Software giant Microsoft is working with Baraza la Kiswahili Tanzania (Bakita) and the University of Dar es Salaam to install a Kiswahili version of its operating system for personal computers, Windows 7. The project to process the Kiswahili interface in Windows 7 will also bring in professionals from Kenya and Uganda.

Microsoft has developed a language interface pack that will serve more than 12 million Kiswahili language speakers in East, Central and Southern Africa.

Windows 7 will also be available in nine other African languages to increase usage, fight software piracy, increase use of local languages online and drive computer penetration beyond English and French.
...by 2011, Windows 7 will be available in languages such as Sesotho sa Leboa, Setswana, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Afrikaans, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, kiSwahili and Amharic.

Kiswahili is spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands.

It is the only language of African origin among the official languages of the African Union. About 35 per cent of the Kiswahili vocabulary derives from Arabic, gained through more than 12 centuries of contact with Arabic-speaking traders. Kiswahili has also incorporated Farsi, German, Portuguese, English and French into its vocabulary over the past five centuries.

Written by Mike Mande, this story is published on AllAfrica.com, read it in full length at http://allafrica.com/stories/200912071133.html