Nyandiwa calls Italy: Italy answers!

Swahili language"Kila mwenye kusubiri hakosi kitu" - "With patience, you always stand to win" (Swahili proverb)

English is widespread in Kenya, but the official language is KiSwahili, which is the "coastal language": the term Swahili is derived from sawahil سواحل ("coast"), with the prefix "ki" (which stands for "language"). Spread about 15 centuries ago on the trade routes that linked Africa to Asia, as the Bantu language of exchange between the east coast and the merchants of Arab origin. Since the first century BC these routes were a very large and active network and profoundly shaped the cultures of the east coast of Africa, blending elements of Bantu, Arabs, Indians, Persians. The "waSwahili", or "the people of the coast", as a first language speak Swahili (the prefix "wa" means "people"). One of the oldest written documents in Swahili is an epic poem titled utendi Tambuka wa ("The history of Tambuka", 1728), which was transcribed in Arabic script. The origin of the commercial and multicultural Swahili is reflected in the extraordinary abundance of words derived from other languages ​​of Arabic origin, for example Waziri, "minister", from the same root as vizier, Persian and Hindi. During the European colonization, the Swahili language to open continued to incorporate many words: the latest are of Portuguese origin (eg, accounts for "money" or meza for "table"), German (Shule for "school") or English (basis for "bus" for gari or "machine"). The Christian missionaries invented a system of transcription of the Latin alphabet in Swahili and published many texts were finally Europeans to decide to adopt as an official language in schools, formal communications and printing.

Today KiSwahili is the language for about 5 million people around the Indian Ocean coast of Africa, including the Luo community, and as a second language by about 50 million: given its widespread use, the Swahili performs the function of language frank largely sub-Saharan Africa.

Swahili - Learning through songs: Jambo Song - Speak Swahili: LESSON 1