The New International Encyclopædia/Swahili

SWAHILI, swȧ-hē'lḗ. A Bantu people of the Kau District, Tana-Ozi Delta, British East Africa, mingled more or less in blood with Semites. They are Mohammedans and differ little from the Arabs in general culture. They number about one million. They are noted traders, and their language, the Kiswahili, is the great medium of intercourse throughout east Central Africa. Consult: Büttner, Wörterbuch der Suahelisprache (Berlin, 1890); Seidel, Grammatik der Suahelisprache (Vienna, 1891); Steere, Handbook of the Swahili Language (4th ed., London, 1894); Krapf, Dictionary of the Swahili Language (ib., 1882); Madan, English-Swahili Dictionary (Oxford, 1894); Delaunay, Grammaire Kiswahili (Paris, 1898).