Learn Swahili from Native Speakers

Learn Swahili Pronunciation

Swahili Basics aims first of all at assisting the student to develop ability in understanding and speaking everyday Swahili of a standard variety. On the basis of well-established speech habits, he can then go on with relatively high efficiency to the further skills of reading and writing.

The pronunciation of Swahili varies slightly from one geographical area to another. In addition, since most speakers of Swahili have learned it after first learning some other language, there are noticeable discrepancies among the speech of persons with different national or tribal backgrounds. The following notes do not attempt to set forth any of these variations but only to indicate those points which are essential to an intelligible and widely acceptable pronunciation of the language.