Native Name: Swahili (or Kiswahili)
Number of Speakers: 50+ million
Official language of: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
Script used: Latin, Arabic
Sample of Swahili
Mungu huwaisaidia wale wanaojisaidia wao wenyewe
Ni kweli ni kweli ni kweli ni kweli
Watoto Wetu wote tuligawanya
Matabu za dunia tulizopata
Mwaka hadi mwaka tunateseka
Mke wangu nilishindwa kukuvalisha na nilizoea kuhazirika
Ukweli sasa katunyoshee mambo
Wandugu na jamaa wapate kula
Swahili is a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania, Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa) Kenya, Mayotte, Mozambique, Oman, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, UAE and the USA. Swahili is used as a lingua franca throughout East Africa. The name Swahili comes from the Arabic word sawāhil (coasts) and the language contains a lot of vocabulary from Arabic, Persian, Malagasy, English, German and Portuguese.
The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written in 1711 using the Arabic alphabet. The original letters are now preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa, India. Another ancient written document is an epic poem in the Arabic script titled Utendi wa Tambuka (The History of Tambuka) which is dated 1728. The Latin alphabet became standard under the influence of European colonial powers through Christian missionaries and colonial administrators.
Swahili Translation, Typesetting, Websites, Voice-Overs and Subtitles
Adelphi Translations Ltd. work translating Swahili to English and English to Swahili. We also produce voice recordings and subtitles for video in Swahili as well as translation and localization of web sites into Swahili. We are based in Sheffield, UK and handle language projects for local clients in commercial centres such as Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and London but also have many International clients from around the world.
