Simplified Italian of Somalia

Simplified Italian of Somalia is an Italian-based Pidgin that developed in Italian Somaliland during the Italian Colonial Period. The Pidgin was very similar to Italian Eritrean Pidgin and used mostly in the capital region of Mogadishu aswell as other Italianized towns such as Genale or Villabruzi

The Italian language began to spread throughout Somalia during the Colonial period which lasted from 1889 until 1960. Italian was quickly picked up by the local inhabitants and started to become a part of daily life. There were even several newspapers and radio channels in the Italian language. However, the Standard Italian used by the government and crown of Italy differed from the variety used by the inhabitants of Somalia due to the original linguistic differences between Italian and local languages as well as the geographic isolation of the new pidgin from the Italian Peninsula