Don't Just Sit There! Start Getting More History Of The Kiswahili Language
The language originated approximately 800-1000 years ago in the context of coastal trading centers where traders from Arabia, Persia and India met African natives. The main international language of the trade was Arabic. It seems that a new language emerged when the coastal inhabitants, who were Bantu language speakers, received many Arabic words in their communication. Thus the basis of Kiswahili is Bantu grammar and vocabulary as well as many Arabic words. It is estimated that about a third of Swahili words have Arabic origin. Apart from Arabic from ancient times there is also the influence of various languages such as Persian, Hindi and Portuguese. From the 20th century until now many words have been received from English, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo French, but also from other languages, Arabic being one of them. For centuries it was written in Arabic characters (سواحلي verbs or لغة سواحيلية vernacular). The first grammar and dictionary were written in 1848 b...