English Swahili Vocabulary

This massive authoritative Swahili dictionary, is the most definitive and comprehensive in existence. It has taken a team of lexicographers and academics fourteen years to prepare, with the support of the Institute of Kiswahili Research in Dar es Salaam. The last comparable edition was in 1939, and was primarily intended to help the user to comprehend English texts. The dictionary records new words and meanings of words which the language has acquired since 1939; and provides lexicographical information needed by current dictionary users.There are more than 50,000 entries, with an attempt to give every English word an equivalent in Swahili, or otherwise a phrase; and the vocabulary covers both general and specialized language. Guidance is provided on use and connotation, word formation and syntax, and derivatives and compounds of a headword are explicitly shown in each entry. The full information and arrangement given for each entry is: headword, homographs, wordclass, alternative spelling of a headword, cross-reference, gloss, definition, subject label, usage label, regional label, senses separated by numbers, illustrative examples, compounds, derivatives, and adjectival complementation.

The Swahili-speaking coast of Africa has many attractions: its beaches, safaris, and great cultural diversity. This dictionary and phrasebook contains all of the vocabulary and phrases necessary to communicate in Swahili, the most widely spoken African language. Designed for the visitor, the phrasebook offers terms and phrases for travel and daily life situations; a two-way dictionary contains over 2500 essential Swahili words. A basic Swahili grammar and cultural information arc also included. Spoken originally along the eastern coast (the name kiSwahili means 'coastal language'), and now the official language of Tanzania as well as a major language in Kenya, Uganda and the eastern Congo, Swahili is the lingua franca of Eastern Africa, with over 40 million speakers.