how to pronounce swahili

/swəˈhiːli/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of swahili is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

swahili is pronounced in three syllables

press buttons with phonetic symbols to learn how to precisely pronounce each sound of swahili

1.

2.

iː

3. example pitch curve for pronunciation of swahili

test your pronunciation of swahili

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video examples of swahili pronunciation

An example use of swahili in a speech by a native speaker of british english:

“… the arab swahili slave traders what was …”

meanings of swahili

noun:

An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.

swahili frequency in english - C2+ level of CEFR

the word swahili occurs in english on average 1.2 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for C2+ level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.