[gothic-l] Re: Germanic mutual intelligibility

[Sollers]

> I think it would be wrong to say, that Kiswahili is a pidgin
> or creole. It is a Bantu-language with a typical Bantu grammar.
> There are many loanwords, but the core is clean Bantu.
>
> rgds
> niels

It is indeed Bantu grammar, which was exactly my point; but all my
information is that it was not the original language of any one group and
developed in the first instance to facilitate trade with Arabs (the largest
component of loanwords being Arabic). Its use extends far beyond
Bantu-speaking peoples (eg in Kenya) and is as useful for maintaining
communication all the way down East Africa, from the Sudan to at least
Zimbabwe, as Tok Pisin is in Papua-New Guinea.


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