Localizely logo
Sign up

Language code: swa

Technical information about ISO 639 language code swa

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Swahili (macrolanguage) language, designated by the swa code from the ISO 639-2 standard.

Code

swa

Name

Official

Swahili (macrolanguage)

Native

Kiswahili

Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Kiunguja (Zanzibar Swahili)Kimvita (Mombasa Swahili)Kiamu (Lamu/Amu Swahili)Kingwana (Congo Swahili)Kipemba (Pemba Swahili)Kimrima
Related languages
ComorianMijikenda (Giryama)PokomoDigo
Key facts
Roughly one-fifth of Swahili lexicon comes from ArabicThe language was first written in an Arabic-based script called Ajami before the Latin alphabet became standardEarliest preserved Swahili epic, “Utendi wa Tambuka”, dates to 1728Kiswahili’s name combines the Bantu prefix “ki-” with Arabic “sāḥil” (coast)It is one of the few Bantu languages that developed as a trade lingua franca over a wide maritime region.
Sample phrase

Habari, hujambo?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

The Swahili (macrolanguage) language, identified by the code swa, falls under the 'Macrolanguage' category in terms of its scope and is classified as 'Living' by its type.

Previous: Language Code List

Read next: Language Plural Rules

Tired of manually editing translation files?

Our platform streamlines software localization for you.

Try now for Free

Documentation

Localizely logo
About
Resources
Free tools
Boring stuff
Newsletter
Copyrights 2025 © Localizely