A Grammar Of Dialectic Changes In The Kiswahili Language

Originally published in 1915, this book formed the first English monograph on the Swahili dialects. Detailed information is presented on variations between the many different dialects, together with an appendices section which includes the poem 'The Inkishafi', in both Swahili and an English translation. A significant aspect of the text is that it was written at a time when the newer dialect of Zanzibar was rapidly supplanting numerous older dialects; it can thus be seen as an important document of the Swahili language during a period of change. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Swahili and the development of linguistics.

Excerpt from A Grammar of Dialectic Changes in the Kiswahili Language If I may speak of my own view of the language considered as a whole, I would say that the conclusion which much careful con sideration has brought me to is, that in the Mvita or Mombasa dialect one finds what may be classed as the truly Central Swahili. Central, because while the genius of the Mombasa dialect eschews the blemishes and excrescences which are to be found in the others - the too patent crudities, ambiguities, and corruptions of the careless South, and the needless complications and ironbound archaisms of the too conservative Islanders of the North-the Mombasa speech, in its purity, displays and cultivates to the full all their respective excellences. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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