Taita Language Alphabet

Unicode's CLDR, the data that teaches phones and computers each language, lists the Taita alphabet as a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v w y z, each in capital and small form. That is A to Z without q and x, the same letter set as Swahili. The letter c only appears in the pair ch, as in Kimu cha imbiri, the first quarter of the year.

Taita words also use letter pairs that Swahili readers already know: gh in ghwa, ny in wunyanya (eight), ng in nguwo, and mf in mfungade (seven). Like most Bantu languages Taita is tonal, but the everyday spelling does not mark tone, so there are no accented letters at all and any keyboard types the whole language. The symbol grid above holds the 48 letters, the curly quotation marks used in Kenyan print, the 🇰🇪 flag and ⛰️ for the Taita Hills.

Taita words: the days and months in Kitaita

CLDR's Taita locale gives the language its own calendar words, and they count. Monday to Friday are Kuramuka jimweri, Kuramuka kawi, Kuramuka kadadu, Kuramuka kana and Kuramuka kasanu; Saturday is Kifula nguwo, which looks like the Swahili kufua nguo, to wash clothes; Sunday is Ituku ja jumwa. A full date reads Kuramuka kadadu, 21 Mori ghwa ikumi 2026.

The months are numbered the same way: Mori ghwa imbiri (January), then kawi, kadadu, kana, kasanu, karandadu, mfungade, wunyanya, ikenda, ikumi, and finally Mori ghwa ikumi na imweri and Mori ghwa ikumi na iwi, the months of ten and one and ten and two. Read side by side, the days and months spell out Taita counting: kawi 2, kadadu 3, kana 4, kasanu 5, karandadu 6, mfungade 7, wunyanya 8, ikenda 9, ikumi 10. The quarters of the year follow too, from Kimu cha imbiri to Kimu cha kana.

How to type Taita letters, quotes and the shilling

Every Taita letter is on a standard keyboard, so nothing needs to be installed: an English or Swahili phone keyboard types it all. For curly quotes on Windows, hold Alt and type 0147 for “, 0148 for ”, 0145 for ‘ and 0146 for ’ on the number pad; on a Mac, Option+[ gives “, Option+Shift+[ gives ”, Option+] gives ‘ and Option+Shift+] gives ’. Phones turn straight quotes into curly ones by themselves, or long-press the quote key.

The Kenyan shilling has no Unicode sign of its own; it is written Ksh (code KES). CLDR's Taita locale puts it straight before the amount, Ksh 1,000.00, with a comma between thousands and a full stop for decimals, and calls it Shilingi ya Kenya. Country and language names in the locale are the Swahili ones: Kitaita, Kingereza (English), Uingereza (the United Kingdom), Marekani (the United States).

Where the Taita language is spoken

Taita is the language of the Taita people (Wataita) of the Taita Hills in Taita–Taveta County, south-eastern Kenya, around Wundanyi, Mwatate and Voi, where the green hills rise out of the dry Tsavo plains. CLDR estimates roughly 480,000 speakers, all in Kenya. Its main form is Dawida (Kidawida), and its close relative Saghala (Kisagala) is spoken on and around Sagalla Hill near Voi. Swahili, a national language of Kenya, is widely spoken alongside it, and Taita spelling and many modern words sit close to Swahili's.

Taita is a Bantu language. Swahili is spoken along the coast to the east, Kamba to the north, and across the border in Tanzania, on and below Kilimanjaro, are Vunjo, Machame and Kipare (Asu). Each has its own collection, as do Swahili and Kenya for the flag, the shilling and the country's emoji.