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swahilian

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Swa⋅hi⋅li

  [swah-hee-lee]
Use swahilian in a Sentence
–noun, plural -lis, (especially collectively) -li for 1.
1. a member of a Bantu people of Zanzibar and the neighboring coast of Africa.
2. Also, Kiswahili, ki-Swahili. the Bantu language of the Swahili people, used also as a lingua franca in Tanzania, Kenya, and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Related forms:
Swa⋅hi⋅li⋅an, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Swa·hi·li   (swä-hē'lē)   
n.   pl. Swahili or Swa·hi·lis

  1. A Bantu language of the coast and islands of eastern Africa from Somalia to Mozambique. It is an official language of Tanzania and is widely used as a lingua franca in eastern and east-central Africa. Also called Kiswahili.

  2. An inhabitant of coastal eastern Africa for whom Swahili is the mother tongue.


[Swahili, from Arabic sawāḥilī, of the coasts, from sawāḥil, pl. of sāḥil, coast, active participle of saḥala, to scrape off, smooth; see šḥl in Semitic roots.]
Swa·hi'li·an adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Swahili 
name of a Bantu people inhabiting the coast of South Africa, 1814, from Arabic sawahil, plural of sahil "coast" + gentilic suffix -i.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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