Swahili has emerged as one of the languages preferred by immigrants in their foreign homes in the United States, a report by the country's census bureau reveals.
Newly released data from the US Census Bureau spotlights African languages among the top ten fastest-growing languages spoken at home in the US.
The list featured three groups of African languages; Swahili and other Central/Eastern/Southern African languages; Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, and other Western African languages; and Amharic/Somali.
Swahili popularity grew the most between 2016 and 2018, with about 22 per cent of immigrant users.
However, West African languages – Yoruba, Twi, Igbo and others – remain the most used languages by immigrants. It is used by about 500,000 people.
This is perceived to be because Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal and Kenya are among the principal countries of origin for sub-Saharan African migrants to Europe and the United States.
Swahili comes second among the African dialects preferred by immigrants with about 400,000 speakers in the US.
Separate data from the 22nd edition of Ethnologue, a database covering a majority of the world’s population, also shows that Swahili largely remains the largest preferred second language in sub-Saharan countries with more than 100 million speakers.
Native speakers stand at about 16 million while those who use it as a second language are about 98 million.
Swahili is listed as a national or official language in several African countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It’s likely that the movement of people from rural areas into big cities in search of better economic opportunities is what’s boosting the adoption of Swahili as a second language.
Other Swahili speaking nations include Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Northern Mozambique and the Comoros Islands.
Last year, South Africa adopted Swahili as one of the foreign languages to be taught in its primary schools.
It is the first African language from outside southern Africa to be offered in its schools.
Already, South Africa has reached an agreement with Kenya and Tanzania to recruit teachers of the language.
Edited by R.Wamochie
