{"id":879,"date":"2019-04-14T22:06:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T22:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/?p=879"},"modified":"2019-04-14T22:06:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T22:06:41","slug":"the-swahilis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaglobalnews.com\/website_b1ce9d46\/the-swahilis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swahili’s culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Swahili Culture, found predominantly along the Eastern Coast of Africa<\/a>, is a hybrid culture with predominantly Asiatic and African roots, even though it has borrowed significantly from recent European contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"800px-Zanzibar-pysa-coin\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Language<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere is this clearer than in the language (Kiswahili) itself, which is essentially a Bantu language that has borrowed terminology from the many other non-African languages it has encountered; the term \u2018Swahili\u2019 is actually derived from Arabic, in which it means \u2018people of the coast\u2019, an apt description for these coastal peoples. Loan words include pesa<\/em> (money, from Portuguese peso), hela<\/em> (money, from German heller), chai<\/em> (from Indian chai, tea) and basi<\/em> (from the English bus). Kiswahili is a phonetic language, meaning words are pronounced exactly as you see them, and its Romanized alphabet doesn\u2019t have letters \u2018q\u2019 and \u2018x\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiswahili has different dialects, though these are largely mutually intelligible. The dialects are named after the area they are prevalent in. Some of these dialects include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n