| Bravanese | |
|---|---|
| Mwiini | |
| Chimwiini | |
| Native to | Somalia |
| Region | Barawa |
| Ethnicity | Bravanese |
Native speakers | (40,000 cited 1992)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | (included inKiswahili [swh]) |
| Glottolog | chim1312 |
G.412[2] | |
| ELP | Mwini |
Bravanese, also calledChimwiini (ChiMwini, Mwiini, Mwini) orChimbalazi,[3] is a language related toSwahili spoken by theBravanese people, who are the predominant inhabitants ofBarawa or Brava, inSomalia.[4] Maho (2009) considers it a distinct dialect, and it has been classified as a Northern Dialect of Swahili.[5] However, it strongly distinguishes itself from standard Swahili under all linguistic considerations.[6]
Due to the ongoingSomali Civil War, most speakers have left the region and are scattered throughout the world in ex-refugee immigrant communities in places such asColumbus andAtlanta in theUnited States,London andManchester in theUnited Kingdom, andMombasa,Kenya. It has fewer than 15,000 speakers.[7]
Bravanese may have once served as a regionallingua 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-waytense system, which is simpler than that of neighboringBantu dialects historically spoken in Somalia.[5]
