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Swahili

(swä hē′lē)

noun

pl. Swahilis or Swahili a member of a people living on Zanzibar and the nearby mainland
the Northern Bantu language of this people, characterized by a vocabulary with many Arabic roots and used as a lingua franca in EC Africa and parts of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Origin: < Ar sawāḥil, pl. of sāḥil, coast + -i, belonging to

See Swahili in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun pl. Swahili Swahili or Swa·hi·lis

A Bantu language of the coast and islands of eastern Africa from Somalia to Mozambique. It is an official language of Tanzania and is widely used as a lingua franca in eastern and east-central Africa. Also called Kiswahili.
An inhabitant of coastal eastern Africa for whom Swahili is the mother tongue.

Origin:

Origin: Swahili

Origin: , from Arabic sawāḥilī, of the coasts

Origin: , from sawāḥil

Origin: , pl. of sāḥil, coast, active participle of saḥala, to scrape off, smooth; see šḥl in Semitic roots

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Related Forms:

Swa·hiˈli·an adjective

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