CHAPTER XI. 
LANGUAGES 
HE native languages of British Central Africa belong exclusively to the 
great Bantu group of Negro tongues. Arabic 1 used to be spoken by the 
Arabs and coastmen temporarily settled in the South Tanganyika, North 
Nyasa, and Marimba districts, but is probably now replaced by Ki-swahili—the 
language of Zanzibar and the “ Hindustani,” or lingua Franca of East-Central 
Africa between the White Nile and the Zambezi. Portuguese is slightly known 
by the people on the Lower Shire; English is rapidly becoming familiar to all 
the tribes of Nyasaland, South Tanganyika, and Mweru. In time it will be the 
common language spoken by all sorts and conditions of men in South-Central 
Africa for purposes of intercommunication in matters of Government, Religion, 
Commerce, Mechanics, Arts and Sciences. But in some respects it will be 
run hard for supremacy by Ki-swahili, 2 the language of Zanzibar. 
This remarkable tongue offers a parallel to English, with its absorption of 
Latin ; and Hindustani, with its Hindi basis and heterogeneous additions of 
Arabic, Turkish, and Persian words. Its main stock of words and its grammar 
are purely Bantu ; but about twenty-five per cent, of its vocabulary is corrupt 
Arabic. Arab influence, however, has simplified the grammar and the numerals, 
and has provided Ki-swahili with a copious, apt diction capable of expressing 
almost any ideas with exactitude and precision. When new words for new 
concepts are wanted they have only to be looked out in the Arabic dictionary 
and pronounced in an easier African manner to at once become incorporated in 
“ the Queen’s Swahili.” Say that you want a word to express “ Witness; 
witnesses in a court of law ”—you look out the word in an Arabic dictionary— 
Shahid , turn it into Swahili pronunciation— Shahidi , add on the Ma- prefix 
and pluralise it as Mashahidi —“witnesses.” “Call your witnesses— Ita 
mashahidi yako.” 
The pronunciation of Arabic words is facilitated—“ Swahili-ised ”—thus : 
Sanduq (box, chest) becomes Sanduku , the difficult pronunciation of the S (<_/?) 
and the q (Jj) being ignored. 3 'Ilm (science) becomes Elimu; Aql (intelligence) 
changes in the soft African pronunciation into Akili. The following sentence 
will give some fair idea of the proportion of Arabic words in Ki-swahili, and 
the kind of concepts for which they are used (I place the words derived from 
Arabic in italics):—Si-ng e-thubutu kuja kuku-ona, Bwanaf lakini ni-me-pata 
1 The Arabic spoken was the corrupt jargon of the Hadhramaut and ’Oman. 
2 Ki- is the prefix denoting “ kind of, sort of”—and is frequently, but not always, applied to languages. 
Swahili is derived from the Arabic Sawahel-— “ the coastlands”—the people of the coast. 
3 Though in writing Swahili in the Arabic character the original Arab spelling of the transmuted 
words is retained. 
4 A corruption of the Arabic Abnna, “ our'father.” 
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