Dodoma Region
87-658: The Gogo also known as Gongwe ( Wagogo , in Swahili ) are Nilotic ethnic group but Speak Bantu languages based in the Dodoma Region of central Tanzania . In 1992 the Gogo population was estimated to number 1,300,000. [1] .Their Origin is from Nubia nowday called Sudan. Their name was invented sometime in the 19th century by the Nyamwezi caravans passing through the area while it was still frontier territory. Richard Francis Burton claimed
174-560: A 'little bit' of some characteristic, like -y or -ish in English). For example, there is kijani "green", from jani "leaf" (compare English 'leafy'), kichaka "bush" from chaka "clump", and kivuli "shadow" from uvuli "shade". A 'little bit' of a verb would be an instance of an action, and such instantiations (usually not very active ones) are found: kifo "death", from the verb -fa "to die"; kiota "nest" from -ota "to brood"; chakula "food" from kula "to eat"; kivuko "a ford,
261-679: A Monkey ;" " Mwalimu Goso, " "Goso the Teacher," a cumulative tale ; and " Sungura na Simba, " "The Hare and the Lion," a story about the trickster hare . Here are some of the proverbs that Steere recorded in Swahili: Here are some of the riddles that Steere recorded in Swahili: Masasi District, Mtwara Masasi is one of the six districts of the Mtwara Region of Tanzania . It
348-635: A border with Nachingwea and Ruangwa Districts to the North, Lindi and Newala Districts to the east, Ruvuma River to the south and Nanyumbu district to the West. The council's headquarters is situated 210 kilometers west of Mtwara Municipality which is the regional headquarters. The Masasi district council is also surrounding a new Masasi town council which started its operations in July 2012. The council has five administrative divisions, 34 wards, 166 villages and 864 hamlets. It has
435-782: A historical process in which /l/ became elided between the second last and last vowels of a word (for example, kondoo , "sheep" was originally kondolo , which survives in certain dialects ). As a consequence, long vowels are not considered phonemic . A similar process exists in Zulu . Where not shown, the orthography is the same as IPA. Some dialects of Swahili may also have the aspirated phonemes /pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ bʱ dʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ/ though they are unmarked in Swahili's orthography. Multiple studies favour classifying prenasalization as consonant clusters, not as separate phonemes. Historically, nasalization has been lost before voiceless consonants, and subsequently
522-526: A long history of hunger, extremely unpredictable rainfall, the ability to export grain in good years, and an inability or reluctance to grow crops that can withstand drought, such as manioc . While Ugogo was endangered by tsetse and purposefully cut off from territory matters by a conservative provincial commissioner, Uzigua had also lost its livestock reserve to the disease. However, territorial hunger returned to Tanganyika in 1943. It started in Ugogo as normal and
609-557: A major role in spreading both Christianity and Islam in East Africa . From their arrival in East Africa, Arabs brought Islam and set up madrasas , where they used Swahili to teach Islam to the natives. As the Arab presence grew, more and more natives converted to Islam and were taught using the Swahili language. From the arrival of Europeans in East Africa, Christianity was introduced to
696-573: A means of national integration in Tanzania. Key activities mandated for the organisation include creating a healthy atmosphere for the development of Swahili, encouraging use of the language in government and business functions, coordinating activities of other organisations involved with Swahili, standardising the language. BAKITA vision are: "1.To efficiently manage and coordinate the development and use of Kiswahili in Tanzania 2.To participate fully and effectively in promoting Swahili in East Africa, Africa and
783-647: A pass" from -vuka "to cross"; and kilimia "the Pleiades ", from -limia "to farm with", from its role in guiding planting. A resemblance, or being a bit like something, implies marginal status in a category, so things that are marginal examples of their class may take the ki-/vi- prefixes. One example is chura ( ki-ura ) "frog", which is only half terrestrial and therefore is marginal as an animal. This extension may account for disabilities as well: kilema "a cripple", kipofu "a blind person", kiziwi "a deaf person". Finally, diminutives often denote contempt, and contempt
870-433: A prenasalized consonant, they are pronounced as [e] , [ɪ] , [o] , and [ʊ] . E is also commonly pronounced as mid-position after w . Polomé claims that /ɑ/ is pronounced as such only after w and is pronounced as [a] in other situations, especially after /j/ ( y ). A can be pronounced as [ə] in word-final position. Long vowels in Swahili are written as doubled vowels (for example, kondoo , "sheep") due to
957-468: A second language spoken by tens of millions of people in the five African Great Lakes countries ( Kenya , DRC , Rwanda , Uganda , and Tanzania ), where it is an official or national language. It is also the first language for many people in Tanzania, especially in the coastal regions of Tanga, Pwani, Dar es Salaam, Mtwara and Lindi. In the inner regions of Tanzania, Swahili is spoken with an accent influenced by other local languages and dialects. There, it
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#17328452260961044-469: A significant number of loanwords from other languages, mainly Arabic , as well as from Portuguese , English and German . Around 40% of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( سَوَاحِلي sawāḥilī , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coasts'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab traders and the Bantu inhabitants of
1131-763: A strange traveller would be accompanied many miles by the young men of a homestead in order to place him safely on his way. The homestead group was so fundamental to Gogo society that people who had died peculiarly, (struck down by lightning or a contagious disease) were thrown into the bush or the trunk of a baobab tree, for such a person had no homestead and could become an "evil spirit" who associated with sorcerers or witches. Most brothers went to great lengths to assist their sisters, who often lived with their brothers in sickness until they recovered, for brothers have strong moral and legal obligations to fulfil these duties in cooperation with their sisters' husbands. Even later in life, sisters and brothers continue to visit each other,
1218-458: A substitute for k in advertisements. There are also several digraphs for Arabic sounds, which many speakers outside of ethnic Swahili areas have trouble differentiating. The language used to be primarily written in the Ajami script , which is an Arabic script. Much literature was produced in this script. With the introduction of Latin, the use of Ajami script has been diminished significantly. However,
1305-511: A system of concord but, if the noun refers to a human, they accord with noun classes 1–2 regardless of their noun class. Verbs agree with the noun class of their subjects and objects; adjectives, prepositions and demonstratives agree with the noun class of their nouns. In Standard Swahili (Kiswahili sanifu) , based on the dialect spoken in Zanzibar, the system is rather complex; however, it is drastically simplified in many local variants where Swahili
1392-490: A total area of 3,829.9 km (1,478.7 sq mi), and the physical size is 20.8% of the whole region. Administratively Masasi is divided into two constituencies, Masasi and Lulindi. The council has a total of 46 councilors. According to the National Population Census 2002, the district had a total population of 307,211 with an annual growth rate of 2.1 percent before the split of the councils. Currently,
1479-671: A variety of gender-concord prefixes. This list is based on Swahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history . Modern standard Swahili, written in Latin, is based on Kiunguja, the dialect spoken in Zanzibar City . Swahili literature and poetry, traditionally written in Swahili Ajami , is based on Kiamu , the dialect of Lamu on the Kenyan Coast. But there are numerous other dialects of Swahili, some of which are mutually unintelligible, such as
1566-504: A very small population for it, saying only that a person could walk for two weeks and find only scattered Tembes. There was and remains the problem of inadequate rain for crops and humans, the rainy season being short and erratic with frequent drought. In the 18th century the Wagogo were mostly pioneer colonists from South Sudan then Unyamwezi and Uhehe, and are often confused with the Sandawe and
1653-437: A wife never being fully incorporated into her husband's group. While the majority of Wagogo have only one wife at any given time, most found polygyny to be highly valued and carrying a high priority. It was the prerogative of older, well-established men. A reasonably prosperous man could hope to have two and sometimes three wives, and sometimes together. Most marriages took place within a day's walking distance after agreement
1740-550: Is a Bantu language of the Sabaki branch . In Guthrie's geographic classification , Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the name Nyika. Historical linguists consider the Arabic influence on Swahili to be significant, since it takes around 15% of its vocabulary directly from Arabic , and was initially spread by Arab slave traders along
1827-533: Is a Bantu language originally spoken by the Swahili people , who are found primarily in Tanzania , Kenya , and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent littoral islands). Estimates of the number of Swahili speakers, including both native and second-language speakers, vary widely. They generally range from 60 million to 150 million; with most of its native speakers residing in Tanzania. Swahili has
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#17328452260961914-648: Is a compulsory subject in all Kenyan primary and secondary schools. Swahili is recognized as a national language in the Democratic Republic of The Congo and is widely spoken in the eastern regions. The local dialects of Swahili in Congo are known as Congo Swahili and differ considerably from Standard Swahili. In order to strengthen political ties with other East African Community nations, both Kiswahili and English have been taught in Burundian elementary schools since
2001-540: Is a first language for most of the people who are born in the cities, whilst being spoken as a second language in rural areas. Swahili and closely related languages are spoken by relatively small numbers of people in Burundi , Comoros , Malawi , Mozambique , Zambia and Rwanda . The language was still understood in the southern ports of the Red Sea in the 20th century. The East African Community created an institution called
2088-434: Is an active body part, and mto is an active natural force, but they are also both long and thin. Things with a trajectory, such as mpaka 'border' and mwendo 'journey', are classified with long thin things, as in many other languages with noun classes. This may be further extended to anything dealing with time, such as mwaka 'year' and perhaps mshahara 'wages'. Animals exceptional in some way and so not easily fitting in
2175-635: Is bordered to the north by the Lindi Region , to the east by the Newala District , to the south by the Ruvuma River and Mozambique and to the west by Nanyumbu District . According to the 2022 Tanzania National Census, the population of Masasi District was 314,778 and in Masasi town the population was 137,585. Masasi District Council is among seven councils comprising Mtwara Region. The district shares
2262-466: Is closely related to Swahili and is sometimes considered a dialect of Swahili, although other authorities consider it a distinct language. In 2022, based on Swahili's growth as a prominent international language, the United Nations declared Swahili Language Day as 7 July to commemorate the date that Julius Nyerere adopted Swahili as a unifying language for African independence struggles. Swahili
2349-537: Is clouded with a doubt that it will ever be that fair land of rest and welcome I had dreamed of making it." The Wagogo have produced some of the big names in Tanzanian Politics, Music and Society. Environmental Management Scientist, Water Sanitation and Hygiene Expert and Activist, Public Health and Toxicology Researcher; worked as Program Manager - Malaria and Child Health in PSI Tanzania; Theologian and Canon of
2436-581: Is generally only spoken by Somali nationals who have resided in Kenya and subsequently returned to Somalia. Lastly, a closely related language Mushunguli (also known as Zigula, Zigua, or Chizigua) is spoken by some of the Somali Bantu ethnic minority mostly living in the Jubba Valley . It is classified as a Northeast Coast Bantu language as Swahili is and has some intelligibility with Swahili. Swahili played
2523-570: Is not a native language, such as in Nairobi. In non-native Swahili, concord reflects only animacy: human subjects and objects trigger a-, wa- and m-, wa- in verbal concord, while non-human subjects and objects of whatever class trigger i-, zi- . Infinitives vary between standard ku- and reduced i-. ("Of" is animate wa and inanimate ya, za. ) In Standard Swahili, human subjects and objects of whatever class trigger animacy concord in a-, wa- and m-, wa-, and non-human subjects and objects trigger
2610-430: Is one of the early developers. The applications include a spelling checker , part-of-speech tagging , a language learning software , an analysed Swahili text corpus of 25 million words, an electronic dictionary , and machine translation between Swahili and English. The development of language technology also strengthens the position of Swahili as a modern medium of communication. Furthermore, Swahili Misplaced Pages
2697-556: Is one of the few Wikipedias in an African language that features a substantial number of contributors and articles. The widespread use of Swahili as a national language in Tanzania came after Tanganyika gained independence in 1961 and the government decided that it would be used as a language to unify the new nation. This saw the use of Swahili in all levels of government, trade, art as well as schools in which primary school children are taught in Swahili, before switching to English (medium of instruction) in secondary schools (although Swahili
Gogo people - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-960: Is sometimes expressed against things that are dangerous. This might be the historical explanation for kifaru " rhinoceros ", kingugwa " spotted hyena ", and kiboko " hippopotamus " (perhaps originally meaning "stubby legs"). Another class with broad semantic extension is the m-/mi- class (Bantu classes 3/4). This is often called the 'tree' class, because mti, miti "tree(s)" is the prototypical example. However, it seems to cover vital entities neither human nor typical animals: trees and other plants, such as mwitu 'forest' and mtama 'millet' (and from there, things made from plants, like mkeka 'mat'); supernatural and natural forces, such as mwezi 'moon', mlima 'mountain', mto 'river'; active things, such as moto 'fire', including active body parts ( moyo 'heart', mkono 'hand, arm'); and human groups, which are vital but not themselves human, such as mji 'village', and, by analogy, mzinga 'beehive/cannon'. From
2871-553: Is spoken along the Benadir coast by the Bravanese people . Another Swahili dialect known as Kibajuni also serves as the mother tongue of the Bajuni minority ethnic group, which lives in the tiny Bajuni Islands as well as the southern Kismayo region. In Oman , there are an estimated 52,000 people who speak Swahili as of 2020. Most are descendants of those repatriated after the fall of
2958-562: Is still taught as an independent subject). After Tanganyika and Zanzibar unification in 1964, Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI, Institute of Swahili Research) was created from the Interterritorial Language Committee. In 1970 TUKI was merged with the University of Dar es Salaam , while Baraza la Kiswahili la Taifa (BAKITA) was formed. BAKITA is an organisation dedicated to the development and advocacy of Swahili as
3045-674: Is the lingua franca of other areas in the African Great Lakes region and East and Southern Africa . Swahili is also one of the working languages of the African Union and of the Southern African Development Community . The East African Community created an institution called the East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) which began operations in 2015. The institution currently serves as
3132-512: The East African coast. The word `Swahili' comes from an Arabic name for the area, meaning "coasts": The core of the Swahili language originates in Bantu languages of the coast of East Africa. Much of Swahili's Bantu vocabulary has cognates in the Unguja , Pemba , and Mijikenda languages and, to a lesser extent, other East African Bantu languages . While opinions vary on the specifics, it has been historically purported that around 16–20% of
3219-637: The First World War is the starvation. Food was in low supply in towns early in the battle as imports were stopped, military needs increased, and prices went up. Requisitioning and drought in 1915 caused a limited famine in the Makonde plateau, the north-east, Ufiome, and parts of Ugogo and Ulanga. During 1916, the situation in these locations deteriorated. In the Masasi District near Luatala that year, 800 people died. Labor required to cultivate land reduced as
3306-600: The Kaguru . Half the ruling group came from Uhehe. They had a long tradition of hunting and gathering, allowing the Nyamwezi to carry the ivory to the coast, but had become agriculturalists with cattle by 1890. They continued, however, to have a low regard for working the land and are said to have treated their agricultural slaves badly. The Wagogo experienced famine in 1881, 1885, and 1888–89 (just before Stokes' caravan arrived) and then again in 1894–95, and 1913–14. The main reason for
3393-497: The Kisongo , Maasai, and Wahehe was organized and based on age groups of warriors, much as the Maasai. This "military" organization was mostly used for local defence, although it could be used for cattle raids against others. When an alarm was sounded all able-bodied men were to take up arms and run towards the call (this did not always work smoothly). "On the 26th we entered Muhalala, and on
3480-473: The Sabaki language . In fact, while taking account of daily vocabulary, using lists of one hundred words, 72–91% were inherited from the Sabaki language (which is reported as a parent language) whereas 4–17% were loan words from other African languages. Only 2–8% were from non-African languages, and Arabic loan words constituted a fraction of that. According to other sources, around 40% of the Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic. What also remained unconsidered
3567-522: The Sultanate of Zanzibar . There are Swahili-based slangs, pidgins and creoles: In 1870, Edward Steere published Swahili Tales as Told by Natives of Zanzibar , a collection of 23 Swahili tales with facing-text English translation, along with a selection of proverbs and riddles. Some of the tales included are: " Kisa cha Punda wa Dobi, " "The Story of the Washerman's Donkey," also known as " The Heart of
Gogo people - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-513: The Tanganyika African National Union used Swahili as a language of mass organisation and political movement. This included publishing pamphlets and radio broadcasts to rally the people to fight for independence. After gaining independence, Swahili was adopted as the national language. To this day, Tanzanians carry a sense of pride when it comes to Swahili, especially when it is used to unite over 120 tribes across Tanzania. Swahili
3741-479: The 8th of November we had passed through Ugogo. There is no country in Africa that has excited greater interest in me than this. It is a ferment of trouble and distraction, and a rat's nest of petty annoyances that beset travelers from day to day while in it. No natives know so well how to aggrieve and be unpleasant to travelers. One would think there was a school somewhere in Ugogo to teach low cunning and vicious malice to
3828-616: The Anglican Church of Tanzania, Gospel Musician. Also worked with Amref Health Africa as WASH Expert and currently he is the C.E.O of Chiwanga Enterprises Ltd; an Executive Director of the Integrated Rural Development Organization (IRDO). He is also the current Chairman of the Songwe River Basin Commission. Swahili language Swahili , also known by its local name Kiswahili ,
3915-420: The Arabic script (an unmodified version as opposed to proposals such as that of Mwalimu Sikujua) was relatively high. There were also differences in orthographic conventions between cities and authors and over the centuries, some quite precise but others different enough to cause difficulties with intelligibility. Thus despite a lack of official governmental backing, attempts at standardization and Swahilization of
4002-482: The Arabic script continued into the 20th century. Swahili nouns are separable into classes , which are roughly analogous to genders in other languages. In Swahili, prefixes mark groups of similar objects: ⟨m-⟩ marks single human beings ( mtoto 'child'), ⟨wa-⟩ marks multiple humans ( watoto 'children'), ⟨u-⟩ marks abstract nouns ( utoto 'childhood'), and so on. And just as adjectives and pronouns must agree with
4089-568: The Arabic script that were sent to the Portuguese of Mozambique and their local allies. The original letters are preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa, India . Various colonial powers that ruled on the coast of East Africa played a role in the growth and spread of Swahili. With the arrival of the Arabs in East Africa, they used Swahili as a language of trade as well as for teaching Islam to
4176-461: The Dodoma market, others offered starving calves for sale for one shilling each. The Central Province, particularly Ugogo and Uzigua, frequently suffered from starvation. In 1919–21, 1925–6, 1928–30, 1932–5, 1937, and 1939, Ugogo and Uzigua both had food shortages. Drought was the main factor in both regions, which was made worse by yearly infestations of locusts in the 1930s. Both Ugogo and Uzigua have
4263-503: The East African Kiswahili Commission (EAKC) which began operations in 2015. The institution currently serves as the leading body for promoting the language in the East African region , as well as for coordinating its development and usage for regional integration and sustainable development. Swahili is among the first languages in Africa for which language technology applications have been developed. Arvi Hurskainen
4350-414: The Swahili vocabulary is derived from loan words, the vast majority Arabic , but also other contributing languages, including Persian , Hindustani , Portuguese , and Malay . Omani Arabic is the source of most Arabic loanwords in Swahili. In the text "Early Swahili History Reconsidered". However, Thomas Spear noted that Swahili retains a large amount of grammar, vocabulary, and sounds inherited from
4437-460: The academic year 2005/2006. Kiswahili is now used widely in Burundi but is not recognised as an official language; only French, Kirundi, and English have this distinction. Since 2013, Swahili has been included in the all Burundian education system. Uganda adopted Kiswahili as one of its official languages (alongside English ) in 2022, and also made it compulsory across primary and secondary schools in
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#17328452260964524-463: The caravan trade of the 19th century. It was commonly spoken by Sagara and Gogo in the 1850s, according to Burton, who also noted that "almost every inland tribe has some vagrant man who can speak it." During the European exploration of Tanzania, Ugogo was used as a route west. During on such expedition, a second column marched up the central caravan route towards the western plateau as Wissmann worked in
4611-459: The central idea of tree , which is thin, tall, and spreading, comes an extension to other long or extended things or parts of things, such as mwavuli 'umbrella', moshi 'smoke', msumari 'nail'; and from activity there even come active instantiations of verbs, such as mfuo "metal forging", from -fua "to forge", or mlio "a sound", from -lia "to make a sound". Words may be connected to their class by more than one metaphor. For example, mkono
4698-422: The chiefs, who are masters in foxy-craft. Nineteen years ago I looked at this land and people with desiring eyes. I saw in it a field worth some effort to reclaim. In six months I felt sure Ugogo could be made lovely and orderly, a blessing to the inhabitants and to strangers, without any great expense or trouble. It would become a pleasant highway of human intercourse with far-away peoples, productive of wealth to
4785-412: The child of others, then all your wife's relatives become your relatives, because you have married the child, and so you will love even them. ("From Rigby's book Cattle and Kinship") Lovers of married women could never, however, claim their offspring. If a husband had given the brideprice for his wife who was pregnant before he married her, he must still accept paternity of the child. Defence against
4872-463: The country. The Swahili language is not widespread in Somalia and has no official status nationally or regionally. Dialects of Swahili are spoken by some ethnic minorities on the Bajuni islands in the form of Kibajuni on the southern tip of the country and in the town of Brava in the form of Chimwiini ; both contain a significant amount of Somali and Italian loanwords. Standard Swahili
4959-749: The court system. With the Germans controlling the major Swahili-speaking region in East Africa, they changed the alphabet system from Arabic to Latin. After the First World War, Britain took over German East Africa, where they found Swahili rooted in most areas, not just the coastal regions. The British decided to formalise it as the language to be used across the East African region (although in British East Africa [Kenya and Uganda] most areas used English and various Nilotic and other Bantu languages while Swahili
5046-455: The demand for porters increased. By 1917, both sides were systematically taking animals and destroying any grain they couldn't eat. They may have taken nearly a fifth of Tanganyika's four million livestock reserve for famine. In 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck left famine behind as he departed the Rufiji Valley, Mahenge, and the south. But this was just the start of the disaster. It arrived in 1918 and
5133-697: The direction of Lake Nyasa from their initial bases in Karema, Tabora, and Bukumbi. The pace of Protestant societies was slower. Between Bonde and Uzigua, the UMCA expanded its operations. The CMS prioritized Uganda, giving up its station atop Mount Kilimanjaro and keeping only a little area in Ukaguru and Ugogo. Eight teachers were dispatched to Uvidunda by the Roman Catholic community in Ilonga in 1910. They dispatched 39 Christians
5220-544: The east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. Due to concerted efforts by the government of Tanzania , Swahili is one of three official languages (the others being English and French) of the East African Community (EAC) countries, namely Burundi , Democratic Republic of the Congo , Kenya , Rwanda , Somalia , South Sudan , Tanzania , and Uganda . It
5307-481: The entire world over". Although other bodies and agencies can propose new vocabularies, BAKITA is the only organisation that can approve its usage in the Swahili language. Tanzanians are highly credited for shaping the language to appear the way it is now. In Kenya, Kiswahili has been the national language since 1964 and is official since 2010. Chama cha Kiswahili cha Taifa (CHAKITA) was established in 1998 to research and promote Kiswahili language in Kenya. Kiswahili
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#17328452260965394-411: The exceptional series of famines in Ugogo was its unreliable rainfall and the ensuing series of droughts. Kimbu and Nyamwezi colonists gradually colonized the dry plains west and east of Ugogo, which travelers on the principal road most feared. Central Tanganyika saw the growth of Nyamwezi towns, and numerous Gogo chiefs had Nyamwezi advisors. More people learned Swahili than learned Islam through
5481-539: The export of food and animals for military use. The Gogo endured more hardship in 1946. "Morale is high and it is felt that now that the war is over, the period of famine is over until the next war," their district officer stated the following year. Wagogo clans moved around a good deal, dropping ties to older groupings, adopting new links and family, new clan names, things to avoid, affiliations, and new ritual functions. The Gogo, in short, became different from what they were before. While early European writers emphasised
5568-507: The following year to launch a mission in Kibakwe, and 14 more in 1912 to teach in Ugogo. Ugogo's proselytizing revealed the catechist's true worth. When the Roman Catholic mission there was established in 1909, catechists were chosen from all of the colony's more established mission locations. They opened 91 schools with 4,000 students in under five years. One common memory of Tanzanians from
5655-500: The following: Maho (2009) considers these to be distinct languages: The rest of the dialects are divided by him into two groups: Maho includes the various Comorian dialects as a third group. Most other authorities consider Comorian to be a Sabaki language, distinct from Swahili. In Somalia , where the Afroasiatic Somali language predominates, a variant of Swahili referred to as Chimwiini (also known as Chimbalazi)
5742-442: The former are kisu "knife", kiti "chair" (from mti "tree, wood"), chombo "vessel" (a contraction of ki-ombo ). Examples of the latter are kitoto "infant", from mtoto "child"; kitawi "frond", from tawi "branch"; and chumba ( ki-umba ) "room", from nyumba "house". It is the diminutive sense that has been furthest extended. An extension common to diminutives in many languages is approximation and resemblance (having
5829-431: The gender of nouns in some languages with grammatical gender, so in Swahili adjectives, pronouns and even verbs must agree with nouns. This is a characteristic feature of all the Bantu languages . The ki-/vi- class historically consisted of two separate genders, artefacts (Bantu class 7/8, utensils and hand tools mostly) and diminutives (Bantu class 12/13), which were conflated at a stage ancestral to Swahili. Examples of
5916-456: The language continues to have a tradition of being written in Arabic script. Starting from the later half of the 19th century, continuing into the 20th century, and going on in the 21st century, a process of "Swahilization" of the Arabic Script has been underway by Swahili scribes and scholars. The first of such attempts was done by Mwalimu Sikujua , a scholar and poet from Mombasa . However,
6003-465: The leading body for promoting the language in the East African region , as well as for coordinating its development and usage for regional integration and sustainable development. In recent years South Africa , Botswana , Namibia , Ethiopia , and South Sudan have begun offering Swahili as a subject in schools or have developed plans to do so. Shikomor (or Comorian ), an official language in Comoros and also spoken in Mayotte ( Shimaore ),
6090-527: The local Bantu peoples . This resulted in Swahili first being written in the Arabic script. The later contact with the Portuguese resulted in the increase of vocabulary of the Swahili language. The language was formalised in an institutional level when the Germans took over after the Berlin conference . After seeing there was already a widespread language, the Germans formalised it as the official language to be used in schools. Thus schools in Swahili are called Shule (from German Schule ) in government, trade and
6177-458: The natives, and a comfort to caravans. I learned on arrival in Ugogo that I was forever debarred from the hope. It is to be the destiny of the Germans to carry out this work, and I envy them. It is the worst news of all that I shall never be able to drain this cesspool of iniquitous passion, extinguish the insolence of Wagogo chiefs, and make the land clean, healthy, and even beautiful of view. While my best wishes will accompany German efforts, my mind
6264-671: The northeast. Emin Pasha , an eccentric Austrian doctor, served as its leader. He was given orders to "break or undermine Arab influence," build a German base on Lake Victoria, and be prepared to intervene in Burundi if necessary. Before he arrived, the Germans handed over control of Uganda to the British. Emin disregarded his orders and instead left "everything in chaos from Mpwapwa to Karagwe." He crossed Ugogo after leaving Bagamoyo in April 1890, razing 19 villages and stealing about 2,000 animals after an askari
6351-405: The original emphatic consonants /dˤ, sˤ, tˤ, ðˤ/ and the uvular /q/ , or lengthening a vowel, where aspiration would be used in inherited Bantu words. Swahili is now written in the Latin alphabet. There are a few digraphs for native sounds, ch , sh , ng ' and ny ; q and x are not used, c is not used apart from the digraph ch , unassimilated English loans and, occasionally, as
6438-626: The other classes may be placed in this class. The other classes have foundations that may at first seem similarly counterintuitive. In short, Borrowings may or may not be given a prefix corresponding to the semantic class they fall in. For example, Arabic دود dūd ("bug, insect") was borrowed as mdudu , plural wadudu , with the class 1/2 prefixes m- and wa- , but Arabic فلوس fulūs ("fish scales", plural of فلس fals ) and English sloth were borrowed as simply fulusi (" mahi-mahi " fish) and slothi (" sloth "), with no prefix associated with animals (whether those of class 9/10 or 1/2). In
6525-762: The political chiefs of the Wagogo, calling them 'Sultans' as was customary on the coast, and stressed their collection of the very profitable taxes ( hongo ), on scarce food and water, it was really the ritual leaders who influenced the entire country. They controlled rainmaking and fertility, medicines to protect against natural disasters or hazards, and prevented certain resources from being overly used. They were not to leave their "country," they were to be rich in cattle, decided on circumcision and initiation ceremonies, give supernatural protection for all undertakings and be arbitrators in homicide , witchcraft accusations, and serious assault. The Wagogo placed considerable value on neighbourliness. After having his physical needs met,
6612-521: The process of naturalization of borrowings within Swahili, loanwords are often reinterpreted, or reanalysed, as if they already contain a Swahili class prefix. In such cases the interpreted prefix is changed with the usual rules. Consider the following loanwords from Arabic: Similarly, English wire and Arabic وقت waqt ("time") were interpreted as having the class 11 prevocalic prefix w- , and became waya and wakati with plural nyaya and nyakati respectively. Swahili phrases agree with nouns in
6699-407: The region. While the Arabs were mostly based in the coastal areas, European missionaries went further inland spreading Christianity. As the first missionary posts in East Africa were in the coastal areas, missionaries picked up Swahili and used it to spread Christianity, since it contained many similarities with other indigenous languages in the region. During the struggle for Tanganyika independence,
6786-534: The spread of a standardized indigenous variation of Arabic script for Swahili was hampered by the colonial takeover of East Africa by the United Kingdom and Germany . The usage of Arabic script was suppressed in German East Africa and to a lesser extent in British East Africa . Nevertheless, well into the 1930s and 1940s, rural literacy rate in Arabic script as well as a local preference to write Swahili in
6873-401: The voiced consonants have devoiced, though they are still written mb, nd etc. The /r/ phoneme is realised as either a short trill [ r ] or more commonly as a single tap [ ɾ ] by most speakers. [x] exists in free variation with h, and is only distinguished by some speakers. In some Arabic loans (nouns, verbs, adjectives), emphasis or intensity is expressed by reproducing
6960-527: Was explained that food was being forcedly collected because Gogo had no use for money, but people were "merely resigned" and famine was improbable. When the rains stopped in November 1917, the entire central region went through three years of mutunya the "scramble for food," the worst famine in recorded history—as its supplies were depleted. According to one estimate, Dodoma district alone saw 30,000 deaths, or nearly one in every five people. Many people migrated. In
7047-615: Was killed as a result of a chief's demand for tolls. After the German invasion of the 1880s, missionary efforts increased. The Holy Ghost Fathers, the eldest of the five already existing societies, expanded their mission from Bagamoyo's hinterland to Kilimanjaro (1891), Usambara (1907), and Ugogo (1910). In the 1890s, the White Fathers occupied the Rukwa valley, Usumbwa, and Buhaya. The next decade saw their expansion to Ufipa, Buha, Mbulu, and in
7134-429: Was mostly caused by drought; nevertheless, drought generates hunger when reserves are low, recuperative abilities are limited, outside assistance is difficult to obtain, and transportation and communications are broken. In each of these ways, the hunger was made more widespread, severe, and extended by the conflict. The government pushed the growing of drought-prone maize rather than drought-resistant millet and encouraged
7221-581: Was mostly restricted to the coast). In June 1928, an inter-territorial conference attended by representatives of Kenya , Tanganyika , Uganda , and Zanzibar took place in Mombasa . The Zanzibar dialect was chosen as standard Swahili for those areas, and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted. Estimates of the total number of first- and second-language Swahili speakers vary widely, from as low as 50 million to as high as 200 million, but generally range from 60 million to 150 million. Swahili has become
7308-538: Was particularly bad in the famine-prone regions of Dodoma, Kondoa, and Singida. The British district officer in Dodoma reported in December 1916 that "the entire District has been ransacked for cattle." The British obtained an additional 5,659 animals in just five months, in addition to 24,000 porters and about 100 tonnes of grain, whereas the Germans had acquired 26,000 animals. Throughout 1917, requisitioning continued, although local officers denied any signs of calamity. It
7395-428: Was reached on the number of livestock to be included in the bridewealth , only then is the transfer made. Even a hundred years later, bridewealth is still normally given entirely in livestock and a high proportion of court cases involve the payment or return of the brideprice. Even after divorce, all children born during the marriage belonged to the ex-husband, "where the cattle came from." "If you go somewhere and marry
7482-568: Was that a good number of the borrowed terms had Bantu equivalents. The preferred use of Arabic loan words is prevalent along the coast, where local people, in a cultural show of proximity to, or descent from Arab culture, would rather use loan words, whereas the people in the interior tend to use the Bantu equivalents. It was originally written in Arabic script . The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written in Kilwa , Tanzania , in 1711 in
7569-566: Was used to strengthen solidarity within the nation, and remains to be a key identity of the Tanzanian people. Standard Swahili has five vowel phonemes : /ɑ/ , /ɛ/ , /i/ , /ɔ/ , and /u/ . According to Ellen Contini-Morava , vowels are never reduced , regardless of stress . However, according to Edgar Polomé , these five phonemes can vary in pronunciation. Polomé claims that /ɛ/ , /i/ , /ɔ/ , and /u/ are pronounced as such only in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, as well as before
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