Linguistic Comparison of Swahili and English
Swahili is a language widely spoken throughout countries in Africa such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more countries in Mid/East Africa (Swahili Language, Stanford). The number of native speakers is estimated to be anywhere around 50 to 100 million; however, this is only a rough estimate because there is no way to count all the speakers that have carried the language past the borders of the main countries that speak Swahili (Hawaii.edu). Arabic is the major language spoken throughout Africa, although Swahili is right behind it. In comparison to English, of course the numbers are vastly different. There are about 340 million native speaks of English (Vista Wide) which is almost 7x more than Swahili which lies around 50 to 100 million. Are these languages, although varying in not only regions but also in the number of native speakers, vastly different or quite similar? In regards to linguistic structure, how different or similar is the phonology? How different or similar is the morphology, syntax, or pragmatics? We know that all languages have certain linguistic universals such as an innate grammar, language acquisition, lexicon, etc. (SFS); however, Swahili and English …show more content…
In fact, an English speaker who has a good understanding of the pronunciation in both Spanish and English should be able to pronounce the majority of the consonants and vowels in Swahili. Now the phonology of these is quite different. In regards to the stress of the words and the tones, Swahili has no tones, and the stress tends to “fall on the penultimate syllable” (Language Gulper). However, this will all depend on where one is from, because the Swahili in Nairobi can have a different stress than the Swahili that is spoken in areas that are more rural. Now, where Swahili begins to diverge from English is in the morphological
Swahili is a language widely spoken throughout countries in Africa such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and more countries in Mid/East Africa (Swahili Language, Stanford). The number of native speakers is estimated to be anywhere around 50 to 100 million; however, this is only a rough estimate because there is no way to count all the speakers that have carried the language past the borders of the main countries that speak Swahili (Hawaii.edu). Arabic is the major language spoken throughout Africa, although Swahili is right behind it. In comparison to English, of course the numbers are vastly different. There are about 340 million native speaks of English (Vista Wide) which is almost 7x more than Swahili which lies around 50 to 100 million. Are these languages, although varying in not only regions but also in the number of native speakers, vastly different or quite similar? In regards to linguistic structure, how different or similar is the phonology? How different or similar is the morphology, syntax, or pragmatics? We know that all languages have certain linguistic universals such as an innate grammar, language acquisition, lexicon, etc. (SFS); however, Swahili and English …show more content…
In fact, an English speaker who has a good understanding of the pronunciation in both Spanish and English should be able to pronounce the majority of the consonants and vowels in Swahili. Now the phonology of these is quite different. In regards to the stress of the words and the tones, Swahili has no tones, and the stress tends to “fall on the penultimate syllable” (Language Gulper). However, this will all depend on where one is from, because the Swahili in Nairobi can have a different stress than the Swahili that is spoken in areas that are more rural. Now, where Swahili begins to diverge from English is in the morphological