3. The Arabic word sawahili means "a language of the coast."Which of the following explains how this would relate to the Swahili language spoken today in Kenya, Tanzania, and northern Mozambique in eastern Africa? As Muslim merchants traveled to Africa, they needed to communicate with people living along the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean in order to trade, and a lingua franca developed. b. German colonizers needed a language that would unite all the people in their colonies. Traders from around the world used the countries of coastal Africa to spread not just goods, but also various languages. d. British colonizers found Swahili easy to use and encouraged its use in Africa and in Great Britain. d.As religious teachers spread Islam through Africa, many people adopted words from the Quran into the local languages creating a new lingua franca.