Kutchi-Swahili, or Cutchi-Swahili, is a Swahili-based creole derived from the

Kutchi language Kutchi (; કચ્છી, , ڪڇّی) or Kachhi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Kutch region of India and Sindh region of Pakistan. The name of the language is also transliterated as Katchi, Kutchhi, Kachchi, Kachchhi, Kachhi or Cutc ...

of the Kutch district in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and spoken among the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

population of East Africa. It is the native language of some

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

families from

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

that have settled in the larger cities of mainland

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

, and is used as a second language by others of the Indian community. In these areas of East Africa, the language is typically only used by Muslim groups, whereas Hindu groups use Gujarati instead. In the language, words that are taken from Swahili are often modified to fit Kutchi pronunciation patterns; for instance, the Swahili word , meaning "plate", becomes in Kutchi-Swahili. Maho (2009) assigns different codes to Kutchi-Swahili and Asian Swahili (''Kibabu''), and ''Ethnologue'' also notes that these may not be the same.

References

Asian-Kenyan culture Asian diaspora in Tanzania Gujarati diaspora Indian-Kenyan culture Indian diaspora in Tanzania Swahili-based pidgins and creoles Culture of Zanzibar Languages attested from the 2nd millennium {{Swahili-stub