Swahili language

Swahili
	Kiswahili
Native to	Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Somalia (on the Bajuni islands and Barawa), Mozambique (mostly Mwani), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Comoros, Mayotte, Zambia, Malawi, and Madagascar
Native speakers	unclear. Estimates range from 2 million (2003) to 15 million (2012); L2 speakers:90 million (1991–2015)
Language family	Niger–Congo Atlantic–Congo Benue–Congo Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki Swahili; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin script (Roman Swahili alphabet); Arabic script (Arabic Swahili alphabet); Swahili Braille;
Official status
Official language in	Tanzania; Kenya; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Rwanda; Uganda; African Union; East African Community;
Regulated by	Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (Tanzania); Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (Kenya);
Language codes
sw
swa
ISO 639-3	swa – inclusive code; Individual codes:; swc – Congo Swahili; swh – Coastal Swahili; ymk – Makwe; wmw – Mwani
swah1254
Guthrie code	G.42–43;; G.40.A–H (pidgins & creoles);
Linguasphere	99-AUS-m
	areas where Swahili or Comorian is the indigenous language official or national language as a trade language
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Swahili, also known as Kiswahili (translation: language of the Swahili people), is a Bantu language and the first language of the Swahili people. It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of eastern and south-eastern Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).^[6] Comorian, spoken in the Comoros Islands is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Swahili, though other authorities consider it a distinct language.^[7]

The exact number of Swahili speakers, be it native or second-language speakers, is unknown and a matter of debate. Various estimates have been put forward and they vary widely, from 50 million to over 100 million.^[8] Swahili serves as a national language of four nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the DRC. Shikomor, the official language in Comoros and also spoken in Mayotte (Shimaore), is related to Swahili.^[9] Swahili is also one of the working languages of the African Union and officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community.^[10] South Africa legalized the teaching of Swahili in South African schools as an optional subject beginning in 2020.^[11]

A significant fraction of Swahili vocabulary derives from Arabic,^[12] in part conveyed by Arabic-speaking Muslim inhabitants. For example, the Swahili word for "book" is kitabu, traceable back to the Arabic word كتاب kitābu (from the root k-t-b "write"). However, the Swahili plural form of this word ("books") is vitabu, following Bantu grammar in which ki- is reanalysed as a nominal class prefix, whose plural is vi-.^[13]