Learn the variation of the Swahili pronunciation between dialects
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello everyone! Welcome back to SwahiliPod101.com. This is Pronunciation Series, lesson 4, Swahili Accents. My name is Gabriella! |
| Medina: And I’m Medina! How is it going, listeners? Are you getting the hang of Swahili pronunciation?Are you starting to feel more confident? |
| Gabriella: This time we’re going to go over some regional variations of pronunciation. |
| Medina: Up until now, you have learned that Swahili has a set number of consonants and vowels - 24 native consonants, and 5 vowels. |
Lesson focus |
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| Gabriella: Right. But we also want to tell our listeners that depending on where you go in Kenya, people might say things entirely differently. |
| Media: Remember, it’s a large and diverse country with many different dialects. |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, let's look at how the mother tongue of various groups has changed some of the Swahili pronunciation in the most interesting ways. |
| Medina: Sure. First of all, in Mombasa there is a place called Marikiti, which is pronounced “Mar-ee-key-tee.” It's a place that many people come to sell their produce and goods. |
| Gabriella: The name is actually supposed to be “Market”, but it was just spoken in a Swahili accent, and the name stuck. |
| Medina: Moving on, certain dialects in Kenya often mix and match the “L” and the “R” sounds. Kikuyu people especially, have a difficult time saying words like kalamu “pen” or karamu “party”. |
| Gabriella: So be careful, because they may say one to mean the opposite! |
| Medina: Another common one is how people call semi-trucks rori instead of lori, a Swahili word borrowed from the English word “lorry.” Because of the L-R confusion, it comes out sounding more like rori. |
| Gabriella: I believe our listeners will encounter quite a few confusing words like this. |
| Medina: They probably will, yes. On the other hand, the Luhyas in the western part of Kenya mix and match the sounds “ta” and “da”; and “ba” and “pa”. They have a difficult time saying words like dada for “sister,” which they instead pronounce as tata, to mean “father” as used in many other dialects. |
| Gabriella: Mixing and matching sounds can be very confusing, but you can guess the meaning from the context of the conversation. |
| Medina: Don’t be too baffled the first time you bump into a person who allegedly speaks Swahili and in such a foreign manner that you have no idea what they're saying! |
| Gabriella: And don’t worry about trying to learn to speak and pronounce the words just as people do in their dialects. It's important that you stick to the right pronunciation to make yourself understood. |
| Medina: Learning to understand some of the dialects could be an advantage though. |
| Gabriella: Definitely! |
Outro |
| Medina: All right, well that ends our lesson on Swahili accents. |
| Gabriella: Make sure to keep practicing—listen over and over again if you have to! |
| Medina: And let us know if you have any questions at SwahiliPod101.com! |
| Gabriella: See you next time! |
| Medina: Kwa heri! |
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