ABSTRACT
Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is spoken by approximately 50 million people in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Congo (DRC), the Comoros, and, marginally, in northern Mozambique, southern Somalia, northern Malawi, and northern Zambia. Swahili is a national language in Tanzania, Kenya, and Congo (DRC). It also has official status in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. Swahili belongs to a family of languages called "Bantu" mostly spoken in Africa south of the Equator. Swahili has preserved a majority of the original Bantu terms and grammatical patterns. However, due to its location in and along the Indian Ocean, Swahili has been exposed to a great number of cultures, languages, and ideas for a long time. Like other Bantu languages, Swahili uses mostly a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel syllable structure. In addition, Swahili does not use tones but rather accents most words on the second-to-last syllable. These different features make Swahili easy to pronounce, despite a relatively complex morphology.
