Swahili (Tanzania) style guide¶
Write natural Kiswahili that makes the task and its result clear. This page uses Tanzania for contact and currency examples; other Swahili-speaking territories need their own locale settings. Read it with the shared language review and house guide. Complete translations need proficient-language review in their actual interface.
Voice, terminology and exact meaning¶
Address the reader directly and consistently. Prefer familiar, precise words and explain unfamiliar technical terms. Keep approved terminology stable, record unresolved choices and distinguish established loans from untranslated prose. A supplier's list of English words is not a universal protected-name list. Retain real product names, filenames, versions and copyright owners exactly.
Preserve each operation and its object. Fungua, Funga, Hifadhi and Hariri illustrate action labels. Faili iliyofungwa describes a closed file; it is not a command to close one. Faili wazi describes an open file, and Faili nusura does not establish an approved Save command. Ondoa mtumiaji removes a user; do not use it for signing out of a session.
Check meaning before accepting a supplier example:
- Tafuta requests a search. It cannot report that an item could not be found without expressing the failure and identifying the item.
- Ushinde does not express failure. Use a complete failure construction appropriate to the actor and operation; imeshindwa is one source form.
- Hutengeneza nakala mpya refers to making a new copy. Creating a new document need not copy an existing one. A selected-items command must not be narrowed to files unless the interface permits only files.
- Keep the Internet distinct from the Web, Wavuti. A description of FTP must preserve file transfer, not replace transfer with generic use. Do not rename an organizational unit as a mailing list.
- An error about DNS must preserve the service, address and failed lookup. The source's animate agreement in DNS hawezi is not a template for inanimate technical subjects.
Use sentence case for headings, including Kutuma faili and Kutumia mitindo. Keep the initials of Kiswahili, Waswahili, Mswahili and Uswahilini in their conventional positions; do not copy kiSwahili. Preserve first-person acceptance in Ninakubali makubaliano haya when it expresses the reader's consent. Do not turn it into an application's assertion. Copyright wording and placement follow the actual product requirement; an old supplier instruction does not require a notice on every page of every product.
Characters, spelling and punctuation¶
Preserve ng’ in words such as ng’ombe. It differs from ng. The curly apostrophe is U+2019; the straight apostrophe ' is U+0027. The source's decimal 146 is an old code-page value, not the Unicode identity of the curly apostrophe. Use the orthography and apostrophe convention chosen for the project, and check search, copying and input for both forms.
ch contains two Unicode characters, and ng’ contains three. An alphabet inventory is not an input whitelist: borrowed names and identifiers may contain c, q, x or other characters. Use a locale-aware collator; do not sort by the supplier's mixture of decimal values and purported hexadecimal codes. Test digraphs, apostrophes and mixed-case names.
Punctuation belongs to the displayed sentence; resource escapes belong to the file format. Preserve parentheses, quotation marks and punctuation that carry meaning. Distinguish a hyphen, a range dash and a minus sign: 30–59 retains a range, while −5 is negative. Use … for a UI ellipsis. A nonbreaking space can keep 25 kg together, but is not a reason to rewrite an identifier. The percent sign is not the only symbol used in Swahili text.
Do not localize executable syntax. The supplier translates Perl if and print as if they were prose, which breaks the program. Preserve keywords, operators, variable names and API identifiers. Translate a human-readable string only where the example's contract allows it; keep its quoting and escapes valid. An English possessive apostrophe and the apostrophe in ng’ombe have different jobs, so a rule against English 's must not erase the latter.
Grammar and complete sentences¶
Check noun-class agreement throughout the phrase. Mtu mrefu ameanguka, Kiti kimevunjika and Viti vimevunjika illustrate agreement in different classes and numbers. Write neno gumu, not the supplier's Neno ngumu. Modifiers do apply to Swahili; their form and position depend on the construction. Do not impose one prefix or English word order on every translated noun phrase.
Class membership is not biological gender. mwanafunzi does not specify a student's sex; mvulana, msichana, dada and kaka express more specific distinctions. Do not add such a distinction when it is unknown or irrelevant. Noun-class counts differ with the classification scheme; a fixed claim of eleven classes is not enough to choose agreement.
Independent pronouns include mimi, wewe, yeye, sisi, ninyi and wao. Keep singular and plural address distinct. A subject marker such as u- operates inside a verb construction; not every instruction must start with that marker. Swahili does not require English-style definite or indefinite articles before nouns or protected names.
Associative forms agree with the preceding noun. Examples include akaunti ya barua pepe, Kompyuta ya Tom, Ombi la kuongeza mwasiliani and Kidole cha gumba. Forms such as wa, ya, la and cha are not freely interchangeable. They can connect possession, purpose and other relationships; do not append English possessive 's to a product name.
Borrowed nouns still need agreement and a reviewed plural. redio, rekodi, video and diski illustrate loans whose noun forms can stay unchanged in the plural. The supplier and Mozilla differ over file terminology and plural treatment; establish the chosen faili construction in the product glossary instead of imposing a universal rule for every loan.
Preserve the verb's actor, tense, mood, negation and object. nunua and ninanunua illustrate “buy” and “I am buying”; the supplier's nuana and ninanuana are damaged examples. soma, somea, somesha and someka have different derivational meanings, not merely different tenses. Do not replace a precise form with a generic verb to shorten the sentence.
The direct commands kaa / kaeni and subjunctive forms ukae / mkae illustrate different constructions and singular/plural address. The subjunctive is not absent from Swahili. Preserve a request, purpose or condition rather than turning it into a statement of fact. English split-infinitive restrictions do not determine Swahili word order.
Keep source, destination and result distinct when using katika, kutoka, kuwa and na in context. A translation of “remove it” must retain the object. Rephrase around unknown dynamic names when needed: tayari kuna %s is a source option, not proof that one agreement form fits every substituted noun. Test the whole sentence with actual values.
Dates, time and calendar names¶
Use the selected language, territory and calendar formatter. Source examples 17/03/11 and 17 Machi, 2011 illustrate date order, not mandatory punctuation for every surface. Use an unambiguous year when needed. Date-pattern letters are API-specific; month and minute tokens can differ by case.
The source's Monday-to-Sunday names and abbreviations are Jumatatu / Jtt, Jumanne / Jnn, Jumatano / Jtn, Alhamisi / Alh, Ijumaa / Ijm, Jumamosi / Jms and Jumapili / Jpl. Keep week start separate from the rule that numbers the first week of a year.
These month names and abbreviations preserve the supplier's examples.
| Month | Source name | Short |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | Januari | Jan |
| Feb | Februari | Feb |
| Mar | Machi | Mac |
| Apr | Aprili | Apr |
| May | Mei | Mei |
| Jun | Juni | Juni |
| Jul | Julai | Jul |
| Aug | Agosti | Ago |
| Sep | Septemba | Sep |
| Oct | Oktoba | Okt |
| Nov | Novemba | Nov |
| Dec | Disemba | Dis |
CLDR 48 uses Desemba / Des for December and Jun for abbreviated June. Do not combine competing spellings accidentally. A product using CLDR should follow its selected version and formatting context, with reviewed overrides where required.
A 24-hour display such as 03:24:12 is possible despite the source's contradictory table. Traditional Swahili clock counting differs: saa moja can denote seven o'clock in the morning or evening. Keep the intended instant clear with the time-of-day context. Do not subtract six hours from stored times or confuse this naming convention with a time-zone conversion. The source's claim that computers cannot support localized time is obsolete.
Numbers, units and contact details¶
Use locale formatting without changing values. CLDR 48 Swahili inherits a decimal point and comma grouping: 2,000.50. Mozilla supplies a contrary comma-and-space convention; it does not establish the CLDR default. Keep literal identifiers separate from formatted quantities. Historical examples 256, 16 384 and 2..99 do not define current product limits or field syntax.
The Tanzanian shilling code is TZS, not the supplier's S. Its Tshs.2,000.50 is a source presentation example; use the chosen currency formatter's symbol, spacing and precision. A fractional amount of 0.50 shillings is fifty cents, not 0.50 cents. CLDR distinguishes ordinary TZS precision from cash precision; preserve the amount and the operation's required precision rather than mechanically adding or removing decimal places.
Keep standard unit symbols and case: km, m, dm, cm, mm; hL, L, dL, cL, mL; t, kg, g, dg, cg, mg and °C. Local names such as kilomita, mita, lita, kilogramu and tani do not authorize invented SI symbols. Retain in, ft, mi, gal and lb when those are the source units; conversion requires a checked value, not just a translated label.
Tanzania's country code is +255. TCRA's 2024 notice gives nine national significant digits for ordinary fixed and mobile numbers, with twelve for specified machine-to-machine ranges. Short service codes are separate. The masked international pattern +255 AA BBB CCCC illustrates nine digits after the country code; it is not an allocated example number. Do not enforce the source's fourteen-digit international rule on all contacts.
Tanzania has five-digit postcodes. S.L.P. identifies a post-office box, not a postcode. Preserve the recipient, locality, delivery method and actual postcode; the source's statement that postcodes do not exist is obsolete. Use clearly fictional names and non-callable contact patterns, and verify real contact details before publication.
Messages, interface controls and final review¶
Use labels for their actual role: commands, categories, dialog titles, tabs, checkbox states, tooltips and status messages need not share one grammatical form. Distinguish starting, continuing and finishing an action. %s imekwisha kufanya kazi na imefungwa must not turn an unexpected failure into successful completion. A scan, transfer and installation are different operations.
Errors need the failed object, condition and usable recovery. Kumbukumbu haitoshi retains the memory object; haitoshi alone loses it. Computer memory is distinct from storage and a person's recollection. Present inability and a past failed attempt may require different wording. Do not add blame, certainty or a diagnosis that the application cannot establish.
Preserve parameters exactly: %d, %ld, %u, %lu, %c, %s, %1!d!, %2!d! and %1!-.200s!. Source phrases baada ya siku %d, dakika %d and Hifadhi mabadiliko kwenye %1? need testing with the actual values, names and supported plural cases. Never translate a type specifier or remove dynamic data. Keep identifiers such as HTML, RAM and TCP/IP intact; explain unfamiliar acronyms instead of inventing new ones.
Match real controls and keycaps. Bonyeza F1 refers to pressing a key; Bofya F1 confuses that with clicking. Keep Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Tab, Enter and Esc recognizable on the supported keyboard. Test access keys, command shortcuts, arrows and numeric-keypad behavior in the actual product. Small caps are not lowercase, and a child window is not a child.
Check keyboard access, screen-reader names, zoom, narrow layouts and text expansion. Ensure apostrophes and names survive copy, search and export. Use the shared review checklist for final terminology, formatting, message and interaction checks.
Adapted from Microsoft Swahili guidance and Mozilla's Swahili community guide. Credits record sources, corrections, review scope and Mozilla source notices and adaptation terms.