Pimsleur Kiswahili-Home

The Kiswahili Language

Swahili (called Kiswahili in the language itself) is the first language of the Swahili people (Waswahili), who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands. Although only 5-10 million people speak it as their native language, Swahili is a lingua franca of much of East Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a national or official language of four nations, and is the only African language among the official working languages of the African Union.

Swahili is spoken natively by various groups traditionally inhabiting about 1,500 miles of the East African coastline. About 35% of the Swahili vocabulary derives from the Arabic language, resulting from the fact that the language evolved through centuries of contact between Arabic-speaking traders and many different Bantu-speaking peoples inhabiting Africa's Indian Ocean coast.

It also has incorporated Persian, German, Indian and English words into its vocabulary due to contact with these different groups of people. Swahili has become a second language spoken by tens of millions in three countries, Tanzania, Kenya, and Congo (DRC), where it is an official or national language. The neighboring nation of Uganda made Swahili a required subject in primary schools in 1992 — although this mandate has not been well implemented — and declared it an official language in 2005.

Swahili, or other closely related languages, is also used by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Somalia, and Zambia, and nearly the entire population of the Comoros.

Wikipedia

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Hear what customers of these Pimsleur KISWAHILI audios say:

Learn Swahili bwana
I'm 60 and the thought of learning a new language seemed very daunting but this Pimsleur course, broken up into ten 30-minute sessions, is very efficient and well thought out. The key is to speak each word out loud when asked, which allows your brain and your mouth to adapt to this new, melodic, and often tongue-twisting sound.
Each new lesson reviews the last and then inserts a new word or two into sentences you already know. It focusses on words and short sentences that should be very useful when travelling and as the course proceeds you realize that you are able to invent your own sentences and express new thoughts with what you learn.
If anything, the only critique would be that some of the more difficult pronounciations should be spelled out. Ms often sound like Ns, and Bs like Ps etc. Expect to listen to each lesson more than once, but progress is very rapid. -- Miggs Burroughs, Westport, CT, USA

Great way to learn pronunciation
If you're absolutely new to Swahili (as are most humans), this audio is a great 1st place to *start*. It will really aid in learning how to pronounce Swahili. On a trip to Kenya, a number of Kenyans commented that I sounded like a life-long native speaker. This was surprising to them mainly because my vocabulary was so poor. This audio will NOT teach you how to speak Swahili; it will teach you how to pronounce it wonderfully - a great first step. -- Redneck,Tejas, USA

what a way to learn......
This program is a fantasic easy to use program which has you speaking swahili form the moment you put the cd on. It's easy to understand and the teaching methods used are very effective. I would recommend this program to anyone who desires to learn another language. -- T. Hepi, Tasmania, Australia