Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Comorian, Comores Swahili, Komoro, Comoro, Shimaore
CLASSIFICATION		Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Benue-Congo, Southern Bantoid
ORTHOGRAPHY		Arabic, Roman scripts
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		swb
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Maore Shindzwani
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search

Compare Sources (4)

Information from: “The clause structure of the Shimaore dialect of Comorian (Bantu)” . Alnet, Aimee Johansen (2009)

Threatened

40 percent certain, based on the evidence available

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

French
Malagasy

LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS

"The official language, French, is the native language of less than 1% of the population, but it is widely spoken by younger speakers, who learn it to a near-native level in school. Around 30% of the population has Malagasy as its native language, with about one-third of the villages of Mayotte being Malagasy-speaking. Shimaore and the other dialects of Comorian are the native language of approximately 70% of the population, and Shimaore is widely spoken by native Malagasy speakers. Shimaore has traditionally been the language of communication between Shimaore speakers and Malagasy speakers, although this tendency is under increasing pressure from French.... young people are using less and less Shimaore and more
and more French in their daily interactions.

Codeswitching occurs a great deal among younger speakers who master both Shimaore and French."

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
Scripts (Writing system): Arabic, Roman scripts

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
97,900
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"92,800 in Mayotte" (Johnstone 1993).

		2006	Madagascar and the Comoros / Madagaskar und die Komoren	Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of language and society / Soziolinguistik: ein internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft	1987-1988	Ammon, Ulrich and Dittmar, Norbert and Mattheier, Klaus and Trudgill, Peter	Walter de Gruyter	v. 3	Berlin & New York			Chaudenson, Robert	Chaudenson, Robert. 2006. "Madagascar and the Comoros / Madagaskar Und Die Komoren." In Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of language and society / Soziolinguistik: ein internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft, edited by Ulrich Ammon et al.. v. 3: 1987-1988. Walter de Gruyter.	EBALL				Arabic for reading the Koran; French in schools	French, Arabic, Kibushi Malagasy
		2009	The clause structure of the Shimaore dialect of Comorian (Bantu)							University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign		Alnet, Aimee Johansen	Alnet, Aimee Johansen. The Clause Structure of the Shimaore Dialect of Comorian (Bantu). PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.	HHOLD					French, Malagasy	"The official language, French, is the native language of less than 1% of the population, but it is widely spoken by younger speakers, who learn it to a near-native level in school. Around 30% of the population has Malagasy as its native language, with about one-third of the villages of Mayotte being Malagasy-speaking. Shimaore and the other dialects of Comorian are the native language of approximately 70% of the population, and Shimaore is widely spoken by native Malagasy speakers. Shimaore has traditionally been the language of communication between Shimaore speakers and Malagasy speakers, although this tendency is under increasing pressure from French.... young people are using less and less Shimaore and more and more French in their daily interactions. Codeswitching occurs a great deal among younger speakers who master both Shimaore and French."	Threatened (40 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	12	12
0199255911		2005	The World Atlas of Language Structures			Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer	Oxford University Press		New York				2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.											-12.0,44.0
	16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)			M. Paul Lewis	SIL International		Dallas, TX		http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub	97,900	10000-99999	"92,800 in Mayotte" (Johnstone 1993).				Vulnerable (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)

Maore Comorian

Language metadata

Language information by source

Threatened

40 percent certain, based on the evidence available

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

97,900

Discussion