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Socotra Swahili language

Socotra Swahili is an extinct variety of Swahili, a Bantu language, that was formerly spoken on the island of Socotra in Yemen. It was reported to be spoken by a fifth of the island (c. 2,000 people) in 1962.

Classification

Socotra Swahili belongs to the Sabaki branch of Northeast Coast Bantu, within the broader Swahili dialect cluster.

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.

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.

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). 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. 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.

Further reading

References