Habari, niaje, sasa, mambo, jambo - a diversity of greetings points at the rich history of the common east african language. Typically African, none of these can really be equated to "Hello" - somehow they all more or less mean "how are you?" - even though that phrase also has literal translations like "Ukosalama?" or "Ukofiti?" I gave up on trying to make a proper distinction and just went along. What I can say is that "habari" is more formal (literally meaning "news") while "jambo" is the greeting of the coast. In my experience it is the only of these greetings used like "hello" - for all other words, you are not expected to respond with the greeting but a response indicating your state, almost always positive - here a selection in descending formality: Mzuri (good), Salama (peaceful), Nikosawa (I am fine), Fiti (nice), Poa (cool)
Similar to German, it is spoken across a few countries but differently - Tanzanians are generally regarded as speaking it properly, while people in Kenya and Uganda commonly mix it with English or tribal languages in a single sentence.
Syllables
Unlike most European languages (although it reminded me a bit of Latin), Kiswahili ("language of the Swahili people") composes syllables with individual meaning into words, allowing for full single-word sentences.
Classics are the examples mentioned in the introduction, but also "twende" (We go) or "anakuja" (he/she is coming). By the way, Swahili is also pretty gender neutral.
I got a bit confused by the fact that, depending on the context, each of these syllables can mean "is": Ni, Na, Ko. This is amplified by words like "ninini?" - "what is it?" where the same syllable takes on three different meanings within a single word. What helped was the realiation that this was not Swahili being inconsistent, but actually English being imprecise - and in that aspect as in a few others Swahili is more similar to German than to English (it also does not have Diphthongs, for example. something that can also be used to distinguish it from the common tribal language Kikuyu). Because "-ko-" usually denotes a state ("Tukofiti" - "We are fine") while "-ni-" denotes a statement of fact ("Mimi ni Mgerumani" - "I am German").
Counting
Recently I was startled by the number system. Learning to count to ten, an early staple in every new language I learn, was not a problem: Moja, Mbili, Tatu, Nne, Tano, Sita, Saba, Nane, Tiza, Kumi. I usually remember things initially through odd mnemonics, so for the numbers:
- Tatu was known because I was already use to Matatus, buses with supposedly three seats across (but usually overloaded for those routes I was on)
- Nane is like "Na Nne" - "and four", and the double of four
- Sita and Saba are similar to the German and English number words
- Tiza sounds like ten, but is actually nine
And then of course, using them in practice reinforces them. What tripped me up was that there was no relation to the numbers and their multiples of ten - I have to learn all of them separately. Additionally, people often use slang words for certain numbers like a hundred. Gladly, english number words are also quite commonly used.