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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hi everyone, and welcome to SwahiliPod101.com! I’m Gabriella. This is Pronunciation Series, Lesson 1 - The Pronunciation of Consonants in Swahili. |
| Medina: Jina langu ni Medina. I’m Medina. |
| Gabriella: In this lesson we’ll start with the basics and slowly work our way up! |
| Medina: That’s right. First, we’ll talk about what Swahili sounds are made of. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gabriella: Now, Swahili has almost as many sounds as English. That means there are a lot of different sounds. Before we begin, make sure to read the lesson notes as we go along, so you can see which letters we’re talking about. |
| Medina: Swahili uses most of the consonants that English uses, along with clusters that make the sounds dh, gh, ng’, gw, sh, and th. However, Swahili doesn't have -Q or -X. In total, it has 24 consonants and all of the 5 vowels used in English. |
| Gabriella: Right, and with that many sounds, there are some sounds that don’t exist in English as well. |
| Medina: For example, the sound ng’o as in ng’ombe, which means “cow” |
| Gabriella: So there is no actual identical sound for this in the English language. |
| Medina: The th sound exists in English, so that one might be easier to pronounce. It's in the word thamani, and sounds more like “tha” as in “thatch.” |
| Gabriella: OK, got it. What's the next sound? |
| Medina: dh as in dhahabu, which means “gold.” It's a sound that may not exist in English. Lastly we’ve got gw, like in gwaruza. That’s “guard” in English. |
| Gabriella: Ok, now let’s move on with the main part of this lesson, the alphabet. |
| Medina: Sounds like a good idea. But remember, we’re only going over the native consonants right now. We’ll go over vowels in a later lesson. |
| Gabriella: That’s right. Let’s get into it. |
| Medina: First, we have -B, which is pronounced as ba. Next we have -D, which sounds like da. |
| Gabriella: Then we have -F, which sounds like fa, like in “four” or “five.” It sounds the same as in English. |
| Medina: Next, -G as in the English word “get.” We also have -GH as in the second g in the English word “garage.” The -H in gh gives it a softer pronunciation. |
| Gabriella: Alright, an easy one is -H. Like “hi” or “hole”. It's simple. |
| Medina: “Next is the -K like in “curtain” or “cow.” It replaces the letter -C which sounds like -K. |
| Gabriella: Then comes -L as in “lamp.” It's fairly easy. |
| Medina: Then we have -M, which is the same "m" sound as in English—for example, in “mom” or “mobile." |
| Gabriella: Next is -N as in “none” or "any.” As you can see, most of the Swahili sounds are equivalent to their English counterparts. |
| Medina: And that’s what makes Swahili easy to learn! Alright, next we have “ng” which is spelt with N and G, and it sounds like the last 2 letters in “sung” or “ringing.” |
| Gabriella: Then we have, -P as in “perspire.”.... |
| Medina: Next we have the letter -R. |
| Gabriella: Its pronunciation is similar to English, so it shouldn’t cause you much trouble. For example, the “r” in “rat.” |
| Medina: It's quite a big advantage for English speakers that they don’t have to struggle with many of the Swahili sounds. |
| Gabriella: Definitely. And what’s next? |
| Medina: Well, there aren’t many left. But next is -S as in “sun." |
| Gabriella: That's easy. Next is -T as in “tar.” What else? |
| Medina: Thinking about the clusters -TH and -DH, their sounds seem tricky even for Swahili speakers, because their pronunciations sound similar. Just remember that -TH may be pronounced as in “thatch”, and -DH may sound like “though.” |
| Gabriella: Hmm. The difference between these two sounds is so small that it may be difficult to distinguish between the two. |
| Medina: Try to remember the two words I mentioned before to help you remember. |
| Gabriella: That’s a good tip, listeners. Moving on, we have -V as in “very.” Now, I suspect the remaining 4 of these will go by like a breeze. |
| Medina: Yes the last ones are easy. There’s -W like in “were,” but just a bit thicker. |
| Gabriella: -X is seldom used in Swahili words. For any words that have -X, Swahili gives them a “z” sound, by the way. |
| Medina: For example, “xanthine" spelled with x, will be pronounced “zanthine.” It sounds like most of the words using -X are borrowed. |
| Gabriella: You're right, and mostly from English. |
| Medina: Lets look at -Y as in “yam.” |
| Gabriella: Its sound is easy. |
| Medina: And finally, we have -Z, which sounds like za in zap. And that concludes the list of consonant sounds in the Swahili language! |
| Gabriella: You'll notice most of these consonants are derived from the English alphabet. However, most of the words formed are created by combining a consonant and a vowel. |
| Medina: Meaning that vowels give the consonants their sound. |
| Gabriella: Right. It’s not too difficult. |
| Medina: Yes, but make sure to practice these over and over until you really get the hang of them! |
| Gabriella: Right. The best way to improve pronunciation is through practice. |
Outro |
| Gabriella: Ok listeners, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Medina: Kwaheri. |
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