Bravanese dialect

{{Short description|Swahili variety of Somalia}} {{Infobox language |name=Bravanese |altname=Mwiini |nativename=''Chimwiini'' |states=[[Somalia]] |region=[[Barawa]] |ethnicity=[[Bravanese people|Bravanese]] |speakers=40,000 |date=1992 |ref=<ref name="Swa">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_country/Somalia/| title=Languages of Somalia| publisher=Ethnologue| access-date=30 October 2023}}</ref> |familycolor=Niger-Congo |fam2=[[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]] |fam3=[[Benue–Congo languages|Benue–Congo]] |fam4=[[Bantoid languages|Bantoid]] |fam5=[[Bantu languages|Bantu]] |fam6=[[Northeast Coast Bantu]] |fam7=[[Sabaki languages|Sabaki]] |fam8=[[Swahili language|Swahili]] |iso3=none |iso3comment=(included in {{ISO 639|swh|link=yes}} [swh]) |glotto=chim1312 |glottorefname=Chimwiini |guthrie=G.412 }}

'''Bravanese''', also called '''Chimwiini''' (ChiMwini, Mwiini, Mwini) or '''Chimbalazi''',<ref>I. M. Lewis, ''Islam in tropical Africa'', Volume 1964, (International African Institute in association with Indiana University Press: 1980), p.7.</ref> is a language related to [[Swahili language|Swahili]] spoken by the [[Bravanese people]], who are the predominant inhabitants of [[Barawa]] or Brava, in [[Somalia]].<ref>Abdullahi, p.11.</ref> Maho (2009) considers it a distinct dialect, and it has been classified as a Northern Dialect of Swahili.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qa4wDwAAQBAJ&q=nurse+hinnebusch+swahili&pg=PR19|title=Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History|last1=Nurse|first1=Derek|last2=Hinnebusch|first2=Thomas J.|last3=Philipson|first3=Gérard|date=1993|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520097759|language=en}}</ref> However, it strongly distinguishes itself from standard Swahili under all linguistic considerations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Brent |title=About |url=http://chimiini.org/html/about.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180903060711/http://chimiini.org/html/about.html |archive-date=2018-09-03 |website=chimiini.org}}</ref>

Due to the ongoing [[Somali Civil War]], most speakers have left the region and are scattered throughout the world in ex-refugee immigrant communities in places such as [[Columbus, Ohio|Columbus]] and [[Atlanta]] in the [[United States]], [[London]] and [[Manchester]] in the [[United Kingdom]], and [[Mombasa]], [[Kenya]]. It has fewer than 15,000 speakers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://users.clas.ufl.edu/bhendrsn/index_files/Page577.htm|title=Chimiini Language Project|website=users.clas.ufl.edu|access-date=2019-02-06|archive-date=2016-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612125727/http://users.clas.ufl.edu/bhendrsn/index_files/Page577.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Bravanese may have once served as a regional [[lingua franca]] due to the key coastal location of Barawa. One piece of linguistic evidence for this comes from morphological reduction. For example, it has a three-way [[Tense–aspect–mood|tense system]], which is simpler than that of neighboring [[Bantu languages|Bantu dialects]] historically spoken in Somalia.<ref name=":0" />

==See also== *[[Bravanese people]]

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book | last = Abdullahi | first = Mohamed Diriye | title = Culture and customs of Somalia | publisher = Greenwood | year = 2001 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2Nu918tYMB8C | isbn = 978-0-313-31333-2}}

{{Languages of Somalia}} {{Narrow Bantu languages (Zones E–H)}} [[Category:Languages of Somalia]] [[Category:Swahili language]]