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Culture of Somalia World map showing the location of Europe. ...
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Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ...
The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ...
The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ...
The East Cushitic languages comprise more than thirty languages belonging to the Cushitic family within the Afro-Asiatic phylum. ...
ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ...
ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ...
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Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...
Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ...
Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ...
Image File history File links Flag_of_Somalia. ...
Islam and poetry have been described as the twin pillars of Somali culture. ...
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| The Somali language (Af Soomaali) is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. It is spoken mostly in Somalia and adjacent parts of Djibouti (majority), Ethiopia and Kenya. Its speakers are known as Somalis. Because of the civil war and diaspora, speakers are found all over the world. The exact number of speakers is unknown but is estimated to be 10 million anywhere up to 16 million. One article from the Refugee Council puts the number at seven million Somalis, one million in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, and 300,000 in Kenya.[1] Ethnologue estimates 7.78 million speakers in Somalia and 12.65 million speakers worldwide.[2] However, the population of Somalia is estimated to be 8.8 million presently; one million more speakers more than Ethnologue estimates.[3] Another population estimate made by the Dutch Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht puts the Somali population somewhere between 10 and 15 million.[4] Combined with a large international expatriate community, it is difficult to get a specific number of Somali speakers, but somewhere between 10 and 16 million worldwide is a reasonable estimate. The vast majority of Somalis are Sunni Muslims. ...
Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya) is a coastal nation in East Africa, widely known as Horn of Africa. ...
Chopper scene from the Movie Rajo. ...
Somalia has the distinction of being one of only a handful of African countries that are composed almost entirely of one ethnic group, the Somalis. ...
Somalia produced a large amount of literature through Islamic poetry and Hadith from Somali Scholars of the last centuries to modern fiction from present day Somali writers which have received widespread success respectivly. ...
Cuisine of Somalia varies from region to region and it encompasses different styles of cooking. ...
A Somali rancher herds cattle in Kismayo. ...
The Somali National Army was, up until 1991, made up of the army, navy, air force, and air defense command. ...
The board used for Shax. ...
The Somali national anthem, Somalia, Wake Up, was composed by Ali Mire Awale-July 1947. ...
The Somali shilling (shilin soomaali) is the currency used in the African nation of Somalia. ...
The holidays in Somalia: Somalia uses two calendar systems: the Gregorian calendar primarily, but the Islamic calendar for religious holidays. ...
The East Cushitic languages comprise more than thirty languages belonging to the Cushitic family within the Afro-Asiatic phylum. ...
The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ...
For other uses, see Diaspora (disambiguation). ...
Classification Somali is an Afro-Asiatic language, of the East Cushitic branch. It is most closely related to Oromo and Afar. Somali has borrowed a certain number of words from Arabic since the arrival of Islam, mainly in the religious domain. It has also borrowed words from English and Italian from colonial times. The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ...
The East Cushitic languages comprise more than thirty languages belonging to the Cushitic family within the Afro-Asiatic phylum. ...
Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromoo, Oromiffa(a), and sometimes in other languages as variant spellings of these names (Oromigna, Afan Oromo, etc. ...
Afar () is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. ...
Arabic ( or just ) is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. ...
Islam (Arabic: ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Academic studies of Somali began to be published around 1900. Important later scholars are Abraham, Andrzejewski and Saeed. Compared with other Cushitic languages, Somali is relatively well-documented. The Cushitic languages are a subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages, named after the Biblical figure Cush by analogy with Semitic. ...
Geographic distribution Somali is spoken mostly in Somalia, eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya, but speakers are found all over the world because of the Somali civil war. Somali communities around the world, include, but are not limited to, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Australia. The Somali Civil War is an armed conflict in Somalia that started in 1988. ...
A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ...
World map showing the location of Europe. ...
World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...
Official status Somali is an official language in Somalia. While not official, Somali is also important in Djibouti, Ethiopia.
Dialects Saeed (1999) divides the dialects into three main groups: Northern, Benaadir and Maay. Northern Somali (or Northern-Central Somali) is also known as Common or Standard Somali. Benaadir is also known as Coastal Somalia - it is spoken on the Benadir Coast (from Cadale to south of Barawa, including Mogadishu), and in the immediate hinterland. The coastal dialects have additional phonemes which do not exist in Common Somali. Benadir is a coastal region of Somalia. ...
Barawa or Brava (Somali: Baraawe; Arabic: ‎ ; Bravanese: Mwiini or Nti ya Mbalazi) is a port town in the south eastern coast of Somalia. ...
Mogadishu (Somali: Muqdisho, popularly Xamar; Arabic: ; Italian: ), is the largest city in Somalia, and its capital. ...
The Digil and Mirifle clans (sometimes called Rahanweyn) live in the southern areas of Somalia. Recent research (Diriye Abdullahi, 2000) has shown that, although previously classified with Somali, their languages and dialects are incomprehensible to some Somali speakers. The most important language of the Digil and Mirifle is Maay. Other languages in this category are Jiido, Dabare, Garre, and Central Tunni. Of all these, Jiido is the most incomprehensible to Somali speakers. One important aspect in which the languages of the Digil and Mirifle differ from Somali is the lack of pharyngeal sounds. The retroflex /ɖ/ is also replaced by /r/ in some positions. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
The Rahanweyn (Somali Maay: Reewing) is a Somali clan, composed of two major sub-clans, the Digil and the Mirifle. ...
The Maay language, also known as Af Maay or Afmaay, is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family and is written using the Latin alphabet. ...
Of the Somali dialect groups, the most widely used is Common Somali. Common Somali is spoken in most of Somalia, and in adjacent territories (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti).However the media use Northern Somali dialect which is used by broadcasting stations in Somalia and in Somali-language broadcasts originating outside the country.
Phonology -
Somali has 22 consonant phonemes including at least one at every place of articulation on the IPA chart except epiglottal. It has 20 pure vowel phonemes and 20 diphthongs. They occur in front and back, and long and short pairs. This article describes the phonology (ie the sound system) of the Somali language. ...
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...
In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ...
Places of articulation (passive & active): 1. ...
Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...
Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
In phonetics, a diphthong (in Greek δίφθογγος) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...
It uses a system of tones which is usually classified as a pitch accent system. It also has front-back vowel harmony in word roots. It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ...
Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ...
Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ...
Grammar Somali is an agglutinative language. The basic grammatical categories are: - Noun
- Clitic pronoun
- Verb
- Adjective
- Verbal adposition
- Determiner
- Focus word
- Sentence type marker
- Conjunction
- Adverb
Somali has several strategies to indicate where the intention or the interest or the focus is located in the phrase: a topic-comment or focus construction. The words baa, ayaa, and waxaa put the focus on nouns and noun phrases. In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the thing being predicated (talked about), and the comment (or rheme) is the thing being said about the topic. ...
Example:
- John baa baxay - John Focus (baa) went out
- John ayaa baxay - John Focus (ayaa) went out
- Waxaa baxay John - Focus (waxaa) went out John
Thus, the words baa, ayaa, and waxaa unconsciously raise the question of who went out? Therefore the noun.
Somali also has the word waa which puts the focus on verbs and verb phrases.
Example:
John waa baxay - John Focus (waa) went out
Waa is different from other previous one we have just seen, because it raises the question of what did John do? Therefore the verb.
Sentences in Somali are typically of the order Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). Nouns have different tonal markings for number, gender (masculine and feminine), and case or role in the sentence. [1]
Writing system See also: The language and literacy issue for more information about the selection of the script. Somalia (Somali: Soomaaliya) is a coastal nation in East Africa, widely known as Horn of Africa. ...
At least four different writing systems have been devised for Somali: an Arabic-based abjad known as Wadaad's writing, a Latin-based alphabet and two native alphabets, the Osmanya script and the Borama script The first five letters of the Phoenician abjad, from right to left An abjad, sometimes also called a consonantary or consonantal alphabet, is a type of writing system in which there is one symbol per consonantal phoneme. ...
Example of Wadaads writing. ...
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...
The Osmanya alphabet is a script for the Somali language invented between 1920 and 1922 by the Sultan of Obbias brother, Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid. ...
Example of the Borama script. ...
Before the colonial period, educated Somalis and religious fraternities used the Arabic script (for example, Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's letter to a scholar, betraying him to the colonial powers, was in Arabic). The Qur'an was taught throughout Somalia, so children were exposed to the Arabic alphabet from a young age. Material discovered in 1940, mainly ancient letters and tomb inscriptions, demonstrates that the Somali language was written with the Arabic alphabet, like the Urdu and Persian languages. But this was not certainly "codified", and questions remain about the extent of its use. Further investigation is required. Mohammed Abdullah Hasssan on his famous horse Xin-Faniin Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid) (born April 7, 1864, in the north of Somalia, died December 21, 1920 in Imi, Ethiopia) was Somalias religious and nationalist leader (called the Mad Mullah by the British, although he was neither...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
The phrase Zaban-e Urdu-e Mualla written in Urdu Urdu () is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family that developed under Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, and Sanskrit influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). ...
Persian (Local names: Ùارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ...
The Osmanya alphabet was created in the 1920s by Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid. Following long debate, in 1972 the Latin-based script was finally adopted as the official one as part of a larger literacy program.
The Somali Latin alphabet, which follows an Arabic-based order, is:
', B, T, J, X, KH, D, R, S, SH, DH, C, G, F, Q, K, L, M, N, W, H, Y, A, E, I, O, U. For other uses, see Alphabet (disambiguation). ...
The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and others. ...
The voiced bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ...
The voiced alveolar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages (such as Russian, Spanish, Armenian, and Polish). ...
The voiceless alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. ...
The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. ...
The alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ...
The bilabial nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The alveolar nasal is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a fricative, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages which often behaves like a consonant, but sometimes behaves more like a vowel, or is indeterminate in its behavior. ...
The following elements of the Somali alphabet either are not IPA symbols in their lower case versions, or else have values divergent from IPA symbols: Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabetâ€. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...
- ' - /ʔ/
- J - /tʃ/
- X - /ħ/
- KH - /χ/
- SH - /ʃ/
- DH - /ɖ/
- C - /ʕ/
- Q - /ɢ/
- W - /w/ or the second element in a diphthong
- Y - /j/ or the second element in a diphthong
- A - /æ/ or /ɑ/
- E - /e/ or /ɛ/
- I - /i/ or /ɪ/
- O - /ɞ/ or /ɔ/
- U - /ʉ/ or /u/
The alphabet does not use the following letters of the Latin alphabet: P, V and Z. There are 3 consonant digraphs: DH, KH and SH. Tone is not marked and a word-initial glottal stop is also not shown. The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiced retroflex plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiced pharyngeal approximant/fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiced uvular plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...
The voiced labiovelar (actually labialized velar) approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in certain spoken languages. ...
The palatal approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels See also: IPA, Consonants Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels See also: IPA, Consonants Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...
Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
For consonants there is a one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel but the distinction between front and back vowels is not represented. Diphthongs are represented using Y or W as the second element (AY, AW, EY, OY and OW) and long diphthongs are shown with the first vowel doubled. In typography, a grapheme is the atomic unit in written language. ...
In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...
In phonetics, a diphthong (in Greek δίφθογγος) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...
There is no standardized orthography so variations occur. Particularly -ay and -ey are freely interchangeable at the end of a word.
Capital letters are used for names and at the beginning of a sentence.
References - Diriye Abdullahi, Mohamed. 2000. Le Somali, dialectes et histoire. Ph.D. dissertation, Université de Montréal.
- Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1993. Somali Reference Grammar. Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press.
- Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1999. Somali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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