Editing Comorian languages (section)

== History and classification ==
The first Bantu speakers arrived at the Comoros sometime between the 5th and 10th centuries, before the Shirazi Arabs.<ref name=":2" />

=== Shimwali ===
The Shimwali dialect was possibly one of the earliest Bantu languages to be recorded by a European. On July 3, 1613, Walter Payton claimed to have recorded 14 words on the island of [[Mohéli|Moheli]], stating "They speak a kind of [[Morisco]] language." [[Thomas Roe|Sir Thomas Roe]] and Thomas Herbert also claimed to have recorded vocabulary.<ref>Roe, Sir Thomas (1615). Observations Collected out of the Journal of Sir Thomas Roe, Knight, Lord Embassadour from His Majestie of Great Britaine, to the Great Mogol . . . I. Occurrents and Observations, in Samuel Purchas (1905) Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes,-ol. IV. Glasgow.</ref>

Until the 1970s, it was considered a dialect or archaic form of Swahili. This was first proposed in 1871, when Kersten suggested it might be a mixture of Shingazija, Swahili, and Malagasy. In 1919 Johnston, referring to it as  'Komoro Islands Swahili - the dialect of 'Mohila' and 'the 'Mohella' language', suggested that, taken together with the other two dialects in the Comoros, it might be an ancient and corrupt form of Swahili. However, Ottenheimer et al. (1976) found this to not be the case. Instead, they classify Shimwali, as well as the other Comorian languages, as a separate language group from Swahili.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last1=Ottenheimer |first1=Harriet Joseph |last2=Ottenheimer |first2=Martin |title=The Classification of the Languages of the Comoro Islands |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |date=1976 |volume=18 |issue=9 |pages=408–415 |jstor=30027589 }}</ref>

=== Shinzwani ===
Shinzwani was first noted by a South African missionary Reverend William Elliott in 1821 and 1822. During a 13-months' mission stay on the island of [[Anjouan]] he compiled a vocabulary and grammar of the language. Elliott included a 900-word vocabulary and provided 98 sample sentences in Shinzwani. He does not appear to have recognized noun- classes (of which there are at least six in Shinzwani) nor does he appear to have considered Shinzwani a Bantu language, only making a superficial connection to Swahili.<ref name=":1" />

The dialect was noted again in 1841 by Casalis, who placed it within Bantu, and by Peters, who collected a short word list. In 1875 Hildebrandt published a Shinzwani vocabulary and suggested in 1876 that Shinzwani was an older form of Swahili.

The idea of the distinctness of Shingazija and Shinzwani from Swahili finally gained prominence during the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century. In 1883, an analysis by Gust distinguished Shinzwani from Swahili. He discusses Shinzwani and Swahili as two separate languages which had contributed to the port-language which he referred to as Barracoon.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=Irvine |date=1963 |title=Evolutionary Factors in Mauritian Creole |journal=Journal of African Languages |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=2–14 }}</ref>

In 1909 two publications reaffirmed and clarified the distinctiveness of Shinzwani, Shingazija and Swahili. Struck published a word list which appeared to have been recorded by a Frenchman in Anjouan in 1856, identified the words as belonging to Shinzwani and noted some influence from Swahili.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Doke |first=Clement M. |title=Bantu: Modern Grammatical, Phonetical and Lexicographical Studies Since 1860 |year=1945 |isbn=9781138095816 |location=Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Heepe |first=Martin |title=Die Komorendialekte Ngazidja, Nzwani und Mwali |year=1920 |isbn=978-1361862162 |location=Hamburg |language=de |trans-title=The Comorian Dialects Shingazija and Shimwali}}</ref>

In his Swahili Grammar, Sacleux cautioned that although Swahili was spoken in the Comoros it must not be confused with the native languages of the Comoros, Shinzwani and Shingazija. He said that while Swahili was mostly spoken in cities, the Comorian languages were widely spoken in the countryside.<ref>Sacleux, Ch. (1909). Grammaire des Dialects Swahilis. Paris.{{pn|date=February 2024}}</ref>

=== Shingazija ===
Shingazija was not documented until 1869 when Bishop Edward Steere collected a word list and commented that he did not know which language family it belonged to. In 1870 Gevrey characterized both Shingazija and Shinzwani as the 'Souaheli des Comores' (Swahili of the Comoros) which was only a 'patois de celui de Zanzibar'. However, Kersten noted in 1871 that Shingazija was not at all like Swahili but was a separate Bantu language.

Torrend was the first to identify the difference between Shingazija and Shinzwani in 1891. He attempted to account for Shingazija by suggesting that it was a mixture of Shinzwani and Swahili.<ref name=":1" />