Swahili.

Jambo!

Assante sana.

That's about it for me.

Herewith, I will attest, to behold Johnny Carson speak Swahili is a remarkable thing. He has regaled me with dizzying waves of it and clearly swells with glee while doing so. Usually, he begins such brisk spates thusly: "Mie kikisa Swahili bizouri laiki suka nasi fumba geuzo gaz ardhi!"-although I may be wrong. (A rough translation: "I speak Swahili quickly because it is fitting and we can mystify and change the world!"-although I may be wrong.) "It's a sweet language," he says. "It flows and it's relatively easy. Tafudhali-'please, please.' Isn't that a nice word? I had a lot of fun with it in Africa, learning just enough to communicate with people. Then one day, the tour crew brought me the Nairobi Times, like I could read the goddamned thing. They thought I was that proficient, but I wasn't, of course. I had to con my way through it, like I'm enjoying my newspaper. But it was a nice experience." Somewhere in his home, by the way, film exists of him performing magic tricks, making Swahili patter, for a cluster of wide-eyed native tribes-people, who clearly believe they are in the presence of some white-haired witch doctor.

Do people really say "jambo" instead of "hujambo"?

They do in Kenya. Or a younger person might use the more slangy 'mambo', to which the correct answer is 'poa' (meaning 'cool').

Hey, that's good to know!

I can say, "Is Morro Gorro a big town or a small town?" - something like "Morro Gorro nimjim kugwa um doggo?" (dunno the exact spelling)

So I kinda abandoned my lessons. Hopefully I'll be back in black soon. I can't afford shit. U_U

I've forgotten so much Swahili, it's very depressing! I am making a point to brush up a lot before summer, though.

Mimi (Upuuzi)

Basi, bila kupoteza wakati na tuanze. Jina langu Emily; natoka Marekani. Nina miaka ishirini na nne. Ninapenda vitabu vizuri, vikundi Metali na chakula kwa Bara Hindi. Ninapenda sana kahawa ya rangi; ninakunywa yeye mno. Kikundi kangu ni Tenderhooks; mimi, Jake, Ben na Matt, tunapiga chombo cha musiki na tunacheka. Nina paka mwili; jina lao Bernard na Pagoda. Mimi ni Mbudisti, lakini mimi ni atheisti tena (mungo akimjalia, nitakuwa atheisti hata nutafa). Mchumbangu ni Matt; anafanya musiki Metali na Umemi (?) tena. Tulikutani mkahawani. Siku nenda siku rudi, tuna kuingiliano ya kimwili. Sisi wanapenda. Ninaomba kwenda Afrikani kusaidia watu chenya ukimwi na VVU. Kutowasaidia wagonjwa ni kujinga na dhaifu. Nitaharibu ubaguzi na nitafanya musiki roki hata nutafa!

^Wrote that about my life back in August. :/

Can't even interpret some of it now. Although "mungo akimjalia, nitakuwa atheisti hata nutafa" = God willing, I will be an atheist until I die, lol.

i know someone who speaks this. he's a white dude from africa. i asked him if it's an invented language but he didn't know.

Not invented, but only actually spoken natively by very few people, a handful of coastal Kenyans.

so it's native to practically nowhere yet millions speak it?

Yep. It just developed into a lingua franca.

ninapenda wewe <3<3

One of my co-workers is on the phone speaking it just now, it's nice

Is it anything like Lingala in developing as a trading language? That could make sense. I used to know some missionaries to then-Zaire whose kids spoke Lingala before English! Fun stuff. When they came back, it was like their secret family language.

I don't know about trading language, she's from Kenya! She has got a lovely voice, whatever language she's speaking.