Sabaki languages

Not to be confused with Nyika language.

The Sabaki languages are the Bantu languages of the Swahili Coast, named for the Sabaki River. Sabaki is a Pokomo word for Large Fish. In addition to Swahili, Sabaki languages include Ilwana (Malakote) and Pokomo on the Tana River in Kenya, Mijikenda, spoken on the Kenyan coast; Comorian, in the Comoro Islands; and Mwani, spoken in northern Mozambique.^[3] In Guthrie's geographic classification, Swahili is in Bantu zone G, whereas the other Sabaki languages are in zone E70, commonly under the name Nyika.

Sabaki
Swahili–Nyika
Geographic distribution	Swahili Coast
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Northeast Coast Bantu Sabaki
Proto-language	Proto-Sabaki^[1]^[2]
Glottolog	coas1317

Languages

• Ilwana (Malakote) (E.701)
• Pokomo (E.71)
• Mijikenda (E.72–73) (North (Nyika), Segeju, Digo, Degere)
• Comorian languages,^[4] divided into two groups, Western (Shimwali and Shingazidja) and Eastern (Shimaore and Shindzwani)
• Mwani (Mozambique)
• Swahili: Makwe (Mozambique), Sidi (Pakistan), Tikulu (Bajuni Islands, Somalia), Socotra Swahili, Mwiini (Brava, Somalia), Coastal Swahili (Lamu, Mombasa, Zanzibar), Pemba Swahili (Pemba, Mafia)

In addition, there are several Swahili creoles and pidgins: Cutchi-Swahili, Kisetla (Settler Swahili), Engsh, Sheng, Shaba Swahili (Katanga Swahili, Lubumbashi Swahili), Ngwana (Congo Swahili), Kikeya.

References

1. Nurse, Derek; Spear, Thomas (10 June 2017). The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500. ISBN 9781512821666.
2. Swahili and Sabaki: A linguistic history. University of California publications in linguistics. University of California Press. 1993. ISBN 9780520097759.
3. Derek Nurse & Thomas J. Hinnebusch, 1993, Swahili and Sabaki: a linguistic history.
4. Maho (2009)