Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Sanye, Guo Garimani
CLASSIFICATION		Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, South Cushitic
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		dal
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		Also known as Sanye, the preferred name since the name Dahalo is derogatory. (Dimmendaal and Voeltz 2007)

Compare Sources (7)

Information from: “Dahalo: an endangered language” (137-155) . Tosco, Mauro (1992) , Brenzinger, Matthias · Mouton de Gruyter

Endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
<400
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"Dahalo is a language spoken in the Lamu district of Coast Province, Kenya, by a few hundred people of all ages [...] Concerning the actual number of Dahalo speakers, it is calculated in "a few hundreds" by Ehret (1980: 12), about 500 (followed by a question mark) by Sasse (1981: 199), while Zaborski "could estimate about 280 of them, though the upper limit may be about 400" (1987: 223-234). The same estimate of "less than 400" is made by Art Rilling of the Kenya Working Group of the Summer Institute of Linguistics... (Rilling 1986: 5). We think that the figure of 400 cannot greatly exceed the truth."

DOMAINS OF USE
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
SPEAKER ATTITUDE: Indifferent
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: "Informants repeatedly told us that, while in the olden days there were Dahalo who did not master Swahili, today everybody can at least understand it. As a matter of fact, all the Dahalo we met were bilingual, while nobody had a good command of any other language. In particular, English - Kenya's official language - was totally unknown [...] None of [the Dahalo] had learnt to read, and even the hypothesis of written material in Dahalo seems to have been largely misunderstood: 'They seemed personally disinterested though not opposed to the development of mother tongue materials.' (Rilling 1986: 15)"

PLACES: Coast Province, Kenya

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Lamu District of the Coast Province, Kenya.

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
200-400
Native speakers worldwide

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

PLACES: Kenya

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "Lamu District of Coast Province." An area above the Tana River, bordered by Mokowe, Witu, and Kipini.

Ethnic population
3000

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: "Dahalo people are bilingual in Swahili, which is becoming their primary language."

PLACES: Kenya

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: "Near the mouth of the Tana River along the Kenyan coast"

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
400
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
400

DATE OF INFO: 1992

PLACES: Kenya;

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
400
Native speakers worldwide

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
400
Native speakers worldwide

	Contributions to the sociology of language, #64		1992	Dahalo: an endangered language	Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa	137-155	Brenzinger, Matthias	Mouton de Gruyter	Berlin & New York			Tosco, Mauro	Mauro Tosco. 1992. "Dahalo: An Endangered Language." In Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Brenzinger. 137-155. Mouton de Gruyter.	EBALL		<400		100-999	"Dahalo is a language spoken in the Lamu district of Coast Province, Kenya, by a few hundred people of all ages [...] Concerning the actual number of Dahalo speakers, it is calculated in "a few hundreds" by Ehret (1980: 12), about 500 (followed by a question mark) by Sasse (1981: 199), while Zaborski "could estimate about 280 of them, though the upper limit may be about 400" (1987: 223-234). The same estimate of "less than 400" is made by Art Rilling of the Kenya Working Group of the Summer Institute of Linguistics... (Rilling 1986: 5). We think that the figure of 400 cannot greatly exceed the truth."	Counting; Praying; Working	Swahili	Indifferent	"Informants repeatedly told us that, while in the olden days there were Dahalo who did not master Swahili, today everybody can at least understand it. As a matter of fact, all the Dahalo we met were bilingual, while nobody had a good command of any other language. In particular, English - Kenya's official language - was totally unknown [...] None of [the Dahalo] had learnt to read, and even the hypothesis of written material in Dahalo seems to have been largely misunderstood: 'They seemed personally disinterested though not opposed to the development of mother tongue materials.' (Rilling 1986: 15)"	Almost all	Endangered (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	11	14	12	Coast Province, Kenya	Lamu District of the Coast Province, Kenya.	-2.167909, 40.716019
0199255911			2005	The World Atlas of Language Structures			Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer	Oxford University Press	New York				2005. "The World Atlas of Language Structures." edited by Bernard Comrie et al. Oxford University Press.																		-2.33333333333,40.5
		16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)			M. Paul Lewis	SIL International	Dallas, TX		http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub	400	400	1992	100-999							Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)				Kenya;
		3rd	2010	Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger				UNESCO Publishing	Paris		http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas	Christopher Moseley (ed.)	Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)	ll_pub		400		100-999							Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)						-2.2625,40.7537
				World Oral Literature Project							http://www.oralliterature.org		"World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.			400		100-999							Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
	Contributions to the sociology of language, #64		1992	A survey on language death in Africa	Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa	402	Brenzinger, Matthias	Mouton de Gruyter	Berlin & New York			Sommer, Gabriele	Gabriele Sommer. 1992. "A Survey On Language Death in Africa." In Language death: factual and theoretical explorations with special reference to East Africa, edited by Matthias Brenzinger. 402. Mouton de Gruyter.	EBALL		200-400		100-999			Swahili; Aweera; Pokomo				Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)				Kenya	"Lamu District of Coast Province." An area above the Tana River, bordered by Mokowe, Witu, and Kipini.
9780700711970			2007	Africa	Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages		Christopher Moseley	Routledge		7		Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and F. K. Erhard Voeltz	Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. and F. K. Erhard Voeltz. 2007. "Africa." In Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, edited by Christopher Moseley. Routledge.		3000						Swahili		"Dahalo people are bilingual in Swahili, which is becoming their primary language."						Kenya	"Near the mouth of the Tana River along the Kenyan coast"

Dahalo

Language metadata

Language information by source

Endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

<400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

200-400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Discussion

Dahalo

Language metadata

Language information by source

Endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

<400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

200-400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

400

Discussion

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