Swahili, of the Swahili subgroup of Coastal Bantu (Guthrie G42), is a major language spoken in many dialect forms throughout East Africa. It is spoken primarily in the Sahil (coastal) region of East Africa, from northern Mozambique (including the Comoroes), throughout Tanzania and Kenya and north to mid-Somalia.
World Almanac estimates 49 million total Swahili speakers. Grimes gives a figure of 5 million first language speakers and cites Holm (1989) as estimating 30 million second language speakers. UBS (1982) reports about thirty million Swahili speakers, while Heine (1970) states: "It may be assumed today that 20 to 25 million have mastered Swahili more or less well."
Swahili is the official language of Tanzania and an official language in Zaire and Kenya. It is a language of instruction in Tanzania and is used extensively in East Africa as a trade language or as a lingua franca. Swahili is heard on radio broadcasts of La Voix de la Révolution (Burundi), Voice of America (Liberia), Federal Radio Corporation (Nigeria), Deutsche Welle Relay Station Africa (Rwanda), Radio-diffusion de la République Rwandaise, external broadcasts from the South African Broadcasting Company, on Swaziland Broadcasting Service, Radio Tanzania's internal broadcasts and broadcasts to Zanzibar, La Voix du Zaïre and Radio Candip (Zaire's educational broadcast service). Swahili periodicals include, in Kenya, Taifa Leo (daily), Chemsha Bongo (weekly), Afrika ya Kesho (monthly), and various trade and religious papers. In Tanzania there are two dailies, Kipanga and Uhuru, as well as numerous other periodicals. Literature in Swahili is extensive.
Swahili has a standardized orthography, although there are slight variations among countries.
One set of learning materials is sufficient for Swahili.
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