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Swahili?! | ||
Tags: African languages | Swahili | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| formiko Nonaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6212 days ago 848 posts - 855 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto, Indonesian, Yoruba, Cherokee, Russian, German, French Studies: Mandarin, Ancient Greek | Message 9 of 19 17 January 2009 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
I still think Twi is a lot easier than Swahili. Swahili has a rather difficult agglutinative verbal system. With no verb conjugations, no noun classes or declensions, and a simple SVO pattern. Twi has more of a "pitch", rather than a tone. And Twi does soud like Ch'wi. It's like a forced "ch" sound. Phonolgy is minor when everything else is easy. :) Edited by formiko on 17 January 2009 at 3:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akipenda Lugha Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5739 days ago 78 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swahili, Sign Language, Spanish | Message 10 of 19 10 March 2009 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've learnt Swahili to basic fluency (maybe not quite the level as defined by this forum, but conversant in any case). I like it alot. I spent 3 months in Kenya where I first made an attempt to begin learning it, then after that trip I spent some time doing fairly intense grammatical study, then just recently I returned to Tanzania for 2 months. In Tanzania I had a teacher and made many efforts to speak in Swahili and it did not take me long to be having basic conversations. I'd definitely recommend learning
And Formiko, it's 'watu wazungu' ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| formiko Nonaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6212 days ago 848 posts - 855 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto, Indonesian, Yoruba, Cherokee, Russian, German, French Studies: Mandarin, Ancient Greek | Message 11 of 19 11 March 2009 at 8:56am | IP Logged | |||||
See how confusing that is??? :) I'll take a West African language any day :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Akipenda Lugha Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5739 days ago 78 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swahili, Sign Language, Spanish | Message 12 of 19 11 March 2009 at 4:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been pretty pleased with myself for learning Swahili and French since I want to work in development in Africa. I like to learn a language that has a good utilitarian geographical spread. It would be interesting to learn a West African language. Yoruba has tons of speakers but is concentrated in one country, right? How did you come to speak it?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SallImSayin Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5767 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Swahili, Lingala, Igbo | Message 13 of 19 11 March 2009 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a pretty good footing in Kiswahili but I'm trying to find a way to push it to another level. Anyone know of any longer novels available?
I'm also learning Yoruba and Twi. I'm finding it harder to get on solid footing since I've never learned a tonal language before. Any tips for studying? Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gon-no-suke Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6435 days ago 156 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: Korean, Malay, Swahili | Message 14 of 19 12 March 2009 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Elisi katika nchi ya ajabu It is an abridged version, but at least you know the content in advance. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SallImSayin Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5767 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Swahili, Lingala, Igbo | Message 15 of 19 12 March 2009 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks. I found a .pdf version and I am comparing it with the English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| formiko Nonaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6212 days ago 848 posts - 855 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto, Indonesian, Yoruba, Cherokee, Russian, German, French Studies: Mandarin, Ancient Greek | Message 16 of 19 13 March 2009 at 3:35am | IP Logged | |||||
Make sure you have tapes or CDs. And it's not tonal like Chinese. It's more of a pitch. I was understood even though my tones were wrong. (At least in Yoruba, tones were more grammatical. Past tense was marked my a dropping tone, for example.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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