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The Word for "God" in Swahili

The Word for "God" in Swahili THE WORD FOR "GOD" IN SWAHILI* BY P. J. L. FRANKL (London) The Swahili language originates in Africa; the religion of the Swahili people derives from Arabia. Such a marriage between an African language and a Semitic religion must be of interest to both the Africanist and the student of Islam. This paper attempts to examine the Swahili word for "God", showing how the inhabitants of Swahili-land, without in any way compromising their religious orthodoxy, have preferred to retain the indigenous African word, albeit adapted to accord with their Islamic belief, rather than to adopt a word of non-African, Semitic, origin. Possibly the oldest recorded instance of the word for "God" in Swahili (an African tongue belonging to the Bantu family of languages) is to be found in an 18th century manuscript, where the word appears as Mulungu. This form of the word no longer sur- vives in Swahili itself (for the /1/ has been effaced long since), but it may still be heard, for example, in the neighbouring Mijikenda languages (e.g. in Giryama); variations on Mulungu (e.g. Murungu, Mluku, Mulunguo, Muunguo) are to be found in a host of other Bantu languages and dialects. For many centuries http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

The Word for "God" in Swahili

Frankl, P.J.L.
Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 20 (3): 269 – Jan 1, 1990
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1990 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006690X00178
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE WORD FOR "GOD" IN SWAHILI* BY P. J. L. FRANKL (London) The Swahili language originates in Africa; the religion of the Swahili people derives from Arabia. Such a marriage between an African language and a Semitic religion must be of interest to both the Africanist and the student of Islam. This paper attempts to examine the Swahili word for "God", showing how the inhabitants of Swahili-land, without in any way compromising their religious orthodoxy, have preferred to retain the indigenous African word, albeit adapted to accord with their Islamic belief, rather than to adopt a word of non-African, Semitic, origin. Possibly the oldest recorded instance of the word for "God" in Swahili (an African tongue belonging to the Bantu family of languages) is to be found in an 18th century manuscript, where the word appears as Mulungu. This form of the word no longer sur- vives in Swahili itself (for the /1/ has been effaced long since), but it may still be heard, for example, in the neighbouring Mijikenda languages (e.g. in Giryama); variations on Mulungu (e.g. Murungu, Mluku, Mulunguo, Muunguo) are to be found in a host of other Bantu languages and dialects. For many centuries

Journal

Journal of Religion in Africa – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1990

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