French word

swahili

Pronunciation

IPA/swaili/

Meaning

  • masculine nounSwahili

Example

Je parle un peu swahili.

I speak a little Swahili.

Illustration for swahili (Swahili)

More examples

Elle parle le swahili avec sa famille.

She speaks Swahili with her family.

Core concept

A shared East African language shaped by Bantu speech and coastal contact.

Common phrases

  • parler couramment le swahili

    speak Swahili fluently

  • étudier le swahili

    study Swahili

Definition in French

Appelée aussi kiswahili, langue née du contact entre langues bantoues locales et langues des marins de la côte, utilisée comme idiome commun en Afrique de l'Est.

Word origin

French swahili comes from Swahili kiswahili, whose prefix ki- marks a language and whose second part comes from Arabic sawāḥil, meaning coasts.

Usage tips

  • French uses swahili without an article after parler, as in parler swahili, but uses the masculine article in le swahili est répandu.

Related words

  • swahilophoneSwahili speakernoun

Word lists with this word