. .4:,t114,11001116.115,W.i., ,..0:126611115...A 10100010L.- R E P O R T RESUMES ED 012 888 AL 000 150 SWAHILI LANGUAGE HANDBOOK. BY- POLOME, EDGAR C. CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS,WASHINGTON, D.C. REPORT NUMBER BR -5 -1242 PUB DATE 67 CONTRACT OEC -2 -14 -042 EDRS PRICE MF-41.00 HC...$10.00 250F. DESCRIPTORS- *SWAHILI, *GRAMMAR, *PHONOLOGY,*DIALECT STUDIES, *AREA STUDIES, DIACHRONIC LINGUISTICS,LITERATURE, DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS, SOCIOCULTURAL PATTERNS,CREOLES, PIDGINS, AFRICAN CULTURE, EAST AFRICA,CONGO THIS INTRODUCTION TO THE STRUCTURE ANDBACKGROUND OF THE SWAHILI LANGUAGE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE NON- SPECIALIST. ALTHOUGH THE LINGUISTIC TERMINOLOGY USED IN THEDESCRIPTION OF THE LANGUAGE ASSUMES THE READER HAS HAD SOMETRAINING IN LINGUISTICS, THIS HANDBOOK PROVIDES BASICLINGUISTIC AND SOCIOLINGUISTIC INFORMATION FOR STUDENTSOF AFRICAN CULTURE AND INTLRMEDIATE OR ADVANCED SWAHILILANGUAGE STUDENTS AS WELL AS FOR LINGUISTS. IN AN INTRODUCTIONTO THE PRESENT LANGUAGE SITUATION, THIS HANDBOOK EXPLAINSTHE DISTRIBUTION AND USE OF SWAHILI AS A LINGUA FRANCA,AS A PIDGIN, AND AS A MOTHER. LANGUAGE AND EXPLAINS PRESENTUSAGE THROUGH A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE. DIALECTS OF SWAHILIARE DISCUSSED AND RELATED LANGUAGES MENTIONED WHENRELEVANT TO SWAHILI STRUCTURE. ALTHOUGH THE AUTHOR PLACES GREATESTEMPHASIS ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE (PHONOLOGY,MORPHOLOGY, DERIVATION, INFLECTION, COMPLEX STRUCTURES,SYNTAX, AND VOCABULARY), HE INCLUDES CHAPTERS ON THEWRITING SYSTEM AND SWAHILI LITERATURE. OF SPECIAL INTERESTTO LANGUAGE TEACHERS IS A CHAPTER EXAMINING SPECIFIC POINTSOF CONTRAST BETWEEN SWAHILI AND ENGLISH. THIS HANDBOOK ISALSO AVAILABLE FOR $4.50 FROM THE OFFICE OF INFORMATIONAND PUBLICATIONS, CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS, 1717MASSACHUSETTS AVE., W.W.I WASHINGTON, D.C., 20036. (JD) viArz.1.24, voi rA-4.2 co co OE- - I (N1 v-4 LU SWAHILILANGUAGEHANDBOOK EDGAR C.POLOME U.S. DEPARTMENTOF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENTHAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVEDFROM THE PERSON ORORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW STATED DO NOT OR OPINIONS NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICEOF EDUCATION POSITION ORPOLICY. M000 j50 LANGUAGE HANDBOOK SERIES FRANK A. RICE, GENERAL EDITOR CENTER FOR APPLIEDLINGUISTICS: 1967 This workwas developed pursuant to acontract between the United StatesOffice of Education and the Centerfor Applied Linguistics and is published withthe permissionof the United States Office of Education,Department of Health, Education, andWelfare. t "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS COPYRIGHTED MATERIALHAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITHTHE U.S. OFFICE Of EDUCATION. FURTHERREPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." Copyright @ 1967 by the Center for AppliedLinguistics 1717 MassachusettsAvenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.20036 Library ofCongress Catalog Card Number:67-19212 Printed in the United Statesof America Price: $4.50 INTRODUCTIONTO THE SERIES Each volume in the Language Handbook Seriesis intended to provide an outline of the salient features of a particularlanguage and a summary of the language situation and languageproblems of the country or area in whichit is spoken. The scope of theseries is the major modern languages of Asia andAfrica. It is hoped that the handbooks willprove useful to several different kinds ofreaders. One is the linguisticspecialist who is not himself a specialist in the particularlanguage treated, e.g., an Arabist who is interested in Swahili.Another is the stu- dent who is pastthe beginning stages of his study andwho wishes to have a concise and condensed generalpicture of the language and its setting. A third reader is the area specialist,e.g., a sociologist, who wishes to know basic linguisticor sociolinguistic facts about thearea. The handbooks are not designed toserve as instructional materials for the language inquestion, norare they intended as a guideto local ustoms or culturaldifferences or the like. There has been some attempt to hold thehandbooks toa sug- gested general framework so as togive the seriessome uniformity, but in practice the individual studiesvary considerably, both because of the differences of approach of theindividual authors and the range andvariety of problems of the individuallanguages. In general, each authorin his own way treats the followingmatters the language in its social and historicalsetting, its linguistic structure, its writingsystem (as appropriate), its points ofcon- trast with English, sndits literature. The description ofthe linguistic structurehas provided the greatest problem inpresen- tation. The authors have made a serious effort to avoidexcessive use of technical linguistic terminology butnevertheless a certain amount of linguistic sophistication on thepart of the readermust be assumed. Given the status of modern linguisticsas a discipline INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES it has not seemed wise to attempt to write in a popularized style. The language handbooks represent a new kind of venture in the field of applied linguistics. It is probable that some portions or aspects of the various studies will be found inadequate or of little value, but the authors and the editor are confident that the series as a whole represents a useful step in the application of linguistic knowledge to practical language problems. Frank A. Rice Director, Office of Information and Publications Center for Applied Linguistics vi "' 11 i" C 4 w. JAI SHIN PIC SWAHILI LANGUAGE HANDBOOK qvadbuti..vdm..:,..molc.:4191,9146""'""A".., PREFACE THIS ISan introduction to Swahilifor the aims atsupplying non-specialist. It comprehensiveinformation aspects of the about thevarious language with due regardto its cultural ground. back- It doesnot intend to givean exhaustive the descriptionof structure ofSwahili, but rather triesto emphasize characteristicfeatures. its most Though itsdata have elaboratedfrom a essentiallybeen synchronicpoint of view, adiachronic tive hasbeen introduced perspec- whenever it on complex appearedto throw descriptive more light problems,especially in phophonemics. the fieldof mor- The formof language described here form used is thespoken by cultivatedSwahili speakers inZanzibar and the Mrimacoast, though, along occasionally, f forms and only survivein the patterns which writtenliterary in the language have description. been included '-1 The modelof Bantu grammar established his Essai by A.E.Meeussen in de GrammaireRundi (Tervuren,1959) guide for was takenas a the layoutof my structuralsketch. rial isbased on the The Swahilimate- available il currentliterature, descriptionsand lexical grammatical data referredto ire the notes, as wellas on personal bibliographical field-notesgathered in East Africa. For the Central and collection ofthese data on the relevant and the material, I discussion am greatlyindebted to distinguished a number of Swahilispeakers, particularlySheik Salum of Dares Salaam, M. Kombo, representativefor Tanganyika can Swahili at the EastAfri- fl Committee; M.Hatibu, of Dar esSalaam, general ofSwahili for inspector- Tanganyika;Sheik Shaaban S. Farsi,of Zanzibar,representative of Zanzibarat the East African Swahili Committee; SheikHamed Ali, luwali ofTanga; Gilbert of Dares Salaam; Mwakalukwa, R. Mwajombe,of Peramiho Mwini, Ali (Songea); AliHassan Hassan Mohammed,Muhamed Ali, of Bashrahil, andAbdulla Amor Zanzibar;Frederic Kuziwa, andCharles Semwaiko, ofMoheza; ix Ali Omar Yahya, and Shihabuddin Chiraghdin, ofMombasa, as well as the numerousschool-teachers whose speech I taped during a research trip in East Africa. I also wish to thank the experts on Swahili from whose adviseI profited, especially H.E. Lambert (Nairobi), J.W.T. Allen (Kampala), Professor Lyndon Harries (London/Madison, Wisconsin), Professor W.H. Whiteley (Dar es Salaam /Madison, Wisconsin), Jan Knappert (Dar esSalaam/London), Graham Hyslop (Nairobi), and Peter Hill (Mpwapwa). It is a further pleasure to express my sincereappreciation for the stimulating and constructive suggestionsmade by Lyndon Harries, A.E. Meeussen and W.P. Lehmann, who readthis book in manuscript. Besides, I owe L. Harries special thanks for allow- ing me to make generous use of his authoritativebook on Swahili poetry. My sincere gratitude also goes to W. Lehn, who was most helpful in solving problems arising from theinterpretation of loanwords from Arabic, and to H. Der-Houssikian and G.Matumo, who were of constant assistance in editing thefinal text. Last but not least, I would like to express my sincerethanks to Frank A. Rice for the splendid editorial work hehas done on the book. Edgar C. Polome University of Texas December 1963/May 1966 SELECTBIBLIOGRAPHY A considerableliterature is available on Swahili.Most of it has been listedin A Linguistic Bibliography of EastAfrica, compiled by W.H.Whiteley and A.E. Gutkind, and publishedby the East African SwahiliCommittee (revised edition, Kampala,1958). Valuable bibliographical data are also suppliedby G. Van Buick in Les Recherches Linguistiques au CongoBeige (InstitutRoyal Colonial Beige, Section des SciencesMorales et Politiques, Memoires, Collectionin 8°, Tome XVI; Brussels, 1940),pp. 689- 700. The most recent and comprehensivesurvey of Swahili lin- guistic literatureis the Practical and SystematicalSwahili Bibliography Linguistics 1850-1963, compiledby Marcel Van Spaandonck (Leiden,E.J. Brill, 1965). Though the relevant literature concerningthe variousas- pects of the language is mentioned inbibliographical notes following each chapter of this book,it may be usefulto