# Why is the Swahili language considered "potentially vulnerable" by "UNESCO" Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger? Doesn't make sense to me since it's a major language of Africa? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972 "2023-10-02T00:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/1 "2023-10-02T00:21:51Z")
Link: [https://en.wal.unesco.org/languages/swahili](https://en.wal.unesco.org/languages/swahili) ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/2 "2023-10-02T00:37:02Z")
That’s surprising. The Ethnologue site, which is a reliable source, has listings for Swahili in Tanzania and the Congo and shows it as an institutional language in those countries, so not endangered. [Swahili | Ethnologue Free](https://www.ethnologue.com/language/swh/) [Swahili, Congo | Ethnologue Free](https://www.ethnologue.com/language/swc/) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/3 "2023-10-02T00:39:47Z")
IIRC, the swahili spoken outside its native area has been pidgin-ized a bit, and English is taking over. But that is old data. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/4 "2023-10-02T00:43:35Z")
Only 65 out of the 7,000+ languages of the world are considered by UNESCO to be safe. Safe: 65 Potentially vulnerable: 1163 Endangered/unsafe: 2698 Definitely endangered: 2362 Severely endangered: 463 Critically endangered: 383 ---
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/5 "2023-10-02T00:47:52Z")
Well, it’s interesting to see then that is place hasn’t changed ---
**Author:** ![Jagraze1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jagraze1/32/14870_2.png) [@Jagraze1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagraze1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/6 "2023-10-02T00:48:26Z")
Surprisingly, there are some articles that claim, the use of Swahili is slowly declining [The Changing Position of Swahili in East Africa on JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1156672) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/7 "2023-10-02T03:07:50Z")
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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-swahili-language-considered-potentially-vulnerable-by-unesco-atlas-of-the-worlds-languages-in-danger-doesnt-make-sense-to-me-since-its-a-major-language-of-africa/990972/8 "2023-10-02T03:10:50Z")
Opening posts should contain enough information to start a conversation. Sometimes the “one box” summary of the link is enough, especially for something like a breaking news thread. But for one like this, you really need to give other posters a little more context. I’ve closed the thread. If you want to try again, i can merge this thread into the new one if you like.