ScriptLookup

Swahili

Kiswahili
sw 16M speakers

Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Niger-Congo language with approximately 16M speakers speakers. It is written using the Latin script. Its BCP 47 language code is sw.

Swahili (Kiswahili) is a Bantu language and the official language of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the most widely understood language in Sub-Saharan Africa, serving as a trade lingua franca across East Africa.

Swahili developed as a contact language between Bantu-speaking coastal peoples and Arab and Persian traders, resulting in significant Arabic loanwords (including the word 'Swahili' itself, from Arabic sāḥil, meaning 'coast'). It is written with the Latin alphabet.

Writing Systems Used for Swahili

Latin
Primary
Hello World
LTR Latn

Frequently Asked Questions

What alphabet or script does Swahili use?
Swahili is written using the Latin script (ISO 15924 code: Latn). Latin is written left-to-right.
What direction is Swahili written?
Swahili is written Left-to-right. Text runs from left to right, the same direction as most European languages.
How many people speak Swahili?
Swahili has approximately 16M speakers speakers worldwide. It is a member of the Niger-Congo language family.
What language family does Swahili belong to?
Swahili belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. It is written with the Latin script.
What is the language code for Swahili?
The BCP 47 language code for Swahili is "sw". This code is used in software, web standards (the HTML lang attribute), and internationalization contexts.

Language Facts

BCP 47 Code
sw
ISO 639-3
swa
Status
living
Scope
macrolanguage
Speakers
16M speakers
Language Family
Niger-Congo
Scripts
1
Primary Script
Latin

Other Latin Languages

Acehnese Acoli Adangme Afar Afrikaans Aghem Akan Akoose Alabama Albanian Aleut Anii Ao Naga Aragonese Araona Arapaho Arawak Aromanian Arpitan Asturian

Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.