Kiswahili Basics Mackenzie Jones Outreach Coordinator Kansas African Studies Center...

Kiswahili Basics

Mackenzie JonesOutreach Coordinator

Kansas African Studies Centermackenziejones@ku.edu

www.kasc.ku.edu

Why learn Kiswahili?Over 50 million speakers

Official language of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda

Spoken throughout much of East Africa as a native language, and spoken by millions more as a second language (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, DRC, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Malawi)

Used in film, music and media (BBC, VOA, Deutsche Welle, The Lion King, Miriam Makeba)

Taught in institutions all over the world

KiswahiliBantu language

9 noun classes (the equivalent of having 9 genders in a romance language!)

Kiswahili = the language; Swahili = the people“Language of the coast”

Includes words borrowed from Arabic, Portuguese, and German

Words you may already know:

Simba

(Lion)

Rafiki

(Friend)

Hakuna Matata

(No Problems)

Greetings! Habari gani?

How are things? What is the news?

U hali gani? How are you? What’s your condition?

Nzuri! Good

Njema. Nice

Salama Peaceful

Sawa Fine

Poa Cool

Simple Phrases: Mimi ninaitwa ________

Kwaheri!

Mwalimu

Asante

Asante sana

My name is_________

I am called _________

Goodbye!

Teacher

Thank you

Thank you very much

Colors - Rangi

Eusi - Black

Eupe - White

Ekundu - Red

Kijani - Green

Rangi ya machungwa- Orange

Rangi ya manjano - Yellow

Rangi ya zambarau - Purple

Rangi ya kahawa - Brown

Bluu - Blue

Let’s Review

Eusi - Black

Eupe - White

Ekundu - Red

Kijani - Green

Rangi ya machungwa- Orange

Rangi ya manjano - Yellow

Rangi ya zambarau - Purple

Rangi ya kahawa - Brown

Bluu - Blue

Animals - Wanyama

Mbwa - Dog

Paka - Cat

Tembo - Elephant

Farasi - Horse

Simba - Lion

Bata - Duck

Kuku - chicken

Nyoka - snake

Papa - shark

Let’s Review

Mbwa - Dog

Paka - Cat

Tembo - Elephant

Farasi - Horse

Simba - Lion

Bata - Duck

Kuku - chicken

Nyoka - snake

Papa - shark

What have we learned?Greetings/Simple Phrases

Colors

Animals

Resources:KU Kiswahili online textbook

http://www2.ku.edu/~kiswahili/

KASC website

World Wednesday site

Boston University African Studies Center/African Languages Program’s 200 Word Projecthttp://www.bu.edu/200word/

Mango Languages, UC Berkleyhttps://

connect.mangolanguages.com/languages/swahili

Asante sana!

Kwaheri!