Lesson 2. Saying HELLO in Swahili

Swahili as other languages in the world have different forms of greetings, depending on time and status (age, relationship, position, etc.) Therefore, in Swahili, we have formal, informal and neutral forms of greetings as explained below:-
a) Formal greetings 
    Speaker A. greets; Shikamoo
       - Basically, it means "my respects" 
       - A very respectful greeting used by a person with low status             to a person with high status. For example a child to parents,             an employee to his/her boss, student to his/her teacher, etc.
    Speaker B. responds by saying; Marahaba
       - Basically, marahaba is an acknowledgment of the respect                 given by speaker A who pays much respect to B.

 B) Neutral forms
      There are so many, but I will identify some of them.
      1. Speaker A may say one of the following;
      habari - how is it? (directed to 1 or more people)
      habari gani - how are things? (directed to 1 or more people)
      habari yako - how are you? (to a person)
      habari zenu - how are you? (to 2 or more people)

     Speaker B, may use one of the following responses; 
     nzuri - good/fine
     njema - good/fine
     salama - good/peaceful/fine 
     safi - great 
      (Note: You can use them anywhere, anytime to anyone) 

    2. Speaker A
        2 (a)hujambo - how are you? this is addressed to one person. 
        2 (b)hamjambo - how are you? addressed to 2 or more people

       Speaker B responses
        2 (a) sijambo - I`m fine
        2 (b) hatujambo - We`re fine

   C) Informal forms 
        There are many, but the most commonly used by young                    people  are: mambo, mambo vipi, vipi and niaje. They all              simply mean 'how are you'. Again, the common answers are            like poa, safi, shwari. Meaning, good/fine/doing well. It is              mostly used by young people, normally with the same age.

       Asante sana (thank you very much)

 You are invited to contact me anytime if you are interested             in learning Kiswahili.