English speakers often assume that Swahili grammar must be difficult. After all, it is an African language, it sounds unfamiliar, and many learners have never encountered it before. Then they discover something surprising. In one important area, Swahili is often more logical than English. That area is the verb system. Many students spend years learning […]
Tymur LevitinCategory: Swahili Language Many English speakers notice the same thing when they hear Swahili for the first time. The language sounds as if parts of the words repeat themselves. You hear sentences like: And very quickly, it seems as though the same sounds keep appearing again and again. At first, this can make Swahili sound […]
Tymur LevitinCategory: Swahili Language Many English speakers begin learning a new language with one hidden assumption: Every language must divide the world in the same way English does. We expect to find words like “he,” “she,” “it,” “his,” and “her.” Then we open a Swahili textbook and suddenly discover something unexpected. Swahili does not work like […]
Tymur Levitin
