The Makwe or Macue language () is a close relative of
Swahili spoken on the coast of the
Cabo Delgado Province
Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). It borders the Mtwara Region in the neighbouring country of Tanzania, and the provinces of Nampula and Niassa.
The Province is ri ...
of
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
, and across the border in
Mtwara Region of
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. Although it shares high lexical similarity (60%) with Swahili, it is not intelligible with it, nor with its cousin
Mwani. Arends et al. suggest it might turn out to be a
Makonde–Swahili
mixed language
A mixed language, also referred to as a hybrid language or fusion language, is a type of contact language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. ...
.
A grammar of the Makwe language by Maud Devos was published in 2008.
References
Languages of Mozambique
Swahili language
{{Swahili-stub