Somali language

The Somali language (Somali: Af-Soomaali; Arabic: الصومالية‎) is a member of the Eastern branch of the Cushitic languages of the Afroasiatic family. It is spoken primarily in Somalia and adjacent parts of Djibouti (majority), Ethiopia, and Kenya. Due to the civil war and migration, speakers of the language are spread across many countries.

Historical, social and cultural aspects

Geographic distribution

Somali is spoken mainly in Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland (which separated from Somalia in 1991 and 1998 respectively, but do not yet enjoy international recognition), Ethiopia, Djibouti and eastern Kenya. Somali communities around the world include countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America and Australia. There are between 12 and 18 million speakers of the Somali language, as it is the official language of Somalia and its dismembered regions.

Dialects

Saeed (1999) divided the dialects into three main groups: Northern, Benaadir and Maay. Northern Somali is also known as Common or Standard Somali. The Benaadir dialect is also known as Coastal Somali (spoken on the Banaadir coast, from Cadale to southern Baraawe, including Mogadishu) and in nearby non-coastal areas. Coastal dialects have additional phonemes that do not exist in common Somali.

The Digil and Mirifle dialects (sometimes called Rahanwayn) survive in the southern areas of Somalia. Recent research by Diriye Abdullahi, in 2000, showed that although they are previously related to Somali, their languages and dialects are incomprehensible to other speakers. The most important language of the Digil and Mirifle dialects is Maay. Other languages in this category are Jiido, Dabare, Garre, and Tunni. Of all of these, Jiido is the most incomprehensible to Somali speakers. An important aspect in which the Digil and Mirifle dialects differ from Somali is the lack of pharyngeal sounds.

Of the Somali dialect groups, the most widely used is the so-called Common Somali, spoken in most of Somalia and adjacent territories, and used by the Somali media.

Classification

Somali is an Afro-Asiatic language. The language closest to Somali is Oromo and it also has a significant number of words of Arabic origin in its lexicon. It also has linguistic loanwords from English and Italian from the colonial era.

Academic studies of the Somali language began to be published around 1870. Some of the most important scholars are R. C. Abraham, as well as B. W. Andrzejewski, Annarita Puglielli and John I. Saeed.

Linguistic description

Phonology

Somali has 22 consonant sounds. These consonants are given in the following table, although not all of these distinctions are phonemic. The sound inventory is:

Some additional comments should be noted:

• /./ is oclusiva retrofleja sonora. Some sexists say that for some speakers it has the quality of implosive. Sometimes it is pronounced as a [ventricular] among vowels.
• The deaf occlusives /t/ and /k/ are always sucked.
• The fricative watch /χ/ is often pronounced [x], i.e. a fricative watch deaf. All words with this fonema are adoptions of the Arabic. It can "somaly" replacing with [.].
• /./ is spinning pharyngeal friction, you can have a sparkling voice.
• /r/ is often pronounced with the shortened voice and may be partially deafened.

Grammar

Somali is an agglutinative language.

Lexical comparison

The numerals for different varieties of Somali are:

GLOSA	Garreh	Somali	Tunni	PROTO- SOMALÍ
1	kow	ków	ków	♪
2	lamma	Lab	Call.	♪
3	siddeh	Saddeħ	yesddi	♪ Isidde ♪
4	afar	afar	afar	♪
5	・an	ARIA	ARIA	*ritan
6	li	liħ	lí	♪ Liħ
7	toddobe	toddobá	toddóbo	♪ alldoba
8	siye	siddè devoted	siyé	*sidde
9	saga memorial	saga memorial	sagátile	*saga
10	tommon	Toban	Tomon	♪