Kiswahili Sounds

KISWAHILI Kiswahili(commonly referred to by other language speakers as Swahili )is a major African language spoken by over 140 million people in the continent. It is a Bantu language, a national language as well as official language in a number of countries particularly in East Africa(around the great lakes).

KISWAHILI SOUNDS The sounds in Kiswahili are divided into two categories: vowels (irabu /vokali) and consonants(konsonanti).The language like English has 5 vowels: a ,e, i, o, u though pronounced differently. Kiswahili has twenty six consonants which are :b ,ch, d, dh, f, g, gh, h, j ,k, l, m, n, ng, ng`, ny, p, r, s, sh, t, th, v, w, y, z. To form words, the sounds follow each other as consonant -vowel as in word `baba`(father) or vowel-consonant as in word `amani`(peace). The following are all Kiswahili sounds and word examples i.e- sauti(sounds),matamshi(pronunciation) and maneno(word examples) respectively.

a- as in aa> ahadi(promise) b- as in ba> baba(father) ch- as in cha>chai(tea) d- as in da> dada(sister) dh- as in dha>dhahabu(gold) e- as in ee> embe(mangoe) f- as in fa> fahali(bull) g- as in ga> gari(car) gh- as in gha> ghadhabu(anger) h- as in ha> hapa(here) i- as in ii> ingia(enter) j- as in je> jela(prison) k- as in ka> kali(bitter) l- as in la> lala(sleep) m- as in ma> mama(mother) n- as in na> nanga(anchor) ng-as in ngu>nguo(clothes) ng`-as in ng`o>ng`ombe(cow) ny- as in nya>nyama(meat) o- as in oo> ona(see) p- as in pa> panya(rat) r- as in ra> rangi(paint) s- as in sa> sasa(now) t- as in ta> tatu(three) th-as in the>thelathini(thirty) u- as in uu> unga(flour) v- as in va> vazi(garment) w- as in wa> watu(people) y- as in ya> yai(egg) z- as in za> zabibu(grape)