SWAHILI FORUM 26 (2019): 89-121 SPECIAL ISSUE: Variation in Swahili, ed. by Daisuke Shinagawa & Nico Nassenstein A BRIEF SKETCH OF CHIMIINI WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON CONTACT-INDUCED PHENOMENA MEIKAL MUMIN & GERRIT J. DIMMENDAAL Chimiini is an Eastern Bantu language which until recently was spoken exclusively by inhabitants of Brava, a coastal town of Southern Somalia (hence its alternative name, Bravanese). As illustrated in this paper, it shows traces of contact with northern varieties of Swahili such as Amu, Siu, Pate, and Mvita, to which it is closely related, and also of contact with the Cushitic languages Somali, Tunni, to Bajuni, as well as the Semitic language Arabic, and Italian and English. As further shown below, variation within Chimiini also reflects emblematic features of specific clans and lineages within the speech community. In addition, differences from earlier accounts of this language con- cerning the interpretation of its phonological and morphosyntactic structure are discussed in this paper. 1. Introduction Mwiini or Miini (also known as Chimwiini, Chimiini, Chimbalazi, or Bravanese) is a term used for the language in the older scholarly literature, based on the endo-glottonym of what was the primary language of the inhabitants of an urban community. The speakers of Chimiini refer to Brava as Miini (lit. ‘in/at the town’), to themselves as Waantu wa Miini (lit. ‘people of Miini’), and to their language as Chi-m(ʷ)iini ‘the language (spoken) in the city’. In addition, Chimiini served as a lingua franca with migrants speaking other languages in this urban area, many of whom eventually gave up their primary languages in favour of Chimiini. Nevertheless, individ- ual or family-wide bilingualism is still widely established, particularly with the Arab strata of migrants, but also with a good number of speakers whose families were originally speakers of Tunni (which may be treated as a variety of Somali). Bravanese society is sub-divided into clans (for which Mwiini speakers use the term qabiiɹa, from Arabic qabīla ‘tribe’) and lineages (referred to as reeri, from Somali reer ‘clan’), some of which show certain idiosyncrasies in their speech both phonologically and morphologically. It should be emphasized that the use of these terms from Arabic and Somali reflect the emic per- spective of the Mwiini speech community and not necessarily that of anthropologists. These groups include Haatimi, Bida, Mashariifu, Shangamaasi, Wa-‘Ooji (or Ooji), and the Wa-arabu (or Wa-‘arabu) wa Miini. There are three groups which are identified by the majority of Brava- nese as being the result of more recent waves of immigration, namely the Shangamaasi, the Wa-arabu wa Miini, and the Wa-‘Ooji. The Shangamaasi (< Tunni Shan Gamaas ‘five clans’) are a Somali lineage of speakers of Af-Tunni, some of whom have become first language speak- ers of Chimiini. The Wa-arabu wa Miini are groups of people who immigrated in the second