Tanzania
-- Language
The official
languages
of Tanzania
are English
and Swahili.
Swahili
is widely
spoken throughout
Tanzania;
in Zanzibar,
it takes
a different
form, and
is called
Kiunguja.
Although
Swahili
is a Bantu
language
in origin
and structure,
it has borrowed
and incorporated
words from
Arabic and
English.
Swahili
is the language
used by
the media,
government,
literature,
and business.
English,
since its
use is for
the most
part restricted
to post
elementary
education,
is the language
preferred
by the educated
elite.
The
Indian community
speaks a
number of
languages
including
Hindi, Punjabi,
Urdu, Gujerati
as well
as English
and Swahili.
Each
of the over
129 ethnic
groups has
its own
living language.
These languages
belong to
four different,
mutually
unintelligible
language
families:
Bantu, Nilo-Hamitic,
Nilotic,
and Khoisan.
Over 95%
of Tanzanians
speak a
Bantu language.
However,
most Tanzanians
are able
to speak
their mother-tongue
and Swahili.
Some can
speak several
indigenous
languages
in addition
to Swahili
and English.
Kurian,
George Thomas
1992. Encyclopedia
of the Third
World,
fourth edition,
Facts on
File: New
York, N.Y.
For
further
reading:
Abdulaziz,
Mohamed
H. 1991.
East Africa
(Tanzania
and Kenya).
In English
Around the
World: Sociolinguistic
Perspectives
edited by
Jenny Cheshire.
Cambridge
Cambridge
University
Press.
Polome,
Edgar. 1980.
Langauge
in Tanzania.
New York:
Oxford University
Press.
