How do you recognize Kiswahili sounds?... Phonemes

 

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. For example – the word 'hat' has 3 phonemes – 'h' 'a' and 't'. Arrangement of phonemes helps to distinguish one word from another depending on how they are positionally arranged, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.

Arrangement of phonemes in Kiswahili always takes combinations that end in vowel sounds. We can use simple three letter words to see this. We shall represent vowel with V and consonant with C. Three phonemes can generate six combinations, that is:

In Kiswahili, the phonemes will only take the first three combinations that end in vowel sound and not the last three that end in consonant sound. The four examples of Kiswahili words illustrating the first two combinations of phonemes are all generated from |t||i||a|; it has two vowels to one consonant, which is more flexible than |m||t||u| which has two consonants to one vowel hence the vowel cannot change position.

Reference:

Mbunda F. L., (1976). Mwalimu wa lugha, Kiswahili.