Swahili

Meaning

Name

An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.

Noun

A member of various ethnic groups — mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian — inhabiting the Swahili coast.

Synonyms

Kiswahili

Arabic

Swahili language

Translations

swahili

Suaheli

Swahili

suajili

swahili

swahili

Swahili

السواحلية

suaíli

σουαχίλι

suaíle

suahili

Σουαχίλι

سواحلية

Pronounced as (IPA)

/swəˈhiːli/

Etymology

Borrowed from Swahili swahili, from Arabic سَوَاحِلِيّ (sawāḥiliyy, “(people) of the coasts”), from سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coasts”), broken plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil, “coast”).