Somali Language
From Halbeeg, the open encyclopedia · Af-Soomaali
1 languages
Somali is a language of the Afroasiatic family, belonging to the Cushitic branch, specifically classified within East Cushitic. It is the primary language of large populations in Somalia, Somaliland, the Somali regions of Ethiopia, northeastern Kenya and Djibouti, and of diaspora communities in Europe, North America, the Arab region and elsewhere.
Somali is an official language of Somalia and one of the working languages of Djibouti and the Somali regions of Ethiopia. It is used in education, media, administration and literature. Oral poetry—gabay (epic verse), geeraar (lyric), buraanbur (satirical poetry), heeso (song) and maahmaahyo (proverbs)—served as the principal means of preserving knowledge and history for a long period, before formal written traditions emerged.
Writing system
The official script for Somali is Somali Latin, based on the Roman alphabet, adopted in 1972 during the military government of Muhammad Siad Barre. The system, largely attributed to Shire Jaamac Ahmed, uses digraphs to represent long vowels (aa, ee, ii, oo, uu) and digraphs such as kh, sh and dh for certain consonants. The letters c and x represent pharyngeal sounds. Before 1972, various writing systems were in use, including Arabic script (Wadaad) and an orthography devised by Osman Yusuf Kenadid in the early twentieth century, known as Osmanya.
Grammar
Somali has a typical word order pattern of Subject–Object–Verb. It has two genders and a complex system of verb conjugation. A distinctive feature is the use of focus particles (such as waa, baa/ayaa, waxa) that mark which element carries emphasis. The language also employs pitch accent variation that can alter word meaning and number—for example, distinguishing singular from plural or one from many.
Dialects
Somali dialects are commonly grouped into three main varieties: Northern (Maxaa-tiri), which forms the basis of the standard language; Benaadir/Xamari, spoken along the central coast; and Maay, spoken in the south and significantly different from the others, which has led some scholars to view it as a separate language. Intelligibility between dialects varies considerably, particularly between Maay and Northern.