Note for the folks at home: Kiswahili (usually called "Swahili" outside of East Africa) pervaded Kenya to the point of becoming the national language through its use as a trade language. Traders from the coast historically traveled inland, bringing their coastal language with them; "Swahili", in fact, means "coast-dwellers". Over time, Kiswahili became the common tongue to communicate between different African ethnic groups. Kiswahili is a melting-pot of a language: based on Bantu (a traditional African language root) and Arabic roots, Kiswahili has identifiably Portuguese, German, and English elements (among a slew of borrowed words from a huge number of other languages). As a very syllabic language, Kiswahili can be fun to read and speak. For instance: "kuna kuku marufuku huku" ("KOO-nah KOO-koo mah-roo-FOO-koo HOO-koo") means "there is a chicken prohibition hereabouts".
