The Swahili language, a member of the Bantu family is broadly divided into three main dialects. The most striking grammatical fact is that all objects in the known universe are divided into classes, which not only mark the nouns, but also all the adjectives, pronouns, and verbs connected with them. This is effected by means of the classifier prefix which differs according to the class of the noun, and whether it is singular or plural. Besides this, the nominative or subjective prefixes and the objective infixes, are thrown together with tense particles into one word with the verb stem, so that one word may form a complete and luminous sentence (from the introduction).

Contents: Part I: Introduction and article on Phonetics, Part II: Twenty-one studies in the familiar language of daily life, consisting of: Vocabulary, Exercises and translating, grammatical notes and graded studies in Swahili grammar (Re-edition; originally published 1919 in London; written in English).