About Mayotte > The Languages

The Maoris constitute the principal ethnic group with 59.4% of the population. With the other Comorian living in Mayotte they talk the same language, the 'mahorais', a Bantu language also called 'shimaore' for a huge part of the population, that is to say 71.3%.

Concerning the other Comorian this language is a second one because they generally use other varieties of linguistic such as the 'grand-comorien' or 'shingazidja' from the Grande-Comore, the Maoris called 'shimwali' from Mohel, or the 'anjouanais' also called 'shindzuani' from Anjouan. All of these languages are Comorian ones derived from the 'swahili' which belong to the Bantu family. Moreover the majority of the languages used in the south of Africa are from the same family.

The Comorian languages belong to the sub-group of the 'oriental Bantu' which also comprise the 'swahili'. It is said that the origin of these languages is situated in the Kenya , and after this, because of all the migratory flows between the continent and the Comorian islands, each of them have evolved differently. Today Maoris attending school have French as a second language, and it is estimated that about 60% of the islanders master the French as a second language; it seems to be no one who could be unilingual French-speaking.