Estimates of the total number of Swahili speakers vary widely, from 60 million to over 150 million. Swahili serves as a national language of four nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
How many people landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong? when was the last time someone walked on the moon.

How popular is Swahili language?

It has millions of speakers People whose mother tongue is Swahili, about five to 15 million worldwide, are often referred to as Waswahili.

What percent of people speak Swahili?

Donor languagesPercentage
Persian0.4–3.4%
Malagasy0.2–0.4%
Is Swahili a dying language?

When you move across the East African region, you will be shocked by the way the language is slowly dying. In Tanzania where Swahili is still comparatively strong—there are signs that the youth are more inclined to speak English.

Is Swahili the most spoken language?

The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers.

Why is Swahili so popular?

1. Swahili is spoken by over 100m people in Africa so it’s pretty hard to ignore a language that’s spoken by so many people. Its importance as a lingua franca is recognised by foreign media organisations such as the BBC, which broadcasts radio programmes in Swahili.

Is Swahili a beautiful language?

Swahili is spoken primarily in Kenya and Tanzania, but speakers of this beautiful language can be found right across the continent of Africa. … The word Swahili is itself an Arabic word meaning ‘coastal people’.

How much of Swahili is Arabic?

6. If I learn Swahili, will it help me with any other languages? Around 35% of the Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic. This is due to more than twelve centuries of contact with Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the coast of Zanj.

What is the easiest language to learn?

  1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. …
  2. Swedish. …
  3. Spanish. …
  4. Dutch. …
  5. Portuguese. …
  6. Indonesian. …
  7. Italian. …
  8. French.

How old is Swahili?

Around 3,000 years ago, speakers of the proto-Bantu language group began a millennia-long series of migrations; the Swahili people originate from Bantu inhabitants of the coast of Southeast Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

Do Somali speak Swahili?

According to two histories and a country study, Swahili is spoken in the southern part of Somalia, along the coast and in cities such as Zayla’, Berbera, Mogadishu, Merka and Baraawe (Laitin & Samatar 1987, 8; Lewis 1988, 7; Nelson 1982, 117).

How many African languages have been lost?

However, over the years, the continent has lost at least 52 known languages in a phenomena known as language death, which involves the loss of the last native speaker of a specific language; language extinction, which refers to when language is no longer known; linguicide, which is the death of a language due to …

What languages are extinct?

  • Latin Dead Language: Latin as a dead language was one of the most enriched languages. …
  • Sanskrit Dead Language: …
  • Coptic No Longer Alive: …
  • Biblical Hebrew Expired Language: …
  • Ancient Greek Departed Language: …
  • Akkadian No Longer Alive:
Which language is popular in Africa?

While Arabic is the most spoken language in Africa, there’s plenty more – other popular languages include Amharic, Berber, Portuguese, Oromo, Igbo, Yoruba, Zulu and Shona.

Is Swahili similar to Arabic?

Swahili has been greatly influenced by Arabic; there are an enormous number of Arabic loanwords in the language, including the word swahili, from Arabic sawāḥilī (a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning “of the coast”).

What nations speak Swahili?

It’s a national language in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and an official language of the East African Community which comprises Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Its use is spreading to southern, western and northern Africa.

Does Mozambique speak Swahili?

Mozambique is a multilingual country. A number of Bantu languages are indigenous to Mozambique. … Other widely spoken languages include Swahili, Makhuwa, Sena, Ndau, and Tswa-Ronga (Tsonga). Other indigenous languages of Mozambique include Lomwe, Makonde, Chopi, Chuwabu, Ronga, Kimwani, Zulu, and Tswa.

How do you flirt in Swahili?

  1. Unasura nzuri sana. Meaning: You’re so handsome.
  2. Una maanisha mengi sana kwangu. Meaning: You mean so much to me.
  3. Tumekusudiwa tuwe pamoja. …
  4. Wewe unapendeza. …
  5. Sisi tunafaa kuwa pamoja. …
  6. Nataka kuwa na wewe milele. …
  7. Una tabasamu nzuri. …
  8. Ninakupa upendo wangu wote.
What does Bashi mean in Swahili?

(a/the) bus, bus, and so

Is Swahili worth learning?

Swahili is really easy. Probably the easiest non-related to English language you can learn. So if you want to expand your language knowledge outside of the easier Romance & Germanic languages, it’s a good choice. Also it totally impresses people that you know Swahili because no one else knows how easy it is.

What is the hardest language to learn?

Mandarin As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

Is Swahili spoken in Ethiopia?

Amharic is the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic. It has 25 million speakers, mostly in Ethiopia. … Swahili is an official language of people living in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and which is also widely spoken in the Eastern Africa region.

Which language is closest to English?

The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it’s only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

What language is most like English?

  • Closest Language: Scots. The closest language to English is arguably Scots. …
  • Closest (Definitely Distinct) Language: Frisian. …
  • Closest Major Language: Dutch. …
  • Close Language: German. …
  • Close Language: Norwegian. …
  • Close Language: French.
Which is oldest language in the world?

The Tamil language is recognized as the oldest language in the world and it is the oldest language of the Dravidian family. This language had a presence even around 5,000 years ago. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published in the Tamil language only every day.

Is Swahili difficult?

How hard is Swahili to learn? Overall 3/5, “Somewhat hard”. Swahili isn’t too hard to learn, especially if we’ve already been studying Arabic! According to the BBC, Swahili is the easiest African language to learn for English speakers.

What is the oldest language in Africa?

Africa is known for being home to some of the ancient languages in the world. Although it is hard to be certain that a particular language spoken in Africa was the oldest, many people agree on the name of Ancient Egyptian. The name of the Khoisan languages also shows up often during such discussions.

What language is Djibouti?

The republic recognizes two official languages: French and Arabic. However, Somali is the most widely spoken language, although it is rarely written and is not taught in the schools. The use of Afar is mostly restricted to Afar areas. Many Djiboutians are multilingual.

Is Swahili a Creole language?

Thus the emergence of Swahili from the experience of slavery, displacement and migration defines it as a creole language.

How many languages will survive?

While there are more than 6,000 languages spoken globally at present, less than 600 are likely to endure in 2115, and they could be simplified versions of what we recognise today, one linguist has claimed.

Are there any dead languages in Nigeria?

The nine local languages that had become extinct as listed by the National Council for Arts and Culture are Ajawa spoken in present day Bauchi, Basa-Gumna of Niger State, Auyokawa used to be spoken in Jigawa State, Gamo-Ningi, a Kainji dialect in Bauchi State, Homa of Adamawa State, Kubi of Bauchi State, Kpati formerly …

Are there any dead languages in Ethiopia?

Ethiopia has more than 80 different languages spoken among the population of 112 million. Two of the languages are extinct, five are almost extinct and eight are in danger of extinction. The existing languages are divided into four major language groups. These are Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic, and Nilo-Saharan.

Why is Latin dead?

Part of the reason that Latin passed out of common usage is because, as a language, it’s incredibly complex. Classical Latin is highly inflected, meaning that nearly every word is potentially modified based on tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and mood. … Latin had died as a living language.

What is the rarest language?

What is the rarest language to speak? Kaixana is the rarest language to speak because it only has one speaker left today. Kaixana has never been very popular. But it had 200 speakers in the past.

How many forgotten languages are there?

Known Extinct Languages. Currently, there are 573 known extinct languages. These are languages that are no longer spoken or studied. Many were local dialects with no records of their alphabet or wording, and so are forever lost.

Which African language is easiest to learn?

Swahili is said to be the easiest African language for an English speaker to learn. It is heavily influenced by Arabic and Indo-European languages such as Portuguese, German, English, and French. It’s one of the few sub-Saharan African languages that have no lexical tone, just as in English.

How many languages does the average African speak?

Africa’s linguistic diversity can even be found among individual Africans. For instance, a study of 100 inhabitants in a city in western Uganda found that the average speaker knows 4.34 actual languages.

Is Zulu a written language?

Zulu, like most indigenous Southern African languages, was not a written language until the arrival of missionaries from Europe, who documented the language using the Latin script. The first grammar book of the Zulu language was published in Norway in 1850 by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder.