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title: Swahili
description: Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language that became East Africa’s trade lingua franca with heavy Arabic lexical influence. It is an official language of the African Union and widely used in education across Tanzania and Kenya.
llms_summary: "Swahili. (Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania). Profile. Grammatical Typology SVO, Agglutinative, Noun classes. L1 Native Speakers 16000000 (16M). Language Family Niger-Congo / Atlantic-Congo / Benue-Congo / Bantu. Language Vitality Index 8/10 (Regional Lingua Franca) scale. Number of Countries 8 countries. Standard Script Latin (Swahili alphabet). Total Speakers 200000000 (200M). UNESCO Risk Category Safe. Web Domain Share (%) 0.1 %. Writing System Complexity Level 2 (Phonetic Latin) level. Linguistics & Culture. Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language that became East Africa’s trade lingua franca with heavy Arabic lexical influence. It is an official language of the African Union and widely used in education across Tanzania and Kenya.  canonical profile on Structured Pages"
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# Swahili

Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language that became East Africa’s trade lingua franca with heavy Arabic lexical influence. It is an official language of the African Union and widely used in education across Tanzania and Kenya.

*Last updated: 2026-08-04*

## Record

- **Title**: [Swahili](https://structuredpages.com/swahili/?format=md)
- **Place**: Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania
- **Range**: tanzania · kenya · uganda · democratic-republic-of-the-congo · rwanda · burundi · mozambique · comoros
- **Use case**: Linguistics & Culture
- **Website**: https://www.bakita.go.tz/
- **Contact address**: Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania
- **Coordinates**: -6.7924, 39.2083

### Summary

Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language that became East Africa’s trade lingua franca with heavy Arabic lexical influence. It is an official language of the African Union and widely used in education across Tanzania and Kenya.

### Description

## Historical Evolution

Swahili arose on the East African coast from Bantu substrates and Arabic superstrata through Indian Ocean commerce. Zanzibar and Bagamoyo varieties fed colonial standardization; Tanzania adopted it as the national language after independence. Latin script (Swahili orthography) replaced Arabic script in most secular contexts.

## Phonology

Swahili has five vowels and simple open syllables; stress is penultimate. Arabic loans may introduce consonants like /θ/, /ð/, /x/ in educated speech, but core phonology remains Bantu. Nasal harmony affects prefix allomorphy (m-/n-/ng-).

## Syntax

Swahili is SVO with rich noun-class agreement: prefixes on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and demonstratives cross-reference class and number. Verbal derivational extensions (-isha causative, -anz- reciprocal) agglutinate. Tense-aspect markers are prefixal on the verb stem.

### Categories

- language
- bantu

### Attributes

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Grammatical Typology | SVO, Agglutinative, Noun classes |
| L1 Native Speakers | 16000000 (16M) |
| Language Family | Niger-Congo / Atlantic-Congo / Benue-Congo / Bantu |
| Language Vitality Index | 8/10 (Regional Lingua Franca) scale |
| Number of Countries | 8 countries |
| Standard Script | Latin (Swahili alphabet) |
| Total Speakers | 200000000 (200M) |
| UNESCO Risk Category | Safe |
| Web Domain Share (%) | 0.1 % |
| Writing System Complexity | Level 2 (Phonetic Latin) level |