Thread: Swahili vs Kiswahili

Is there a difference between Swahili and Kiswahili? Or is it the same thing?

"Swahili" refers to the people (the ethnic/cultural group), while "Kiswahili" is their language. Something like "Arab" and "Arabic." (Although it is super-common to refer to the language simply as "Swahili.")

It's pretty confusing. Even ethnologue says that both can be used:
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/swh
https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/swh

It is indeed. I am still trying to figure it out. I always receive Swahili projects, it can differ a lot from a region to another. Do you know if there is a Kiswahili or Swahili Standard (like Arabic)?

Bonus fun fact about [Ki]Swahili: they have a different system of telling time, based on sunrise/sunset. As most Swahili speakers live very close to the equator, sunrise and sunset are fairly consistent year-round at about 6 AM and 6 PM (local time), respectively. In the Swahili system of marking time, 6 AM (sunrise) is the first hour: 1 o´clock. 7 AM would be 2 o´clock, and so on. This could come in very handy for localization.

Interesting fact, Will. Time is very subjective.
Categorizing Swahili seems complicated because it is a macrolanguage that includes other languages in its system.

In most of the entries found on the Internet, it appears that Swahili and Kiswahili are the same.
In fact, on the official site of the tourism agency of Tanzania they do not differentiate between one term or the other
https://www.tanzaniatourism.go.tz/ta...ategory/people

Thanks a lot. They're just synonyms in the end.

Good to know that! ty

Do you know if there is a lot of differences between let's say the Swahili spoken in Kenya, and Tanzania? Is there a "Modern Standard Swahili" similar to the Arabic, as a consequence for the number of dialects spoken in each country?