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 in 1962.

Classification

Socotra Swahili belongs to the Sabaki branch of [Northeast Coast Bantu languages|Bantu languages|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. 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.