Socotra Swahili language

{{Short description|Extinct Swahili variety formerly spoken on Socotra, Yemen}} {{Infobox language | name = Socotra Swahili | states = [[Yemen]] | region = [[Socotra]] | ethnicity = Soqotrans | extinct = late 20th century | 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|Northeast Coast]] | fam7 = [[Sabaki languages|Sabaki]] | fam8 = [[Swahili language|Swahili]] | iso3 = none | glotto = none | guthrie = G.411 | ietf = sw-u-sd-yesu }}

'''Socotra Swahili''' is an extinct variety of [[Swahili language|Swahili]], a [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] language, that was formerly spoken on the island of [[Socotra]] in [[Yemen]].<ref name="Guthrie"/> It was reported to be spoken by a fifth of the island (c. 2,000 people) in 1962.<ref name="FreemanGrenville1965">{{cite book |last=Freeman-Grenville |year=1965 |title=The French at Kilwa Island}} cited in {{cite book |last1=Ruete |last2=van Donzel |year=1993 |title=An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs |page=172, fn. 48}}</ref>

== Classification == Socotra Swahili belongs to the [[Sabaki languages|Sabaki]] branch of [[Northeast Coast Bantu languages|Northeast Coast Bantu]], within the broader Swahili dialect cluster.<ref name="Hammarstrom2019">{{cite book |last=Hammarström |first=Harald |year=2019 |chapter=An inventory of Bantu languages |editor-last=Van de Velde |editor-first=Mark |editor2-last=Bostoen |editor2-first=Koen |editor3-last=Nurse |editor3-first=Derek |editor4-last=Philippson |editor4-first=Gérard |title=The Bantu Languages |edition=2nd |series=Routledge Language Family Series |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=17–78 |doi=10.4324/9781315755946-2}}</ref>

The Swahili group as a whole is treated as a single language with ISO 639-3 code '''swh''' and glottocode '''swah1253''', covering both mainland and insular varieties.<ref name="GlottologSwahili">{{cite web |title=Swahili |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/swah1253 |website=Glottolog 5.2 |publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |access-date=24 November 2025}}</ref>

== Status and coding == A mid-20th-century account estimated that Socotra Swahili was spoken by about 2,000 people, around one fifth of Socotra's population at the time.<ref name="FreemanGrenville1965" />

Socotra Swahili does not have a separate [[ISO 639-3]] or [[Glottolog]] code; instead it falls under the general Swahili entry (ISO 639-3 '''swh''').<ref name="GlottologSwahili" /> In the [[ISO 639-2]] and [[ISO 639-1]] standards, the macrolanguage Swahili is assigned the alpha-3 code '''swa''' and alpha-2 code '''sw''', respectively, without distinguishing Socotra Swahili.<ref name="ISO639-2swa">{{cite web |title=Results for Search "swa" in ISO 639-2 Language Codes |url=https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes-keyword.php?SearchTerm=swa&SearchType=ALL&Submit=Go |website=ISO 639-2 Language Codes |publisher=Library of Congress |date=22 July 2024 |access-date=24 November 2025}}</ref> In Guthrie-based Bantu classifications, however, Socotra Swahili is explicitly identified as G.411, marking it as a distinct Swahili [[lect]] associated specifically with Socotra.<ref name="Guthrie"/><ref name="Hammarstrom2019" />

== Further reading == * {{cite journal |journal=Swahili Forum |year=2019 |volume=26 |title=Special issue: ''On variation in Swahili: Current approaches, trends and directions'' |publisher=Universität Leipzig |issn=1614-2373 |url=https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-709585 |language=sw}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Languages of Yemen]] [[Category:Swahili language]] [[Category:Socotra]] [[Category:Languages of the African diaspora]] [[Category:Extinct languages of Africa]]