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The following list names English words that originate from African languages. Adinkra – from Akan, visual symbols that represent concepts or aphorisms. Andriana – from Malagasy, aristocratic noble class of the Kingdom of Madagascar; apartheid – from Afrikaans, "separateness" Aṣẹ - from Yoruba, "I affirm" or "make it happen"
boma – probably from Swahili; bwana – from Swahili, meaning an important person or safari leader; chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly Kivili ci-mpenzi. [1] dengue – possibly from Swahili dinga; goober – possibly from Bantu (Kikongo and Kimbundu nguba) gilo - from Kimbundu njilu, via Portuguese jiló
The following are lists of words in the English language that are known as "loanwords" or "borrowings," which are derived from other languages.. For Old English-derived words, see List of English words of Old English origin.
English loans are mostly related to trade, science and technology while Arabic loans are mostly religious as Arabic is the liturgical language of Islam, the religion of the majority of Malay speakers. However, many key words such as surga/syurga (heaven) and the word for "religion" itself (agama) have origins in Sanskrit.
Like many other world languages, Swahili has borrowed a large number of words from foreign languages, particularly administrative terms from Arabic but also words from Portuguese, Persian, Hindi, Spanish, English, and German.
Other borrowed terms include "pole pole" (Swahili for "slowly"; as a result some people also say "slowly slowly"), "Harambee", "nyama choma" (barbecued meat) and "nini" (used when one forgets the name of something; equivalent to the word "thingy", which is itself also widely used).
In linguistics, borrowing is a type of language change in which a language or dialect undergoes change as a result of contact with another language or dialect. In typical cases of borrowing, speakers of one language (the "recipient" language) adopt into their own speech a novel linguistic feature that they were exposed to due to its presence in a different language (the "source" or "donor ...
Many of the borrowings from English were words relating to military life. In particular, words which described equipment, marksmanship, clothing, and ranks as well as commands and numbers. Some English words were borrowed and restructured to fit more easily we Swahili phonotactics, for example bayoneti for 'bayonet'.