Swahili Grammar

Author: Zhang Peizhi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-11-01
Features: Swahili (abbreviated as Swahili) belongs to the Bantu branch of the Eastern Bantu subgroup within the Bantu language family and is a major lingua franca in Africa. Currently, there are approximately 50 million speakers of Swahili, distributed across various countries and regions in East Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Burundi, Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Somalia. Both Tanzania and Kenya have declared Swahili as an official language. In other countries such as Uganda, the language is widely used by the population. According to the authoritative East African journal Journal of Language Studies, many linguists, based on language development trends, speculate that Swahili is highly likely to become a lingua franca for the entire African continent. In recent years, friendly exchanges between the people of China and East African countries have become increasingly frequent, leading to a growing number of individuals engaged in Swahili research and translation work. In foreign aid efforts, tens of thousands of Chinese personnel have been sent to Tanzania for work, study, or research. Whether studying domestically or working abroad, there is a pressing need to master Swahili. As a professional field of study in China, Swahili programs were established at institutions such as Beijing Broadcasting Institute and Beijing Foreign Studies University starting in 1960. The following year, the Central Broadcasting Station added a Swahili program. In 1964, People's Pictorial Magazine launched a Swahili edition, and the Foreign Languages Press began publishing Swahili books. The Swahili-Chinese Dictionary, translated and compiled by the Swahili Department of Beijing Foreign Studies University, was also published shortly after by the Foreign Languages Press. However, there was still a lack of books on Swahili grammar. For years, those working with or learning Swahili could only refer to the Chinese mimeographed translation of Teach Yourself Swahili published in the UK. This book was compiled in the 1930s, and its grammatical perspectives were outdated, with some grammatical phenomena already obsolete or having evolved. Moreover, it was written by a British compiler based on the needs of British students, making it unsuitable for Chinese learners. The examples in the book were mostly extracted from the Quran, Bible, folk tales, or myths, heavily colored with religious and feudal elements, detached from modern social life, and difficult to apply in practice. The grammatical phenomena of Swahili are extremely complex. Without a suitable grammar book for guidance, learning would be significantly more challenging. Swahili originally used the Arabic alphabet, but after adopting the Latin alphabet in 1844, pronunciation was simplified, yet grammatical phenomena still retain influences from Arabic, making them highly complex and numerous. Almost every word undergoes changes in usage. For example, verbs not only have tense and mood variations but also undergo prefix (initial), infix, and suffix (final) changes. The suffixes themselves have even more variations. One suffix can derive another verb, which can then further derive another verb, leading to a single original verb giving rise to several or even a dozen forms. Each form can further generate additional verbs. Nouns also have many variations. Nouns are divided into eight categories, each with gender, number, and case changes. As nouns change, pronouns, numerals, and verbs must also adjust their prefixes and suffixes accordingly. These intricate and complex changes are sometimes concentrated in a single word form, which can contain various grammatical phenomena. Almost every syllable has its unique meaning and function. Without grasping the rules of these changes, learning will inevitably be fraught with difficulties. Relying on grammatical rules as a guide can help navigate this maze and achieve twice the result with half the effort. The compiler of this book, through years of teaching experience, deeply recognizes the importance of mastering grammatical rules. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to write a grammar book tailored to the needs of Swahili learners and researchers in China. Over the past two decades, while teaching and working as a translator abroad, the compiler has continuously accumulated materials and analyzed modern Swahili morphology and syntax, drawing on personal learning experiences to write Swahili Grammar. During the writing process, the compiler aimed to achieve the following:
(1) Adopt a traditional and widely used grammatical and rhetorical system to concisely describe the structural forms and grammatical rules of Swahili.
(2) Highlight difficulties and prioritize practicality. For challenges faced by Chinese learners of Swahili, such as the complex derivation of verbs and the rules of noun affixation, detailed explanations were provided to help learners grasp the patterns more easily.
(3) Combine scientific rigor, systematicity, and practicality. The explanations were designed to be simple and easy to understand, compliant with Swahili grammatical norms, and avoided unnecessary technical terms. Examples were also chosen from commonly used spoken phrases. Based on these three principles and referencing the grammatical formats of Swahili, English, and Russian, the compiler intermittently worked on this book during teaching and translation work, seeking expert opinions along the way. The manuscript underwent multiple revisions and was finally finalized with expert assistance.