The Swahili language is a member of the Bantu group of African languages. Swahili is spoken by more than 30 million people—chiefly in Tanzania, Kenya, Congo (Kinshasa), Burundi and Uganda. Swahili also serves as a lingua franca for additional millions in East Africa, including Europeans, Arabs and Indians, as well as Africans. It is also the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and has the largest number of speakers of the Bantu group of languages. Although grammatically a Bantu tongue, Swahili has been greatly influenced by Arabic from which it has borrowed many words.

The Bantu is a group of African languages, of which the total number is uncertain. All of the Bantu languages are tonal, except perhaps Swahili. Swahili is the most important as it is spoken as a first language by more than 30 million people. As the main trade language of East Africa, it is understood by perhaps an additional 20 million.