Bravanese , also called Chimwiini (ChiMwini, Mwiini, Mwini) or Chimbalazi , is a related to Swahili spoken by the Bravanese people , who are the predominant inhabitants of Barawa or Brava, in Somalia . Maho (2009) considers it a distinct dialect, and it has been classified as a Northern Dialect of Swahili. However, it strongly distinguishes itself from standard Swahili under all linguistic considerations.
5-581: Bida ( Chimini : Bidda, Somali : Biida) or Bido are a clan confederacy based in Baraawe , South West State of Somalia and make up one of the groups part of the "todobo Tol" (roughly translates to 7 clans) also known as Bravanese people. Member clans of this clan umbrella can also be found in other confederacies further up the coast in Marka and Mogadishu . Biida, which translates to "settled" in Chimini ,
10-569: Is a clan confederacy now made up of 10 clans, where each clan came in different historical periods and joined over the course of the last millennia. The original members of this confederacies belonged to the Wa'ili, Amwawi, Jabri, Qahtani and other tribes from mainly southern Arabia. These Arabic names can still be found on the nisbas of the local families however in the course of times these names have changed locally, hence Wa'ili are called Ra Waali, Amwawi are called Ra Ma'limu, Jabri are called Gabra/Gabro and
15-535: The Qahtani are called Reer Faqi . Any new arrivals from Arabia could potentially be included under this confederacy/umbrella after they had settled in Baraawe for some time and they gave official allegiance to the confederation. Members of the Biida confederacy can be found all over southern Somalia 's major cities such as Mogadishu , Marka , Afgooye , Jilib , Buale , Baidoa , Bardheere and Diinsoor . Some of
20-541: The member clans under the Biida umbrella can also be found in other confederacy of clans further up the coast in Marka and Mogadishu , such as the reer Faqi 's and the Shanshiyo's . Members of the Biidah umbrella clans can also be found in both Zanzibar and Kenya , especially in coastal settlements such as Lamu , Malindi and Mombasa (most had moved to these areas after the war). Bravanese dialect Due to
25-648: The ongoing Somali Civil War , most speakers have left the region and are scattered throughout the world in ex-refugee immigrant communities in places such as Columbus and Atlanta in the United States , London and Manchester in the United Kingdom , and Mombasa , Kenya . It has fewer than 15,000 speakers. Bravanese may have once served as a regional lingua franca due to the key coastal location of Barawa. One piece of linguistic evidence for this comes from morphological reduction. For example, it has
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