Teach Yourself Swahili - 2 Audio CDs and Book
Brand New (still shrink wrapped) 2 CDs and Book
*learn how to speak, understand and write Swahili
*progress quickly beyond the basics
*explore the language in depth
Summary:
A combined book/CD pack, Teach Yourself Swahili is the course for anyone who wants to progress quickly from the basics to understanding, speaking and writing Swahili with confidence. Although aimed at those with no previous knowledge, it is equally suitable for anyone wishing to brush up exisiting knowledge for a holiday or business trip. Key structures and vocabulary are introduced in 18 thematic units, progressing from basic greetings and introductions and dealing with everyday situations to writing a formal letter and business communications. The emphasis is on communication throughout, with important language structures introduced through dialogues on the accompanying recording. There are plenty of exercises to practise the language as it is introduced and tips throughout to help with pronunciation and grammar. Cultural information boxes give useful advice and information for anyone planning a trip.
The accompanying CDs give pronunciation guidance and listening material.
- Covers a wide range of topics and language structures for learners who want to progress quickly beyond the basics to a level where they can communicate with confidence.
- This course is equally suitable for the complete beginner or the person with some knowledge of Swahili who is looking for a thorough grounding in understanding, speaking and writing Swahili. The topics covered will appeal to those learning for holiday and business purposes.
- There is very little available for the person wanting to learn Swahili. This course caters for all learners - complete beginners and those with a smattering of the language.
- There is both a Swahili-English and an English-Swahili vocabulary listing.
- This edition incorporates the latest language learning and teaching techniques.
About the Author(s):
Joan Russell was born in London and taught there for a few years before leaving for Tanzania, where she taught in various institutions over the next seven years, at the same time acquiring the basics of Swahili. Her interest in the language continued during a two-year attachment to the Curriculum Development and Research Centre in Nairobi. On her return from Kenya she completed a degree in Language and Linguistics at the University of York and stayed on there to carry out sociolinguistic research on Swahili and its functions. This entailed regular extended visits to eastern Africa. She became Senior Lecturer in linguistics and African studies at the University of York.
About the 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 Kenya 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 language of African origin among the official working languages of the African Union.
Swahili is a Bantu language that serves as the native tongue of various groups traditionally inhabiting about 1,500 miles of the Southeast African coastline. About 35% of the Swahili vocabulary derives from the Arabic language, resulting from its evolution 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, Portuguese, 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 in preparation for the East African Federation. Swahili, or other closely related languages, is spoken by nearly the entire population of the Comoros and by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Zambia, and Somalia.
In the Guthrie non-genetic classification of Bantu languages, Swahili is included under Bantoid/Southern/Narrow Bantu/Central/G.
At the present time, some 90 percent of approximately 39 million Tanzanians speak Swahili. Kenya's population is comparable, but the prevalence of Swahili is lower, though still widespread. Most educated Kenyans are able to communicate fluently in Swahili, since it is a compulsory subject in school from grade one. The five eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (to be subdivided in 2009) are Swahili speaking. Nearly half the 66 million Congolese speak it; and it is starting to rival Lingala as the most important national language of that country. In Uganda, the Baganda generally don't speak Swahili, but it is in common use among the 25 million people elsewhere in the country, and is currently being implemented in schools nationwide in preparation for the East African Community. The usage of Swahili in other countries is commonly overstated, being common only in market towns, among returning refugees, or near the borders of Kenya and Tanzania. Even so, Swahili possibly exceeds Hausa of West Africa as the sub-Saharan indigenous language with the greatest number of speakers, and Swahili speakers may number some ten to fifteen percent of the 750 million people of sub-Saharan Africa (2005 World Bank Data).
Many of the world's institutions have responded to Swahili's growing prominence. It is one of the languages that feature in world radio stations such as The BBC, the Voice of America (USA), Radio Deutsche Welle (Germany), Radio Moscow International (Russia), Radio China International, Radio Sudan, and Radio South Africa.
One of the earliest known documents in Swahili is an epic poem in the Arabic script titled Utendi wa Tambuka ("The History of Tambuka"); it is dated 1728. The Latin alphabet has since become standard under the influence of European colonial powers.Methali (e.g."“Haraka haraka haina baraka - Hurry hurry has no blessing"".), i.e. “wordplay, risqué or suggestive puns and lyric rhyme, are deeply inscribed in Swahili culture, in form of Swahili parables, proverbs, and allegory”.[4] Methali is uncovered globally within ‘Swah’ rap music. It provides the music with rich cultural, historical, and local textures and insight.
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