siSwati Language Resources
siSwati Prayer
[UPDATED: 02 November 2011]
Because of our move to Swaziland, Beth and I have been trying to learn the local language of siSwati. Swaziland uses English in business and governmental settings, but siSwati is considered the native tongue. Since only about one million people speak the langauge it has been a bit difficult to find helpful resources. It is hard enough (impossible) to find a local speaker, let alone a teacher or lessons. Thus, we have been looking into online and print resources. I hope this list is helpful for other people who may be in a similar situation trying to learn siSwati.
Basic Information:
The following links give background and general information on the language:
- South African Languages | siSwati
- Swati language – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- African Languages – Siswati (Swati)
- SISWATI – Brochure from University of Wisconson
Peace Corp Material:
By far the most current and widely available material comes from the Peace Corp. They provide a pre-departure pack that includes a study manual and accompanying MP3s. I have provided links below.
- siSwati Language Lessons
- Introduction MP3
- Lesson 1 MP3
- Lesson 2 MP3
- Lesson 3 MP3
- Lesson 4 MP3
- Lesson 5 MP3
- Lesson 6 MP3
- Lesson 7 MP3
- Lesson 8 MP3
The above material is the most current, but it is not the most comprehensive. You can also benefit from their older publications.
- siSwati Language Handbook – Download from ERIC, Published 1980, 116 pages.
- Understanding and Speaking siSwati – Download from ERIC, Published 1969, 449 pages.
Print Materials:
Unfortunately, I have not been able to come across a single print resource that effectively pulls together everything you need to learn the language (especially if you are trying to teach yourself.) However, I have found these three books, when used together, provide a great base to build on. I have provided links to the Amazon and Google Books pages so you can get the details on the books (ISBN, book cover, etc.)
- Handbook of siSwati – Published 1991, 175 pages. This is a course book for classes at UNISA and thus takes a more academic approach. This is where you are going to learn about grammatical structure and parsing. (Amazon | Google)
- Essential siSwati – Published 1981, revised 1990, 80 pages. This is a basic phrasebook designed to be a quick reference. It also includes stem charts. It is a great companion to understand how actual siSwati phrases are formed. (Amazon | Google)
- Concise siSwati Dictionary – Neither of the above books do a good job of teaching vocabulary, so you really need a dictionary. Just know that because of the way siSwati works, you have to have a basic understanding of the language before you can even use this. (Amazon | Google)
I have seen all of these books in Swaziland (Websters in Manzini has all three, CNA in Mbabane and Manzini usually have least couple of them). We were also able to find them online, but we had to search around for them. Besides Amazon (US), here are a couple other places you can look:
Other Resources:
One of the resources I plan to use once our proficiency increases is YouTube. There are several videos posted in siSwati (mostly religious) which will be helpful in practicing comprehension. This one is particularly helpful because it includes English subtitles: Thandiwe
I had the opportunity to talk with a headmaster at a school in Swaziland. I asked him which resources he would recommend and here is what he had to say:
The best book (if you can obtain it) is from the Sebenta National Institute called ‘siSwati Setfu’ translated ‘Our siSwati’ and was a joint venture publication between the Sebenta National Institute and the US Government, under contract no. 79-042-100.
I have not been able to track it down, but if you do, please let me know where.
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Hopefully the above resources will be helpful if you are one of the very few who want to teach yourself siSwati. I will continue to update this post as I find more.
Thank you. This is a great resource. My family will be moving to Swaziland in 2011 as well. Hopefully we can connect.
We actually just got back from Swaziland this week. We spent 2 weeks getting connected with things on the ground. Having worked through things a bit I have found the Peace Corp material (most recent) is by far the most helpful. Once you complete it, you should feel at least marginally comfortable being able to pronounce siswati since the whole language is phonetic.
Hi Ben, Once again my research on Swaziland leads me back to your website. You must be the most thorough guy ever… but thanks for the work, as Rob and I are both language learners, and with the impending move to Swaziland next year, these resources will be a great help.
@Jennifer Taylor
Thanks Jennifer. I am definitely a research-oriented type of guy. My only experience with language has been learning Greek and Hebrew and I find siSwati to be much more similar to Hebrew. It has a much steeper (but short) initial learning curve and then is more fluid and less linear.