Miini – A Lonely Bantu Outpost in the Vast North

Abstract

The article deals with Miini, spoken in the town of Brava. Some regard it as a northern Swahili dialect, others view it as a closely related language. The town and its speech form have existed for probably a millennium. During most of that period it flourished, surrounded by a community or communities speaking southern Somali dialects. When the Somali central government collapsed in 1991 it was invaded and occupied by the Habr Gidir clan, part of the larger Hawiye group. Most inhabitants who could left. It is currently severely endangered, having been largely replaced by Somali. It is treated under these headings: geography and population; history; political, socio-cultural, and economic context; linguistics; regularity/complexity/stability; contact phenomena; sociolinguistics; language variation; language use and attitudes, language and education; networks.