Comorian is a Bantu language spoken on the Comoros Islands and Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. There are also some speakers in Madagascar and Réunion. In 2004 there were about 700,000 speakers. Comorian is related to Swahili and is sometimes known as Comores Swahili.
There are a number of dialects of Comorian, including Ngazidja, or Shingazidja, which is spoken on Grande Comore; Maore, or Shimaore, which is spoken mainly on Mayotte; Ndzwani, or Shindzwani, which is spoken on Anjouan, and Mwali, or Shimwali, which is spoken on Moheli.
Historically Comorian was written with a version of the Arabic script, which is still used. The Latin alphabet was adopted to write the language after Comoros was colonised by France in the 19th century. The Latin alphabet introduced in colonial times was modified, and the modified version is still used, however these days more people use the Arabic script and the Latin alphabet.
ح, ع and ق are only used in words borrowed from Arabic
Download an alphabet chart for Comorian (Excel)
Ha mwakinisho ukaya ho ukubali ye sheo shaho wo ubinadamu piya pvamwedja ne ze haki za wadjibu zaho usawa, zahao, uwo ndo mshindzi waho uhuria, no mlidzanyiso haki, ne amani yahe duniya kamili.
Source: http://unicode.org/udhr/d/udhr_zdj.html
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Details of the Comorian alphabets and the sample text were provided by Michael Peter Füstumum
Information about Comorian | Numbers
Information about the Comorian language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comorian_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/zdj
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/swb
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/wni
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/wlc
http://daharicomores.org/en/the-comoros/comorian-language/
http://www.palashiyo.org/quest-ce-le-comorien
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Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 24.03.22
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