Editing Swahili language (section)

==History==
[[File:Askari makumbusho matini Kiswahili - Kiarabu.png|thumb|upright|Swahili in Arabic script—memorial plate at the [[Askari Monument]], Dar es Salaam (1927)]]

===Etymology===
The word "Swahili" comes from an [[Omani Arabic|Arabic]] name for the area, meaning "coasts":
{|
|-
|{{wikt-lang|ar|سَاحِل}} || → &nbsp; || {{wikt-lang|ar|سَوَاحِل}} || → &nbsp; || {{lang|ar|سَوَاحِلِيّ}}
|-
| {{transliteration|ar|ALA|sāḥil}} || || {{transliteration|ar|ALA|sawāḥil}} || || {{transliteration|ar|ALA|sawāḥilī}}
|-
|"[[coast]]" || || "coasts" ([[broken plural]]) || || "of coasts"
|}

===Origin===
The core of the Swahili language originates in [[Northeast Coast Bantu languages|Bantu languages]] of the coast of East Africa. Much of Swahili's Bantu vocabulary has cognates in the [[Unguja language|Unguja]], [[Pemba language|Pemba]], and [[Mijikenda language]]s<ref>{{Cite book|last=Polomé|first=Edgar|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED012888.pdf|title=Swahili Language Handbook|publisher=Centre for Applied Linguistics|year=1967|pages=28|access-date=12 September 2019|archive-date=27 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127014857/http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED012888.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and, to a lesser extent, other [[Northeast Bantu languages|East African Bantu languages]]. While opinions vary on the specifics, it has been historically purported that around 16–20% of the Swahili vocabulary is derived from loan words, the vast majority [[Arabic]], but also other contributing languages, including [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], and [[Malay language|Malay]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ali |first=Hassan O. |title=A Brief History of the Swahili Language |url=http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512022044/http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html |archive-date=12 May 2017 |access-date=30 September 2017 |website=Swahili Language & Culture}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Source languages for loanwords in Swahili<ref>"1. Loanwords in Swahili", T. Schadeberg, in Tadmor, Uri. Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Germany: De Gruyter, 2009.</ref>
! Source languages !! Percentage
|-
| [[Arabic language|Arabic]] (mainly [[Omani Arabic]]) || 40%
|-
| [[English language|English]] || 4.6%
|-
| [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] || 0.9–1.0%
|-
| [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] || 0.7–3.9%
|-
| [[Persian language|Persian]] (mainly [[Iranian Persian]]) || 0.4–3.4%
|-
| [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]] || 0.2–0.4%
|}

[[Omani Arabic]] is the source of most Arabic loanwords in Swahili.<ref>Baldi, Sergio, [https://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/98881/edition/85189/content/folia-orientalia-2012-vol-xlix-arabic-loans-in-east-african-languages-through-swahili-a-survey-baldi-sergio?language=en Arabic Loans in East African Languages through Swahili: A Survey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330035142/https://journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/98881/edition/85189/content/folia-orientalia-2012-vol-xlix-arabic-loans-in-east-african-languages-through-swahili-a-survey-baldi-sergio?language=en |date=30 March 2021 }}, Folia Orientalia, 2012, PAS Journals Repository</ref><ref>Nurse and Hinnebusch, 1993, p. 321</ref> In the text "Early Swahili History Reconsidered", however, Thomas Spear noted that Swahili retains a large amount of grammar, vocabulary, and sounds inherited from the [[Sabaki languages|Sabaki language]]. In fact, while taking account of daily vocabulary, using lists of one hundred words, 72–91% were inherited from the [[Sabaki languages|Sabaki language]] (which is reported as a parent language) whereas 4–17% were loan words from other African languages. Only 2–8% were from non-African languages, and Arabic loan words constituted a fraction of that.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor = 220649|title = Early Swahili History Reconsidered|last1 = Spear|first1 = Thomas|journal = The International Journal of African Historical Studies|year = 2000|volume = 33|issue = 2|pages = 257–290|doi = 10.2307/220649}}</ref> According to other sources, around 40% of the Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic.<ref name="bbc.com"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/swahili/guide/facts.shtml |title=A Guide to Swahili - 10 facts about the Swahili language |access-date=30 September 2017 |archive-date=5 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905184549/http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/swahili/guide/facts.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> What also remained unconsidered was that a good number of the borrowed terms had Bantu equivalents. The preferred use of Arabic loan words is prevalent along the coast, where local people, in a cultural show of proximity to, or descent from Arab culture, would rather use loan words, whereas the people in the interior tend to use the Bantu equivalents. It was originally written in [[Arabic script]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html |title=Swahili history |last=Juma |first=Abdurahman |publisher=glcom.com |access-date=30 September 2017 |archive-date=12 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512022044/http://www.glcom.com/hassan/swahili_history.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written in [[Kilwa Kisiwani|Kilwa]], [[Tanzania]], in 1711 in the Arabic script that were sent to the Portuguese of Mozambique and their local allies. The original letters are preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa, [[India]].<ref>{{cite book |first=E. A. |last=Alpers |title=Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa |location=London|publisher=Heinemann |year=1975 |pages=98–99}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=T. |last=Vernet |title=Les cités-Etats swahili et la puissance omanaise (1650–1720) |journal=Journal des Africanistes |volume=72 |issue=2 |year=2002 |pages=102–05|doi=10.3406/jafr.2002.1308 }}</ref>

===Colonial period===
[[File:Swahili-pn.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Although originally written with the Arabic script, Swahili is now written in a [[Latin script|Latin alphabet]] introduced by [[Christians|Christian]] [[Missionary|missionaries]] and colonial administrators. The text shown here is the [[Catholic]] version of the [[Lord's Prayer]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wikisource.org/wiki/Baba_yetu |title=Baba yetu |publisher=Wikisource |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=8 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008014826/http://wikisource.org/wiki/Baba_yetu |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

Various colonial powers that ruled on the coast of East Africa played a role in the growth and spread of Swahili. With the arrival of the Arabs in East Africa, they used Swahili as a language of trade as well as for teaching Islam to the local [[Bantu peoples]]. This resulted in Swahili first being written in the Arabic script. The later contact with the Portuguese resulted in the increase of vocabulary of the Swahili language. The language was formalised in an institutional level when the Germans took over after the [[Berlin conference]]. After seeing there was already a widespread language, the Germans formalised it as the official language to be used in schools. Thus schools in Swahili are called Shule (from German {{Lang|de|Schule}}) in government, trade and the court system. With the Germans controlling the major Swahili-speaking region in East Africa, they changed the alphabet system from Arabic to Latin. After the First World War, Britain took over German East Africa, where they found Swahili rooted in most areas, not just the coastal regions. The British decided to formalise it as the language to be used across the East African region (although in [[East Africa Protectorate|British East Africa]] [Kenya and Uganda] most areas used English and various Nilotic and other Bantu languages while Swahili was mostly restricted to the coast). In June 1928, an inter-territorial conference attended by representatives of [[Kenya]], [[Tanganyika Territory|Tanganyika]], [[Uganda]], and [[Zanzibar]] took place in [[Mombasa]]. The Zanzibar dialect was chosen as [[standard Swahili]] for those areas,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=http://aboutworldlanguages.com/Swahili |title=Swahili |publisher=About World Languages |access-date=30 September 2017 |archive-date=1 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001030923/http://aboutworldlanguages.com/Swahili |url-status=live }}</ref> and the standard orthography for Swahili was adopted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/viewFile/918/437 |title=Dictionaries and the Standardization of Spelling in Swahili |publisher=Lexikos |last=Mdee |first=James S. |volume=9 |year=1999 |pages=126–27 |access-date=2 June 2017 |archive-date=28 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028234354/http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/viewFile/918/437 |url-status=live }}</ref>