exact vocabulary will vary depending on what region of Africa the student is from; however, if anyone is fluent in Swahili and notices any discrepancies in our vocabulary sheets, please e-mail [email protected].
Information on the Swahili Language
"Swahili is a Bantu language spoken by about 35 million people in Tanzania, Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa) Kenya, Mayotte, Mozambique, Oman, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, UAE and the USA. Swahili is an official language of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya and is used as a lingua franca throughout East Africa. The name Swahili comes from the Arabic word sawāhil (coasts) and the language contains a lot of vocabulary from Arabic, Persian, Malagasy, English, German and Portuguese."
- from http://www.omniglot.com/writing/swahili.htm
Vocabulary Sheets
Text Only:
- Days, Months, Seasons, Time - click here.
- Family, People, and Personal Pronouns - click here.
- Food and Drink - click here.
- Greetings and Common Phrases - click here.
- Phrases to Use When in an Emergency - click here.
With Pictures:
- Numbers 1-20 with counting dots - click here.
- Fruit - click here.
- Vegetables - click here. ***NEW this week!***
Helpful Sites and Other Resources
- Mwana Simba: Excellent Swahili grammar resources
- English-Swahili Lexicon from Mwana Simba
- Swahili Language and Culture
- Online English-Swahili Dictionary