Vowels.

There are five vowel phonemes (distinctive sounds) in Swahili represented by the graphs a, e, i, o, and u.

These approximately have Spanish or Italian values. There are important differences between English and Swahili vowels. For one, the Swahili vowels are short and are not diphthongized as are the comparable English ones. For instance, Swahili

e is comparable to the vowel in English say without the lengthening or diphthon

g; it is also similar to the vowel in get, but not quite as low. With these differences in mind, note the following comparisons: Swahili as in English Examples

• a as in ah! = baba ( "father")
• e as in say = wewe ("you" )
• i as in this = kiti ("chair")
• o as in ho! = moto ("fire")
• u as in too = tu ("only, just")

A special caution should be mentioned: Americans tend to neutralize unaccented vowels. Each vowel should be given its full value whether accented or not. This is also true of vowels in juxtaposition; the vowels in au 'or' and bei ' price' are all pronounced. for example; maua

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