Comorian (''Shikomori'', or ''Shimasiwa'', the "language of islands") is the name given to a group of four

Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

s spoken in the

Comoro Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros ( Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northw ...

, an

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

in the southwestern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

between

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It is named as one of the official languages of the

Union of the Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean ...

in the Comorian constitution. Shimaore, one of the languages, is spoken on the disputed island of

Mayotte Mayotte (; french: Mayotte, ; Shimaore: ''Maore'', ; Kibushi: ''Maori'', ), officially the Department of Mayotte (french: Département de Mayotte), is an overseas department and region and single territorial collectivity of France. It is loc ...

, a

French department In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety-s ...

claimed by Comoros. Like Swahili, the Comorian languages are

Sabaki languages The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River. Sabaki is a Pokomo word for Large Fish or Crocodile. In addition to Swahili, Sabaki languages include Ilwana (Malakote) and Pokomo on the Tana R ...

, part of the Bantu language family. Each island has its own language, and the four are conventionally divided into two groups: the eastern group is composed of ''Shindzuani'' (spoken on Ndzuani) and ''

Shimaore Maore Comorian, or ''Shimaore'' ( French ''Mahorais''), is one of the two indigenous languages spoken in the French-ruled Comorian islands of Mayotte; Shimaore being a dialect of the Comorian language, while ShiBushi is an unrelated Malayo-P ...

'' (Mayotte), while the western group is composed of ''Shimwali'' ( Mwali) and ''Shingazija'' (

Ngazidja Grande Comore () is an island in Comoros off the coast of Africa. It is the largest island in the Comoros nation. Most of its population is of the Comorian ethnic group. Its population is about 316,600. The island's capital is Moroni, which is ...

). Although the languages of different groups are not usually

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, only sharing about 80% of their lexicon, there is mutual intelligibility between the languages within each group, suggesting that Shikomori should be considered as two language groups, each including two languages, rather than four distinct languages. Historically, the language was written in the Arabic-based

Ajami script Ajami ( ar, عجمي, ) or Ajamiyya ( ar, عجمية, ), which comes from the Arabic root for ''foreign'' or ''stranger'', is an Arabic-derived script used for writing African languages, particularly those of Mandé, Hausa and Swahili, although ...

. The French colonial administration introduced the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

, of which a modified version was officially decreed in 2009. Many Comorians now use the Latin script when writing the Comorian language although the Ajami script is still widely used, especially by women. It is the language of '' Umodja wa Masiwa,'' the national anthem.

Phonology

The consonants and vowels in the Comorian languages:

Vowels

Consonants

The consonants ''mb'', ''nd'', ''b'', ''d'' are phonetically recognized as ranging from , , , .

References

Works cited

* * 2 vols. * *

External links