Swahili
, grammatically Bantu but with much Arabic in its vocabulary, is widely used as a lingua franca……
Is Swahili Bantu language?
Swahili is characteristically Bantu in its grammar
, and it has a large vocabulary of word roots traceable to a common Bantu stock.
Is Arabic Bantu?
Arabs have had a particularly long history of interaction with East African people, and have therefore made a significant contribution to the development of the Swahili language. Swahili is an African native language of
Bantu origin
which had been in existence before the arrival of Arabs in East Africa.
Is Arabic an indigenous African language?
Arabic.
Arabic didn't originate in Africa
, but today it's the mother tongue of over 140 million Africans. As a result, it's the most common native language on the continent overall. Most African Arabic speakers live in North Africa, where Arabic is the majority language.
What African language is a mix of African and Arabic languages?
Swahili
is predominantly a mix of local Bantu languages and Arabic. Decades of intensive trade along the East African coast resulted in this mix of cultures.
What is the oldest African language?
Afrikaans
is one of the official languages of South Africa. It belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. It evolved from the variety of Dutch which was spoken by Dutch settlers in South Africa.
What is the biggest language in Africa?
1.
SWAHILI
. The most spoken language in Africa is Swahili which is said to have between 100 and 150 million speakers.
Is Swahili African?
Kiswahili most likely originated on
East Africa's coast
. … 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.
What religion is Bantu?
Traditional religion
is common among the Bantu, with a strong belief in magic. Christianity and Islam are also practiced.
How do you say hi in Swahili?
- Hujambo or jambo (how are you?) – Sijambo (seeJAmbo) (I am fine / no worries)
- Habari? (any news?) – nzuri (nZOOree) (fine)
- U hali gani? (oo HAlee GAnee) (how are you) – njema (fine)
- Shikamoo (a young person to an elder) – marahaba.
- For casual interactions: mambo?
What race is Bantu?
They are
Black African speakers
of Bantu languages of several hundred indigenous ethnic groups. The Bantu live in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
What does Bantu stand for?
[2] Abantu (or ‘Bantu' as it was used by colonists) is
the Zulu word for people
. It is the plural of the word ‘umuntu', meaning ‘person', and is based on the stem ‘–ntu' plus the plural prefix ‘aba'. This original meaning changed through the history of South Africa.
Is Igbo a Bantu?
Igbo is not a Bantu language
. Although Igbo and Bantu come from the same language family, the Niger-Congo languages, they pertain to different…
What is the best African language to learn?
Arguably, the most useful, indigenous African languages for Americans to learn are
Yoruba
(primarily spoken in Nigeria), Xhosa (South Africa), Swahili (Kenya, Tanzania, and much of East Africa), and Amharic (mainly Ethiopia).
What are the four main language families in Africa?
Most languages spoken in Africa belong to one of four language families:
Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khoisan
.
What is the language of North Africa?
The most spoken language is
Maghrebi Arabic
, which is a form of ancient Arabic dating back from the 8th century AD that follows a Berber grammatical and syntactical structure. For the remaining North African countries, the official language is Arabic.
