Truth is I lied to Afish.. that's not Swahili, its Kiswahili, and my knowledge of African languages is about as strong as my ability to write petery in Tagalog, which is to say non-existant.
I could be completely wrong, but I'm going to assume there's a fundamental root language betweek Swahili and Kiswahili. Perhaps I need Wikipedia myself.
UPDATE:
"The Swahili language or Kiswahili[3] is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands.[4] It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia. Although only five million[inconsistent] people speak Swahili as their mother tongue,[5] it is used as a lingua franca in much of East Africa, meaning the total number of speakers exceeds 60 million.[6] Swahili serves as a national, or official language, of five nations: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of the Congo."
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language
In Swahili, if you prefer:
"Kiswahili ni lugha ya Kibantu yenye misamiati mingi ya Kiarabu inayozungumzwa katika eneo kubwa la Afrika ya Mashariki.
Lugha hii ina utajiri mkubwa wa misamiati, misemo, mithali, mashairi, mafumbo, vitendawili na nyimbo. Kiswahili hutumika mashuleni na kuna vitabu vingi vilivyotungwa kwa kutumia lugha hiyo, vikiwa pamoja na vile vya hadithi, hekaya au riwaya."
source:
http://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language
