Swahili/Kiswahili Studies

With its distinct phrasebook format, Rough Guides takes on the lingua franca of much of East and Central Africa. Besides assisting in communication, travelers will find useful tips for making oneself understood on public transport and dozens of other helpful and accessible hints.

This is the only dictionary that focuses on Kiswahili synonyms. Drawing from all aspects of life, the authors have collated over 14,000 entries, many of which have varying numbers of synonyms. The dictionary not only brings out the richness of Kiswahili as a language, but it also enriches the reservoir of Kiswahili vocabulary. The authors are distinguished academic linguistic scholars, and the dictionary has been developed bearing in mind both the needs of scholars and teachers, and of learners of the language.

Including a two-way dictionary, with grammar and pronunciation sections, this guide features a key language section for various situations, from buying food in markets to trekking in the countryside, conversation topics such as sport, current issues, and romance.

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.