INTRODUCTION
PHONOLOGY
According to Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, phonology the study of the
pattern of speech sounds used in a particular language.
Also we can define phonology as the study of how sound is structured in languages -- for
instance, which of all possible speech sounds a language uses to build its words, how syllables
are built in a particular language, and other phenomena.
Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in
languages. It has traditionally focused largely on study of the system of phonemes in a
particular language.
The mission of phonology is to understand how speech sounds and phonetic features are
organized in a language so that they can be used to create contrast from phoneme.
PHONEMES
These are the different sounds within a language. Although there are slight differences in how
individuals articulate sounds, we can still describe reasonably accurately how each sound is
produced. One sound rather than another can change the meaning of the word. It is this
principle which gives us the total number of phonemes in a particular language. (Fremkin, 2007)
Features of phonology:

Look beyond the individual segments at the sound system of a language

Features to characterize speech sounds in the language of the world

Some features are relevant only for consonants while others are only for vowels
There is relationship between systematic organization of sounds in English and in Swahili
language. Therefore following are the comparisons between these two languages
VOWELS
Sounds that you make when you speak without closing your mouth.( Macmillan English
Dictionary, 2004)
There are five vowel phonemes (distinctive sounds) in Swahili a, e, i, o and u .there are
important differences between English and Swahili vowels. For example the Swahili vowels are
short and not diphthongized as are the comparable of English ones. For instance Swahili “e” is
comparable to the English vowel say without the lengthening or diphthong it also similar to the
vowel in set but not quite as low with these differences in mind, note the following comparison.
Swahili
English
Examples
a
ah!
Baba
Father
e
Say
Wewe
You
i
Be
Kiti
Chair
o
Ho
Moto
Fire
U
Too
Tu
Only Just
Standard Swahili have five vowels phonemes: /a/, /∑/, /i/, /ↄ/,/u/. The pronunciation of the
phoneme [u] and [o]. Vowels are never reduced, regardless of stress. The vowels are
pronounced as follows:
/a/ is pronounced like the ‘a’ in father
/∑/ is pronounced like the ‘e’ in bed
/i/ is pronounced like the ‘I’ in ski
/ↄ/ is pronounced like the ‘o’ in cord
/u/ is pronounced like the ‘u’ in rule
Consonants
Consonants in Swahili generally have English values but as in the case of vowels there are
considerable differences note the following.
1. P, t, k.
There are similar to English voiceless stops, but they can be aspirated or
unaspirated. That is speaking the first two words below would release a burst of air
that would rustle a sheet of paper held in front of the speaker’s mouth. For the
second set of words, the sheet of paper would remain still.
Generally initial p, t and k of class 9/10 nominal are aspirated in contrast to initial p,
t and k of class 5 nominal.
For example:
Paa [p(h)aa] ‘gazelle’
Kaa [k(h)aa] ‘crab’
Versus:
Paa (roof)
passport
Kaa (piece of charcoal)
car
2. b, d, g.
as English voiced stops but they are imploded that is in their pronunciation the air is
sucked into the mouth as they are released. The ‘g’ is always hard as in English
‘goat’ versus the ‘g’ in gin.
For example,
Baba (father)
Barber
Dada (sister)
diet
Gumu (hard)
goat
3. F, v, s, z.
F as in English ‘far’
V as in English ‘very’
S as in English ‘sister’
Z as in English ‘zoo’
Fupi (short)
fine
Kavu (dry)
calm
Vizuri (well)
virus
Sasa (now)
sun
4. M, n.
As in English .in some cases where they occur before other consonants ‘m’ and ‘n’
are pronounced as full syllables but without inserting a vowel sound either before or
after. The first two examples are syllabic but not the second two.
Mtu (person)
import
Nta (wax)
Versus
Mboga
‘vegetable’
Ndege
‘bird, airplane’
5. ny.
As the segment ‘ni’ in English ‘onion’
Nyanya (grandmother)
Ninyi ‘you’ (plural)
6. ng.
As the ‘ng’ in English sing, single (not as finger).
Example, ngo’mbe (cow)
The same sound but spelled with ‘n’ is also heard before ‘g’ e.g. ngoma ‘drum’.
Linguist represents this sound with the phonetic symbol for a velar nasal, thus
ngo’mbe is [ (symbol) + ombe] and ngoma is [(symbol) + goma]
7. ch
As the first sound in English ‘cheek’ not as in chemist
Example,Chakula (food)
Chache
‘few’
8. j
as in English ‘job’ but without the audible friction associated with the English
consonant, some speakers of English hear this sound when pronounced by a native
speakers as ‘y’ however a fairly accurate pronunciation can be achieved by
pronouncing it as the sequence ‘dy’
Hujambo (hudyambo) ‘hello’
Jana
(dyana) ‘yesterday’
9. W, y, h.
Some people are spell Swahili ‘h’ with ‘kh’ which symbolized (s) a sound similar to
the ‘ch’ in Scottish ‘och’. This occurs frequently with Arabic borrowings but is not
the practice followed in this manual.
Watu (people)
water
Yeye (he or she)
yesterday
Huyu (this one or this person)
whole
10. r
Swahili (r) is quite different from the English one it is similar to the Spanish tapped ‘r’
as in ‘pero’ but or ‘daro’- of course.
For example:
Habari (news)
rim
Heri (good will, blessing, and good wishes)
read
11. l
As in English when in initial position e.g. ‘leak, loud, lesson’ second language learners
tend not to distinguish r and l.
Lala (sleep)
Leo (today)
12. th
As in English “thought, think”
Thelathini (thirty)
l
13. dh
As in English though, thy, thee, then,
e.g.
Dhani (think)
14. gh
This sound is pronounced by pronunciation ‘g’ as in a fricative it is similar to the in
Scottish ‘loch’ but voiced
E.g.
Ghala
‘storehouse’
Ghali
‘expensive’
15. sh
As in English ‘push’. This sound plus kh, dh and gh are in words that have been
borrowed into Swahili predominantly from Arabic e.g. of ‘sh’.
Ishirini (twenty)
Mshahara (salary)
16. mw
A combination of m followed immediately by w
Example,
Mwalimu (teacher)
Mwanafunzi (student)
17. bw
A combination of b w and w
Example,
Bwana (sir or Mr.)
Mbwa (dog)
CONCLUCSION
According to the observation which we have done, Kiswahili language seems to lack diphthong
sounds and this may be the big difference from English language with eight(8) diphthong
sounds as we have seen above. This may be even in other languages which we have not
included in our study instead we have based only in these two languages, Kiswahili and English.
REFERRENCES
Fremkin, V. (2007) An introduction to language.USA Michili Rosemberg
Jean, O. (1994). Reading, language, and literacy: instruction for the twenty-first century.
Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum.
Macmillan English Dictionary For Advanced Learners, (2004).Michael Rundell.London