Chapter 1 - Swahili Spelling and Pronunciation

 A - THE SWAHILI ALPHABET : 

The basic principle which was retained to establish the Swahili alphabet, is that every distinct sound or phoneme should always be transcribed by the same distinct written form (either a single letter, or a cluster of letters), and conversely.

The Swahili alphabet includes :

• 23 single letters : a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z.

• The letters q and x are not used. The letter c, although present, is never used alone.

• 9 digraphs : ch, dh, gh, kh, ng', ny, sh, th, ts.

 1. VOWELLS : 

As you can see in this table, Swahili contains 5 vowels. These are pronounced openly, without diphtongs, like in Spanish or in Italian. They must always be kept short.

 2. CLUSTER OF VOWELS : 

Unlike in English, two (or three) written vowels that follow each other never merge together to form a single sound. Each keeps its own sound.

For example : ou is pronounced "o-oo" as in "go", au is pronounced "a-oo" as in "cow", ei is pronounced "e-ee" as in "bay", ai is pronounced "a-ee" as in "tie", etc.

In theory, any vowel can be in succession with any other one.

It is not unfrequent to meet two similar vowels in succession : they must be pronounced as one long vowel :

Naam !	(= Yes ? )	Juu	(= on top)	Kuu	(= principal)
Zii !	(= Down ! )	Mzee	(= old)	Jogoo	(= cock)

 3. SEMIVOWELS : 

 4. SIMPLE CONSONANTS : 

SPELLING	PHONEME	EXAMPLE	English Equivalent
B, b	[]	baba (father)	bad
D, d	[]	dada (sister)	do
F, f	[]	kufaa (to suit)	far
G, g	[]	gari (car)	got
H, h	[]	haya ! (O.K. !)	hat
J, j	[]	juu (on top)	John
K, k	[]	kuku (chicken)	kid, cat
L, l	[]	lala ! (sleep !)	lot
M, m	[]	Mama (mother)	man
N, n	[]	na (and, with)	no
P, p	[]	papa (shark)	pot
R, r	[]	rangi (colour)	rat
S, s	[]	saa (clock, time)	soap
T, t	[]	taa (lamp)	toy
V, v	[]	kuvaa (to wear)	very
Z, z	[]	-zuri (nice, good)	zoo, easy

While most of the consonants are similar to the English ones and do not offer any difficulty, special care must be paid to :

• f : it has always the sound of the "f" in "fat", never that of the "f" in "of".

• g : it is always hard like in "got". It should never be pronounced soft like the "g" in "gin".

• s : it has always the sound of the "s" in "sad", never that of the "s" in "is" or "easy".

 5. COMBINATIONS OF CONSONANTS :  

SPELLING	PHONEME	EXAMPLE	English Equivalent
Ch, ch	[]	chai (tea)	chat, church
Dh, dh	[]	dhahabu (gold)	this, that
Gh, gh	[]	ghali (expensive)	in French : "rare"
Kh, kh	[]	subalkheri (good morning)	in Scottish : "loch"
Ng', ng'	[]	ng'ombe (cow)	singer
Ny, ny	[ɱ]	nyota (star)	new
Sh, sh	[]	shule (school)	shoe
Th, th	[]	thelathini (thirty)	think

Most of the real difficulties of Swahili are concentrated here. It is however important to try and pronounce these sounds correctly :

• dh and th are both written "th" in English. dh is voiced as in "the", "this", "that", "with" ... While th is unvoiced as in "think", "thin", "both" ...
  stakabadhi (= a receipt), hadithi (= a story).

• gh and kh are pronounced at the back of the throat. gh is voiced and close to the French "r" in "rare" :
  ghali (= expensive), shughuli (= affair, activity).
  kh is unvoiced and corresponds to a scraping of the throat :
  subalkheri (= good morning).

• ng' although similar in sound to the English "ng" in "singing" poses a difficulty, for it usually occurs at the initial of words. It is luckily quite rare :
  ng'ambo (= foreign), ng'ombe (= a cow).

 6. THE SYLLABIC CONSONANT "M" : 

The syllable M corresponds to the class prefix MU- (Class 1 and Class 3) whose U has been dropped. However, the "m" doesn't merge with the following consonant and should be pronounced somewhat like "humm !".
The M syllabic can be accentuated (stressed syllable) in short words such as : mtu (= a person), mti (= a tree), mji (= a town, a city), etc..

 B - SYLLABE, STRESS AND PRONUNCIATION : 

The Swahili syllable is said to be open, for it always ends on a vowel sound. For example :

An extra vowel is usually added in loanwords, in order to conform to the open syllable pattern. For example :

The stress usually falls on the last but one syllabe of a word. There are however a small number of exceptions, on words of Arabic origin. For example : lazima (= it is necessary) : /'lazima/ .

Compare also : barabara (= a road) : /bara'bara/ , and barabara (= very well) : /ba'rabara/ .

To listen to examples of words and phrases pronounced in Swahili, we invite you to visit the following page on Hassan O. Ali's excellent Swahili site : useful_swahili_words.

EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1 : Read aloud the following words :

1. Kaa, taa, saa, jaa, njaa, maana, chai, yai, zaidi, faida, laini, hao, wao, au, bilauri, sauti, dau, mzee, bei, cheo, leo, nyeupe, nyeusi, njia, kiasi, kulia, pia, siagi, raia, zii, hii, kiu, kiumbe, kuoa, kupoa, kuzoea, choo, njoo, jogoo, kioo, ndoo, shikamoo, fua, barua, mvua, adui, kuzuia, huo, uongo, juu, huu, kuu.

2. Wewe, wiki, dawa, bwana, kiswahili, ya, yao, hayo, yeye, mayai.

3. Baba, bado, bata, barabara, marahaba, dada, debe, duka, baada, kufaa, fisi, afya, hafifu, gunia, kugawa, gari, kujenga, haba, hapa, hodi, sahihi, jembe, jambo, kujua, jibu, juzijuzi, kaka, kukaa, haraka, kidogo, kibaba, la, lakini, kulia, kubali, mama, muwa, mamlaka, na, naam, nanasi, nukta, neno, papa, pana, pole, kupaka, lipa, ruka, robo, starehe, sisi, siri, sababu, asante, tatu, tele, tisa, tafuta, matuta, kuvaa, vema, kavu, viti, uvivu.

4. Chui, cheo, chafu, chache, dharau, fedha, dhahabu, ramadhani, ghali, ghafula, shughuli, lugha, subalkheri, ng'ambo, ng'ombe, ng'oa, nyuma, nyota, nyoka, shida, shilingi, shule, safisha, thumni, hadithi.

5. Mbu, mbwa, mjinga, mhindi, mfalme, mchezo, mji, mkate, mlima, mnazi, mpaka, msaada, mstari, mswaki, mzungu.

6. Tafadhali, magharibi, mashariki, nywele, kuchemsha, mchanganyiko, nyang'anya, masalkheri, thelathini, mgonjwa, maharagwe.