Comorian

Why four island languages share one name

Shingazija on Ngazidja and Shimwali on Mwali form a western pair; Shindzuani on Ndzuani and Shimaore on Mayotte form an eastern one. Speakers within a pair understand each other, but across the groups the languages usually are not mutually intelligible and share only about 80% of their vocabulary. That has led some to treat Shikomori as two language groups of two languages each. Bantu speakers reached the islands between the 5th and 10th centuries, before the Shirazi Arabs.

How visitors mistook it for Swahili

Walter Payton claimed in 1613 to have recorded 14 words on Moheli, which would make Shimwali one of the first Bantu languages noted by a European. For more than a century afterwards visitors called the island languages a form of Swahili. In 1870 Gevrey dismissed Shingazija and Shinzwani as a patois of Zanzibar Swahili; a year later Kersten judged Shingazija a separate Bantu language. Charles Sacleux warned in his Swahili Grammar that the Comorian languages must not be confused with the Swahili spoken in the towns. Ottenheimer and colleagues in 1976 classed the Comorian languages as a group apart from Swahili.

Which scripts compete

Near-universal attendance at Quranic schools made the Arabic alphabet familiar to everyone, while few could read French, so Comorian was long written in Ajami. The French administration brought in the Latin alphabet. After independence in 1975 the government wanted a Latin spelling distinct from French, and in 2009 it decreed a modified Latin script for official use. Many now write in Latin letters, though Ajami remains common, especially among women.

Where French still dominates

French runs government, commerce and schooling, and during colonial rule Comorian was barred from schools. A 2025 Afrobarometer survey found that 89.9% of Comorians mainly speak Shikomori at home. Some scholars now see signs of endangerment in heavy code-switching and French borrowing.