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Congratulations to the Swahili team! Happy to be the 28th learner! ;)
Hi. I have heard that if you comment on the first lesson in the course, you become visible in the list of people to follow. Then you might get some followers. Does it work?
I'm a native Swahili speaker... I've learnt French by using this app, and in return I'll be glad to help anyone who wants to learn Swahili!
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It would be awesome if anyone could create a youtube pronunciation guide to go alongside the Duolingo lessons. I did some searching and I can find some words within the Duolingo lessons being pronounced, but not all of them. This is asking a lot, but it would be a wonderful/charitable contribution to the Swahili lessons on here.
https://incubator.duolingo.com/courses/sw/en/status
Apparently, a year has passed without any updates. I appreciate everyone's hard work and I really hope that the team will be able to create audio in the near future.
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Swahili? You guys won't stop amazing me. Am I the only one who finds weird that we don't have Chinese nor Japanese yet but instead we have Swahili already? (I sure hope they will eventually be added, though!)
Well, it is the first African language to be added, so I think it's pretty fair in that sense. It's true that there were more people clamoring for Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, though. But of course, there were technical difficulties for those, which now seem to have been resolved :)
But for the moment I'm just excited about Swahili!
The most spoken language (except Arabic, French, English, Afrikaans, and Portuguese)
Number 1: Hausa =34M speakers
Yoruba= 28M
Oromo =26M
Fulani=25M
Amharic=22M
Igbo=18M
Malagasy=18M
Somali=16M
Luo=15M
Swahili = same than Luo, 9th rank.
official in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, national language of Democratic Republic of Congo
Shona 14M
Shilha 14M
Chewa 11,5M
Akan 11M
Zulu 10M
Kinyarwanda 10M
Kirundi 9M
Mossi 8M
Xhosa 7M
Tigrinya 7M
Gikuyu 7M
Tshiluba 6M
Umbundu 6M
Kongo 5M
Lingala 5M
Tswana 5M
Northern Sotho 4M
Créole mauritien 1M
Ndebele 1M
Source: Wikipedia (I don't know if they have good source, since I can't see in their list languages like Wolof for instance, almost 5M speakers)
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So nice to see these languages! Wolof and Bambara (between others) are the languages used by many musicians from West Africa. I also listen a lot of Malagasy music and trying to learn a little from this beautiful language (and some dialects).
Here some words with audio:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Malagasy_terms_with_audio_links
Malagasy vocabulary (Swadesh list):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Malagasy_Swadesh_list
Very interesting, but i thought Wolof is much more. Thank you for posting.
Funny how Luo and Swahili are ranked the same considering Luo is a tribe in Kenya meaning all Luo people also speak Swahili and other 41 Kenyan tribes speak swahili too. Plus the rest of East Africa speaks Swahili. I wonder who comes up with these statistics.
Luo is not really the same as swahili. They are two complete different languages
I definitely agree with you on that because there is already many Asian languages on Duolingo I should know I live in Indonesia and can speak the language pretty well.
If y'all look, you'll see that Japanese for English is currently in the Incubator!! Its set for release in May I believe. . .
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You should say "inakuja" not "anakuja". "Anakuja" means that "kijapani" is human.
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Good to know! I have read something about this prefix (I think I have seen a conjugation for the passive voice, not sure about it), but I did not realize that I had to use it here... I will fix it then. Asante sana! ;)
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I have seen this video about the particle or passive extension "wa":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewhyWxIhh0M
Now, there are these sentences:
"Mwalimu anafundisha Kiswahili." = The teacher is teaching Swahili.
"Kiswahili kinafundishwa na mwalimu." = Swahili is taught by the teacher.
I am guessing if the verb is also according to the noun class "ki-vi" in that case.
(I think this is also very advanced but I am in love with the Swahili affixes and agglutinative languages.) ;)
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I have not learned Swahili before (and after Malagasy, this is the second African language I have really decided to learn), but perhaps it is the Indonesian I have been learning since years and now it helps me to understand the Swahili grammar. =)
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Actually, if the subject is kijapani (class VII), the verb should be kinakuja. However, I'm not sure whether it actually might be more appropriate to say something like Somo la kijapani linakuja (where somo la kijapani would mean "subject of Japanese language")
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Ki- and li- (as well as a- and i-) are subject prefixes, indicating the noun class of the subject. -Na- is the present tense infix. If you wanted to use future tense, you'd have to replace -na- with -ta-.
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Yes! Swahili. And Japanese is coming!!! ;)
Edit: I am not really sure if I can use "na" to begin the sentence, perhaps the word "baadaye" meaning "later", is a better option (Baadaye, Kijapani inakuja! = Later, Japanese (language) is coming!)
Finally! I've been waiting for Japanese for a long time! I'm getting tired of doing the "English for Japanese" speaker! :)
And now Chinese and Japanese are up and going with audio, but still no audio for Swahili.
Thats a little rude. You can learn those languages in school but not swahili. And if you would look hun they have the courses. Im taking japanese as well
What is wrong with haveing Swahili before Chinese or Japanese? Is it because it's an African language ?
Swahili is only one language among so many others on the whole African continent. Look at amount of European languages you can learn ... and compare... By the way .. there is a Japanese or Chinese option.
Hakuna matata literally means "there are no problems".
Other Swahili words you probably know include jenga (to build), mamba (a type of snake), and of course safari (journey).
Half of the Lion King characters have Swahili names, too. Simba means lion, Nala means gift, Pumbaa means foolish or stupid, Sarabi (Simba's mother) means mirage, Shenzi (the female hyena) means barbaric or uncivilized, and Rafiki (the wise monkey) means friend.
You might also remember Rafiki singing "Asante sana, squash banana, wewe nugu, mimi hapana," which means "thank you very much, squash banana, you're a baboon, and I'm not." ("Squash banana" is not Swahili, by the way. Banana is ndizi.)
They're working on it. According to their latest update, they are hoping to have it available by the end of this month (so, very soon!).
TUJUE KISWAHILI The Kiswahili lesson you missed.
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password- Nywila.
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juice - sharubati.
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chips - vibanzi.
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PhD - uzamifu.
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Masters - uzamili.
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Degree - shahada.
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Diploma - stashahada.
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Certificate - Astashahada.
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keyboard - kicharazio.
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scanner - mdaki.
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Flash disk - diski mweko.
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Mouse - kiteuzi.
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Floppy disk - diski tepetevu.
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Computer virus - mtaliga.
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Distillation- ukenekaji.
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Evaporation - mvukizo.
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Synthesis- uoanishaji.
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Oesphagus- umio.
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Green house - kivungulio.
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Femur - fupaja.
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Germ cell - selizazi.
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Humus - mboji.
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Nector - mbochi.
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Nector - Ntwe.
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Nutrients - virutubisho.
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Appetizers - vihamuzi.
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ATM - Kiotomotela.
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Bussiness card - kadikazi.
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scratch card - kadihela.
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simcard - kadiwia/mkamimo.
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memory card - kadi sakima.
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micro wave - Tanuri ya miale.
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Laptop - kipakatarishi.
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power saw - msumeno oto.
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Duplicating machine - kirudufu.
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photocopier- kinukuzi.
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cocktail party - Tafrija mchapulo.
38.Air conditioner- Kiyoyozi.
- lift- kambarau
Is swahili relatively easy to learn for a romance or anglo-german group speaking person?
I was so thrilled to see Swahili was up and coming and even more excited that it is finally here! Thank you so much to the volunteers who put this course together!
Is anyone else having an issue with the woman not speaking the words when you tap the word?
Why is Duo taking forever to add sound to this course??? How am I supposed to learn the language if I don't know what it sounds like?
I´m so happy to be in the Swahili Course! Thanks to Duolingo and his Swahili Team!
What a nice surprise! Asante sana, Duo! I've been wishing for a Swahili course since 1994 ;)
So thrilled to see Swahili. Was born in bongo and left when i was very young. Feels good to learn it correctly. Everything seems very familiar!
Am I the only one who doesn't have the option to hear how the words are pronounced? How do I learn if I don't know how the words sound like?
I wondered the same, all other languages have pictures and in depth pronunciation... I hope its not the reason i think. :-/
Jihaa! Finally there is the wonderful swahili-course! Thank you so much for providing it! can't wait to get to Level10 jiha! Asante sana!!!!
I have no sound with this course. Does anyone have sound? I have no sound problems with the other courses.
Im African soo of course I know those stuff but i dtill wanna learn them(even if i know them)guys wanna hear me say hi in Swahili it is sasa una endlea aje mean. Hi how are you doing. :) See i totally know these things so if you want to learn more please give me a thumbs up
Congratulations to all who are learning my language i can always help anyone too
Well done to the team! So glad I can add another language to the ones I already know! :D
Why are there no voices so we can know how to pronounce the words? That would be very helpful so we'll know how to say the words appropriately.
Is it just my computer not working, or do they not have audio for the words? It'd be great to have that.
Why is this the only be language that doesnt have sound or complete instruction on how to use words? I really hope this wasnt't thrown up in a rush to have an african language on here.
Why is the mimi not being pronounced? Why won't you tell me what it sounds like?
Hi! Thanks a lot for adding this course! I am so excited! But the audio doesn't seemed to be working for me. It's working for all other languages. Looking for help!
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I've just begun. It looks like the audio issue hasn't been resolved. Outside of youtube, is there a recommended guide for learning Swahili pronunciations?
is it just me or is it not letting anyone else listen to the pronunciations?
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Any chance you will be adding the soundsounds so we know how to pronounce it?
How come the very first screen asks me to translate a word that I’ve never been taught???? Not cool
