Symbols
92Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Alphabet
The Latin alphabet of Shingazidja in dictionary order, one row per letter. Ɓ ɓ and Ɗ ɗ, the implosive b and d, sit on the rows of B and D. C, Q and X are left out: they turn up only in French spellings of names.
Arabic script
The 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet in their traditional order, read right to left in a text. Comorian was written with them for centuries and still is in religious and older writing.
Punctuation
French-style guillemets for Latin-script quotations; the Arabic comma and question mark for Arabic-script text.
Currency
The Comorian franc has no sign of its own; it is written KMF or FC and is pegged to the euro.
Where it's spoken
Grande Comore (Ngazidja) in the Comoros, and the large Comorian community in France, Marseille above all.
Ngazidja in emoji
Mount Karthala, the island itself, the islands of the moon, ylang-ylang, the coelacanth, the grand mariage and its drums.
On the map
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Shingazidja and the Comorian language
Shingazidja is the Comorian spoken on Ngazidja, the island the French call Grande Comore, home of the capital Moroni and of Mount Karthala . The prefix shi- means 'the language of', so Shingazidja is 'the language of Ngazidja', just as Shikomori is Comorian as a whole. CLDR estimates about 330,000 speakers in the Comoros; many more live abroad, above all in France, where Marseille has one of the largest Comorian communities anywhere.
Comorian is a Bantu language, a close relative of Swahili, and anyone who knows Swahili will recognise many words, such as marahaba 'thank you'. Each island has its own variety: Shingazidja and Shimwali in the west, Shindzuani (see Ndzwani Comorian) and Shimaore of Mayotte in the east. They differ enough that ISO gives each its own code, and Shingazidja's is zdj. Arabic and French share official status with Comorian in the Comoros.
The Comorian alphabet in Latin letters, with ɓ and ɗ
Written in Latin letters, Shingazidja uses A B Ɓ C D Ɗ E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y Z. The five vowels a e i o u are pronounced as in Swahili or Italian and take no accents. Q and X are not part of the native spelling; C is used in native Comorian words.
The two special letters are Ɓ ɓ (b with hook) and Ɗ ɗ (d with hook). They write the implosive b and d: the voice box drops while the lips or tongue close, so the sound is pulled slightly inwards instead of pushed out. Comorian keeps a contrast between these and the ordinary b and d, and the hook is how the linguist-made Latin spelling used in dictionaries and teaching material shows it. The same two letters are used for the same sounds in Hausa and Fula in West Africa. Everyday writing on phones often drops the hook and writes plain b and d, so a word can be spelled both ways online.
Several sounds are written with two letters rather than a special sign: sh, ny, ts and dz (as in Ndzuani, the Comorian name of Anjouan), and the nasal clusters mb, nd and ng at the start of words, as in Ngazidja itself. French-style spellings such as ou for u and dj for j, as in Moroni's place names and in the French name of the island, Grande Comore, are still common in names and on signs.
How to type ɓ and ɗ
Standard Windows and Mac keyboards have no key for these letters, so the quickest way is to copy them here. On Windows, in Word or WordPad, type the code and press AltX: 0253 gives ɓ, 0181 Ɓ, 0257 ɗ and 018A Ɗ. On a Mac, switch on the Unicode Hex Input keyboard and hold Option while typing the same four digits.
On a phone, add a keyboard for a language that uses the hooked letters, such as Hausa, and the hooked letters are often offered when you long-press b and d, depending on the keyboard. In web pages, write ɓ for ɓ and ɗ for ɗ. Watch the look-alike Đ đ (d with stroke) and Ð (eth): they are different letters and will not be found by a search for ɗ.
Comorian in Arabic script
Long before Latin letters, Comorian was written in Arabic script, the way Swahili was on the East African coast. Islam has been the faith of the islands for many centuries, children learn the Arabic alphabet at Quranic school, and letters, poems and records in Comorian were written with it from right to left: ا ب ت ث ج ح خ and the rest of the 28 letters shown above. Sounds Arabic does not have, such as p or the implosives, were spelled differently from writer to writer, because this way of writing was never standardised.
Arabic script is still read daily for religion, and Arabic is an official language of the country, so Arabic punctuation, including the comma ، and the question mark ؟, goes with Arabic-script text, while French-style « guillemets » are used for quotations in Latin-script and French text. For the full Arabic alphabet with its vowel marks, see the Arabic collection; for French accents used in Comorian schools and offices, see French.
Comorian franc, the flag and Ngazidja emoji
The Comorian franc has no Unicode sign: it is written KMF in banking and FC on price tags. It is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate (1 EUR 491.96775 KMF), but denotes euros, not Comorian francs.
The flag has a blue stripe for Ngazidja among its four island stripes, and people from the island add for Karthala, for the islands of the moon, for ylang-ylang, for the coelacanth that lives off Grande Comore's volcanic slopes, and for the anda, Ngazidja's grand mariage. More flag and country emoji are in the Comoros collection.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyShingazidja (Comorian) Alphabet combos
10Worth knowing
- Ɓ and ɗ, the letters that make Comorian spelling look unusual, are the same letters Hausa writes in Nigeria and Niger, thousands of kilometres away, for the same implosive sounds.
- Shingazidja, Shimwali, Shindzuani and Shimaore each have their own ISO language code, although Comorians usually speak of one language, Shikomori.
- Komori, the Comorian name of the islands, is often linked to the Arabic qamar, 'moon', as in Juzur al-Qamar, the islands of the moon, although the exact origin of the name is debated.
Questions people ask
6What alphabet does Comorian use?
Today mostly the Latin alphabet, with two extra letters, ɓ and ɗ, for the implosive b and d; Comorian was written in Arabic script for centuries before that, and still is in religious and older writing.
What is Shingazidja?
The Comorian language of Ngazidja (Grande Comore), the largest island of the Comoros. Its ISO code is zdj, and it is a close relative of Swahili.
How do you type ɓ on a keyboard?
Copy it from this page, or in Word type 0253 and press AltX (0181 for Ɓ). On a Mac use the Unicode Hex Input keyboard and Option0253. On a phone, add a Hausa keyboard and try long-pressing b.
How do you type ɗ?
In Word type 0257 and press AltX (018A for Ɗ), or on a Mac hold Option with Unicode Hex Input; in HTML write ɗ. Do not confuse it with đ (d with stroke).
Is Comorian the same as Swahili?
No, but they are close relatives: both are Bantu languages of the same branch and share much vocabulary, such as marahaba for thank you. Speakers of one do not fully understand the other without practice.
What languages are spoken in the Comoros?
Comorian (Shikomori), Arabic and French are the official languages. Comorian has four island varieties: Shingazidja, Shimwali, Shindzuani and Shimaore.
