Index Newest Popular Best. New Player Log In. Newest Questions Post a Question Search All Questions Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims. Archived Questions Goto Qn. There are assumed to be 17 million people who speak Swahili at some level of proficiency in the country today. Swahili, also known as Kiswahili to many of its speakers, is a Bantu language, meaning it is a member of the Niger-Congo language family one of the six major language groups , or phyla, found on the continent.
Technically, the name is an umbrella term for the many different varieties of Swahili that are mostly mutually intelligible with one another. English arrived in Kenya during the later years of the era of colonialism, as European powers carved up the African continent and claimed territories as their own. And this next example shows the density of language mixing.
It is a conversation between two friends:. Mike: Aa maze John ninje maze hukinishow ati ulikuwa unaishio movie? Milikuchekicheki hulu na huku lekini sikujua ulikrosigi weikya. John: Wee la Mike usiworry sikuwe na chope lekani nilione man mwingini we kwengu nikomkolic man hate akacough kasomething. Wambugu Translation Mike: Aa my man, John, how is it, man, you didn't tell me that you were to be at the movie? I looked for you here and there but I didn't know where you were. John: Oh, no, Mike, don't worry.
I didn't have any money; but I saw another friend from my place [and] I hit him up until he coughed up something [money].
By examining closely the construction of some of the above words, the level and sophistication of mixing will become apparent. This example is rather dense for even simple Swahili words such as Mzee honorific term used when referring to elders changes to Maze without mixing with English and is used in referring to a youth.
Hukinishow is an English verb embedded in Swahili verb construction. Show is the English verb "show", but in this usage the meaning of "show" has been shifted to "to tell. The verb in this case is "check" and also shifted in meaning to "looking for you," or "checking out for you. Akacoughmenas to "cough up" some money. In kasomething,-kaappears to be present for alliteration.
The most prominent of them would be Sheng which is a combination of Swahili and English — the languages on which it is primarily based. Its name, Sheng, is a combination of the words Swahili and English. It was spoken mainly by the young people in Nairobi and other cities. Nowadays, Swahili is spoken by the cosmopolitan, well-educated people in Kenya. First Name. Count me in! As mentioned above, there are nearly 70 languages spoken in Kenya.
It would be impossible to present you with all of them, so we have picked out the most interesting ones. Of course, the table shows only a fraction of the languages of Kenya. Nevertheless, it clearly shows how diverse the linguistic heritage of Kenya is. It should also point out that there are three main language families in Kenya and this division has a profound significance to the Kenyan culture.
The three language families, in fact, denote three main ethnic groups which besides similarities in their languages, share a lot in regard to their culture. Kenyan languages can divided into three language groups : Cushitic, Nilotic, and Bantu. The Cushitic languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic family, the Nilotic belong to the Nilo-Saharan language family and the Bantu are part of the Niger-Kordofanian family. The linguistic diversity of Kenya significantly boosted by immigration from South Asia or more particularly, from India.
Nowadays, around 90, people with Indian heritage live in Kenya and many of them even have citizenship. The Indian populations are primarily situated in the cities of Mombasa and Nairobi. Some of their languages are Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil. The city of Mombasa is home to another recognized minority in Kenya — the Arab community.
It consists of around 60, people from Yemen and Oman. They also speak Swahili. Last, but not least, there is a relatively large number of Somali immigrants in Kenya.
It should be pointed out that the Somali language is native to Kenya and it was not brought about by the Somali immigrants. Nowadays, there are more than 2 million Somali speakers in Kenya.
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