# Swahili in Somalia: Chimwiini of Baraawe and Kibajuni of the Bajuni Islands

> Chimwiini (Bravanese) and Kibajuni (Bajuni): the Swahili-related languages of Baraawe, Kismaayo and the Bajuni Islands, their speakers and research.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/swahili-in-somalia/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Two Swahili languages on the Somali coast

The Italian linguist Marcello Lamberti, in his 1981 survey of Somalia's languages, found two Swahili-speaking minorities ([Landinfo 2011, p. 10](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)):

- the oldest families of the town of **Baraawe** ([Brava](/en/regions/barawa/)), whose language Somalis call **Af-Chimwiini**;
- the **Bajuni** of Kismaayo and the islands off its coast, whose language Somalis call **Af-Bajuni** and the Bajuni call **Kibajuni**. Lamberti judged Kibajuni the oldest speech form in Kismaayo.

The prefix **ki-** or **chi-** means "language" in Swahili and related languages ([Landinfo 2011, p. 10](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). The linguists Derek Nurse and Thomas Hinnebusch classify both as northern dialects of Swahili; the Bantu classification of Jouni Maho (2009) treats each as a separate language ([Bravanese dialect, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravanese_dialect); [Bajuni dialect, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajuni_dialect)).

## Chimwiini (Bravanese)

Chimwiini, also called Chimbalazi, Mwiini or Bravanese, is the language of the Bravanese people, the old inhabitants of Baraawe ([Bravanese dialect, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravanese_dialect)). The Chimiini Language Project led by Brent Henderson at the University of Florida says the language differs strongly from standard Swahili in sounds, grammar and words ([Bravanese dialect, Wikipedia, citing the Chimiini Project](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravanese_dialect)). It has a simpler three-way tense system than neighbouring Bantu languages, which some linguists read as a sign that it once served as a trade language on the coast.

After the civil war began in 1991, most speakers left Baraawe. They now live in [Columbus](/en/diaspora/columbus/) and [Atlanta](/en/diaspora/atlanta-clarkston/) in the United States, in [London](/en/diaspora/london/) and Manchester, and in Mombasa, Kenya. The Chimiini Project puts the total at fewer than 15,000 speakers ([Bravanese dialect, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravanese_dialect)).

Chimwiini was written in Arabic script. [Sheikh](/en/regions/sheikh/) [Uways al-Barawi](/en/people/uways-al-barawi/), born in Baraawe in 1847, modelled his Arabic spelling of southern Somali on the one the Amrani families of Baraawe used to write Chimwiini ([Wadaad's writing, Wikipedia, citing Lewis 1958 and Martin 2003](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadaad%27s_writing)).

## Kibajuni (Bajuni)

Kibajuni, also called Tikuu, is spoken by the Bajuni people of the small [Bajuni Islands](/en/regions/bajuni-islands/), the coast of Kenya and parts of southern Somalia, where they are a minority ([Bajuni dialect, Wikipedia, citing Abdullahi 2001 and Mwakikagile 2007](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajuni_dialect)). Lamberti noted that it has some sound changes of its own but is a Swahili dialect ([Landinfo 2011, p. 10](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Nurse and Hinnebusch record a sound like "ndr", a "d" with an r-like ending, in its consonants ([Bajuni dialect, Wikipedia, citing Nurse and Hinnebusch 1993](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajuni_dialect)).

Landinfo noted in 2011 that the number of speakers of these minority languages still in Somalia was likely low after the civil war ([Landinfo 2011, p. 9](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)).

## Read more

- [Minority communities](/en/society/minority-communities/)
- [Lower Juba](/en/regions/lower-juba/)
- [Mushunguli (Chizigula)](/en/society/mushunguli-language/)

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