I know there are a lot of things that someone's ability to learn a language depends on, but, as a whole, is Swahili fairly straightforward or overly complicated?
Cheers!
2007-10-28 05:06:33 · 5 answers · asked by Monty 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
The sound system of Swahili is quite easy for an English-speaker to learn. The problem is that the grammar is very different. Where English and the other European languages use suffixes to do all the work, Swahili uses prefixes. It's a very interesting system, but until you get used to it it will be difficult.
2007-10-28 05:12:20 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Is Swahili Hard To Learn
2017-01-13 06:50:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I speak Swahili and beside that, i have my mother tongue and English. Swahili is a nice language to learn.. it is however a bit difficult to be fluent in it unless you are in a community where Swahili is spoken. The grammar and mastery of Swahili depends with where you are. In East Africa, the Swahili in Tanzania is very fine tuned. In Kenya, people at the coast speak better Swahili due to cultural and historical reasons.
The complexity of Swahili writing and speaking system has lead to the emergence of "Sheng",, a combination of English, native and Swahili terms and expressions and is therefore not bound by the rules of Swahili grammar. However, Sheng lacks uniformity and is mostly spoken by youth and those in urban setup.
If you have a friend or if you are in East Africa, it is easy to learn the language and you will have a lot of advantages because Swahili is becoming the Lingua fraca of East and many parts of Central Africa.
It is easier for someone who speaks arabic to learn swahili because swahili is a combination of terms and words from both the bantu speaking communities of East Africa and Arabic.
So don't give up. Learn it.
2007-10-28 05:28:47 · answer #3 · answered by Capecon 1 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Swahili is a very fast changing language.lts spoken mostly in
Tanzania as its native home.But its understood in the Kenya
and Uganda being its neigbours. Its difficult for a western as words
can change to reflect character a noun can have different flavours
instead of having detached adjectives eg yako, zako, vyako kyako kwako etc all these words just mean "your" but Indians
are very good at inventing a simplified but fully comprehensible version of the language by not conjugating verbs or nouns.
2014-03-13 12:02:49 · answer #4 · answered by Spurgeon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hausa and Yoruba pose similar problems.
Total immersion is the best way.
2007-10-28 05:13:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋