Pronunciation and intonation

Pronunciation in Swahili

Swahili, like many African languages, is a phonetic language and is pronounced as it is spelled.
Understand that each Swahili letter has a one-to-one correspondence with a specific sound. No letter is silent and there are no dipthongs.
The five vowels in Swahili (a, e, i, o, u) are pronounced similarly to the Italian or Spanish vowels.
- ‘a’ as in father
- ‘e’ as in bed
- ‘i’ as in ski
- ‘o’ as in go
- ‘u’ as in Zulu
Swahili language does not have short or long vowels, all the vowels have equal length.
Consonants are largely pronounced as in English but with few exceptions. Ex: ‘c’ is not used in Swahili; ‘r’ is rolled as in Italian or Spanish.
Note the Swahili special letters:
- ‘dh’ pronounced as ‘th’ in ‘the’
- ‘ng’ pronounced as ‘ng’ in ‘finger’ not as in ‘singer’
- ‘ny’ pronounced as ‘ny’ in ‘canyon’
- ‘sh’ pronounced as ‘sh’ in ‘ship’
- ‘ch’ pronounced as ‘ch’ in ‘church’
Emphasize the correctness of pronunciation as wrong pronunciation may alter the meaning of word, for example, ‘paka’ means ‘cat’ and the slightly different ‘peka’ means ‘roast’.

Swahili is a tonal language but tonality is not used to differentiate words as in some other languages.
Typically, the penultimate (the second to last) syllable of words is stressed in Swahili.
When speaking, use smooth transitions from one word to the next – Swahili language flow is smooth and fluid, not choppy.
Use the appropriate pitch and volume to convey meaning beyond just words. High pitch can convey surprise or excitement, low pitch can mean sadness or disappointment.
Practice by listening to native speakers and repeating words and phrases to get a sense of the rhythm and intonation patterns.