Setting up a Swahili voice
- Record 5 to 15 seconds of a native Swahili speaker from the region your audience is in.
- Set the voice's Language to Swahili.
- Test with a time, an amount of money and an English loanword.
Swahili time
In Swahili, the hours are counted from sunrise, about six in the morning: saa moja asubuhi (hour one in the morning) is 7 a.m., and saa sita mchana is noon. A time written as 7:00 could be read as saa saba, which a listener would hear as 1 p.m. Always write times in words, in the system your audience uses, with asubuhi, mchana, jioni or usiku.
Writing Swahili for the voice
- Numbers as words: elfu mbili ishirini na sita (2026).
- Money: KSh 1,500 → shilingi elfu moja na mia tano.
- Dates: tarehe tatu Machi rather than 3/3.
- Abbreviations: n.k. → na kadhalika, k.m. → kwa mfano, Bw. → Bwana, Bi. → Bibi.
- Loanwords from English are common (kompyuta, simu, benki); written the Swahili way, they read naturally. English spellings in the middle of a sentence can break the flow.
- Sheng and slang have no fixed spelling; test them carefully if your audience expects them.
Swahili spelling is close to how it's said, and stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable, so everyday text reads well. Names and borrowed words are where to listen closely.
A passage to record
Nimekuwa nikitaka kurekodi hiki kwa wiki kadhaa, kwa hiyo tuanze. Ni jioni tulivu, kahawa iko tayari, na hatimaye
nina dakika chache kwa ajili yangu mwenyewe. Hebu tusikie inavyosikika.
"I've been wanting to record this for weeks, so let's begin. It's a calm evening, the coffee's ready, and at last I have a few minutes for myself. Let's hear how it sounds."
A dialogue to test with
Amani: Umeshafika? Nimekusubiri tangu saa mbili.
Juma: Samahani! Kulikuwa na msongamano mkubwa barabarani.
Amani: Haya, sasa umefika. Tuagize?Education and public information
Swahili audio reaches listeners across East Africa, for school materials, health information and training. See teachers and classrooms, and have a native speaker from the target region review every line.