Introduction
Swahili is a language that fuses African Bantu with Arabic. Arab sailors and traders have established links and ties with East Africa for centuries, their language strongly merged with the local language to produce a creole derivative.
The word Swahili itself is derived from Arabic Sawahili سواحلي which is plural for ساحل meaning [Language] of the Coast.
This article gives some examples of Arabic words still in today's Swahili.
Here are some words.
| Swahili | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hatari | خطر | Danger. Also the title of a 1962 movie starring John Wayne, set in Africa. |
| Safari | سفر | Travel. Also: trip |
| mahali | محل | Place |
| vitabu | كتاب | Book |
| msumari | مسمار | Nail |
| kata | قطع | Cut, chop |
| habari | خبر | news |
| huru | حر | free |
| dhamiri | ضمير | conscience |
| kamusi | قاموس | dictionary |
| baridi | بارد | cold |
| samahani | سامحني | forgive me, excuse me |
| rafiki | رفيق | companion, friend |
| tafadhali | تفضل | please |
| furahi | فرح | happy |
Time
The terms for time are strongly influenced by Arabic. Many of it taken by the prayer times of Islam.
| Swahili | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| asubuhi | صبح | morning |
| dakika | دقيقة | minute |
| saa | ساعة | hour |
| wakati | وقت | time |
| alasri | العصر | late afternoon |
| magharibi | المغرب | sunset |
| alfajiri | الفجر | dawn |
| karne | قرن | century |
The Swahili names for the first five days of the week all start with Juma, then the order of the day of the week, Saturday being the first day of the week. Jumaa is derived from the Arabic word جمعة which means Friday, as well as "week. Only two days of the week got the Arabic names:
| Swahili | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| alkhamisi | الخميس | Thursday |
| ijumaa | الجمعة | Friday |
Animal Names
Animal names are all native African Bantu (e.g. simba lion). However, there are a few exceptions.
| Swahili | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Tausi | طاوس | Peacock, being non-native to Africa, it took the Arabic name, which in turn took it from Persian. |
Numbers
The number system is also heavily Arabic, although not exclusively so.
| Swahili | Arabic | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| nusu | نص | Half. The proper classical Arabic word is نصف nisf. In many present day dialects it is "nus", like in Swahili. |
| robo | ربع | Quarter |
| sita | ستة | 6 |
| saba | سبعة | 7 |
| tisa | تسعة | 9 |
| ishrini | عشرين | 20 |
| thalathini | ثلاثين | 30 |
| arubaini | أربعين | 40 |
| hamsini | خمسين | 50 |
| sitini | ستين | 60 |
| sabini | سبعين | 70 |
| thamanini | ثمانين | 80 |
| tisini | تسعين | 90 |
| mia | مئة | 100. The middle letter in classical Arabic is Hamza, however, in present day dialects, like Swahili, it is a Y sound. |
| elfu | ألف | 1000 |
Resources
Here are some useful links on Swahili.
- List of useful Swahili words
- History of Swahili.
- Wikipedia page on Swahili.
- Ethnologue page on Swahili.
- Omniglot page on Swahili.
Comments
Anonymous mintu... (not verified)
comments
Wed, 2010/02/17 - 12:25Is ther Tarikh = date/history ,mal = assets, jama-store etc
I dont know why my last name, its Persian has been included. Khoshnabish = good writer
But why this secrecy? why anonymous? its an academic affai.
Anonymous (not verified)
Yes, indeed. Because I am a
Sat, 2011/10/08 - 08:40Yes, indeed.
Because I am a fundamentalist cosmopolitan, who'd like very much for people to bring down the boundaries between each other, I'd even go so far so to say that Swahili is a dialect of Arabic, with a very large infusion of loan words from several Bantu languages (note that there's no such language as Bantu).
Indeed, if you have a sufficiently broad Swahili vocabulary and you meet an Arabic speaking person, you've just to write a list of synonyms and they'll point at one of them and say this looks familiar.
The key I think is in figuring out what are the patterns that inform the transformation from Arabic into Swahili, and in which word clusters is there almost no shift at all.
Can any linguist say, what exactly makes the difference between a dialect and a new language? Is Swahili not a dialect of Arabic because we only share vocabulary and not the structure and rules of language?
Anonymous as ch... (not verified)
Kiswahili
Thu, 2010/08/19 - 14:32I thought Binti (Daughter) was arab.
Khalid
Yes, it is
Thu, 2010/08/19 - 14:41Yes, it is. Arabic "Bint" بنت is both "daughter" and also "girl" in modern Arabic.
Hein (not verified)
Kiswahili words with Arabic origin
Mon, 2010/11/29 - 13:08I'm building a five language dictionnary
(Swahili - Arabic - Dutch - English - French)
for Swahili words I find to have an Arabic origin.
Feel free to download the actual versions at
http://vdbrempt.be/SwArab
Hein
Anonymous (not verified)
How about the word
Thu, 2011/01/27 - 23:28How about the word "Muhtasari" as in Muhtasari wa habari (summary).
Khalid
Yes
Thu, 2011/01/27 - 23:52Muhtasari is from مختصر meaning "abridged".
Habari is from خبر meaning "news item/article".
readable books (not verified)
dictionary
Sat, 2011/10/01 - 13:06really good post. i think it's very useful. thanks for sharing with us
Art student (not verified)
Translate a sentence
Mon, 2012/01/23 - 09:46Hi, I need help with translating this sentence into Swahili with arabic origin: "He laughs quietest who laughs first". I would really appreciate quick answers! Thank you!
Glovico (not verified)
I wonder whether Arabic or Swahili is more difficult to learn
Thu, 2012/05/10 - 12:29Hi everybody,
Thanks for the great list! Being the owner of a language school I get in touch with a lot of languages and also with Arabic and Swahili. I find them both extremely difficult to learn (and I have mastered a number of langauges before). Yet, I really can't make up my mind which one I deem more difficult. Any opinions on that?
Cheers,
Tobi
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