Common mistakes in Kiswahili pronunciations

 

Quite often, one encounters mistakes in pronunciation of Kiswahili words. This is usually because of the influence of a person’s first language sounds vis a vis Kiswahili sounds. These mistakes take several forms. Some examples are:

a)       Mixing up sounds: ‘r’ and ‘l’; ‘ch’ or ‘s’ instead of ‘sh’.

For example, people of Gikuyu background might use ‘r’ instead of 'l’ or mix them up because in Gikuyu language there’s no sound ‘l’. E.g., ‘ripa’ instead of ‘lipa’. For people of Luo background, they might use ‘s’ instead of 'sh’. E.g., ‘sika’ instead of 'shika’.

b)      Projecting sounds: ‘oo’ being read like sound [u]; ‘ee’ being read like sound [i]

For example, people of English background might project the English sounds for these digraphs. In Kiswahili, these digraphs call for a long pronunciation of the vowel itself. ‘OO’ should be a long [o] sound and ‘ee’ a long [e] sound. E.g., not ‘kondu’ but ‘kondoo’.

c)       Reducing sounds: This is the omission of certain sounds especially at the beginning. This is usually characteristic of people eliminating weak sounds that make no discernible alterations in the overall sound. E.g., ‘afifu’ instead of 'hafifu’; or ‘apana’ instead of ‘hapana’.

d)      Replacing sounds: This is again an effect of the background language of the speaker.

For example, ‘v’ becoming ‘f’; ‘dh’ becoming 'z’; ‘th’ becoming 's’. E.g., ‘mafi’ instead of ‘mavi’; ‘zana’ instead of 'dhana’; ‘semanini’ instead of 'themanini’.

e)   Adding sounds: This is usually characterised by addition of a vowel sound where two consonant sounds follow each other. For example, ‘mutu’ instead of 'mtu’; ‘labuda’ instead of 'labda’.

The general cause of these mistakes is the effect of people’s first language which may not have certain sounds or may have different sounds for certain letters and letter-combinations.

Reference:

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