Swahili/Introduction

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[edit] Basic History

Swahili is considered a Bantu language, grouped with many languages from Central and Eastern Africa. It has been heavily influenced by the languages of foreign traders, such as the Arabs and Persians. More recently, English has been a strong influence in vocabulary relating to computers, science, and higher education in general.

The Zanzibar dialect of Swahili was made the official language of Tanzania as part of an effort to unify the more than one hundred tribes that exist in the country. There are relatively few native speakers of Swahili, but almost all Tanzanians speak it as a second language (their first being their own tribal language or dialect). Swahili is also an official language of Kenya, and is used as a lingua franca for most of East Africa.