Somali language

{{main|Afroasiatic languages|Cushitic languages}}

Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, specifically, Lowland East Cushitic in addition to Afar and Saho.{{cite book |last=Lewis|first=I.|year=1998|title=Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho|publisher=Red Sea Press|isbn=9781874209829|page=11}} Somali is the best-documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies of the language dating back to the late 19th century.{{Harvcoltxt|Dubnov|2003|p=9}}

The Somali language is spoken in Somali inhabited areas of Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen and by members of the Somali diaspora. It is also spoken as an adoptive language by a few ethnic minority groups and individuals in Somali majority regions.

Somali is the most widely spoken Cushitic language in the region followed by Oromo and Afar.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=3}}

As of 2021, there are approximately 24 million speakers of Somali, spread in Greater Somalia of which around 17 million reside in Somalia.{{Cite web |title=Somalia {{!}} Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/SO/ |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Ethnologue (Free All) |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Somali - Worldwide distribution |url=https://www.worlddata.info/languages/somali.php |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Worlddata.info |language=en}} The language is spoken by an estimated 95% of the country's inhabitants, and also by a majority of the population in Djibouti.{{Harvcoltxt|Lecarme|Maury|1987|p=22}}

Following the start of the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s, the Somali-speaking diaspora increased in size, with newer Somali speech communities forming in parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe.{{cite web |date=2021 |title=Somali |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/som |access-date=June 28, 2021 |publisher=SIL International}}

{{Culture of Somalia}}

Constitutionally, Somali and Arabic are the two official languages of Somalia.{{cite web|title=The Federal Republic of Somalia - Provisional Constitution|url=http://www.somaliweyn.com/pages/news/Aug_12/Somalia_Constitution_English_FOR_WEB.pdf|access-date=13 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124010543/http://www.somaliweyn.com/pages/news/Aug_12/Somalia_Constitution_English_FOR_WEB.pdf|archive-date=24 January 2013}} Somali has been an official national language since January 1973, when the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) declared it the Somali Democratic Republic's primary language of administration and education. Somali was thereafter established as the main language of academic instruction in forms 1 through 4, following preparatory work by the government-appointed Somali Language Committee. It later expanded to include all 12 forms in 1979. In 1972, the SRC adopted a Latin orthography as the official national alphabet over several other writing scripts that were then in use. Concurrently, the Italian-language daily newspaper Stella d'Ottobre ("The October Star") was nationalized, renamed to Xiddigta Oktoobar, and began publishing in Somali.{{Harvcoltxt|Ammon|Hellinger|1992|pp=128–131}} The state-run Radio Mogadishu has also broadcast in Somali since 1951.{{cite web |date=March 30, 2010 |title=A Guiding Voice Amid the Ruins of a Capital City |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/africa/30mogadishu.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820135347/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/africa/30mogadishu.html |archive-date=August 20, 2023 |access-date=August 25, 2023 |website=The New York Times}}{{cite web |date=April 9, 2022 |title=Radio Muqdisho |url=https://radiomuqdisho.so/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822062210/https://radiomuqdisho.so/ |archive-date=August 22, 2023 |access-date=August 25, 2023 |website=Radio Muqdisho}} Additionally, other state-run public networks like Somaliland National TV, regional public networks such as Puntland TV and Radio and, as well as Eastern Television Network and Horn Cable Television, among other private broadcasters, air programs in Somali.{{cite web|title=Somali Media Mapping Report|url=http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://somali-media.so/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014_05_01_Somali-Media-Mapping-Report.pdf|publisher=Somali Media Mapping|access-date=31 August 2014}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Somali is recognized as an official working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.{{cite book|editor-last1=Kizitus |editor-first1=Mpoche|editor-last2=Mbuh|editor-first2=Tennu |title=Language, literature, and identity|year=2006|publisher=Cuvillier|isbn=3-86537-839-0|pages=163–164|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PNEiAQAAMAAJ}} Although it is not an official language of Djibouti, it constitutes a major national language there. Somali is used in television and radio broadcasts,{{cite web|title=Ethnologue - Djibouti - Languages|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/country/DJ/languages|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=25 April 2013}} with the government-operated Radio Djibouti transmitting programs in the language from 1943 onwards.{{Harvcoltxt|Dubnov|2003|p=10}}

The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation also broadcasts in the Somali language in its Iftin FM Programmes. The language is spoken in the Somali territories within North Eastern Kenya, namely Wajir County, Garissa County and Mandera County.{{cite book|title=Mobile Urbanity Somali Presence in Urban East Africa|page=34|year=2019|first=Neil|last=Carrier|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=9781789202977}}Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/5g2xHqL7Eyo Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200316013804/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g2xHqL7Eyo&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g2xHqL7Eyo| title = KBC yazindua kitua kipya cha redio kwa lugha ya Kisomali | website=YouTube| date = 18 November 2015 }}{{cbignore}}

The Somali language is regulated by the Regional Somali Language Academy, an intergovernmental institution established in June 2013 in Djibouti City by the governments of Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is officially mandated with preserving the Somali language.{{cite web|title=Regional Somali Language Academy Launched in Djibouti|url=http://www.comesaria.org/site/en/news_details.php?chaine=regional-somali-language-academy-launched-in-djibouti&id_news=17578&id_article=119|publisher=COMESA Regional Investment Agency|access-date=28 February 2014|archive-date=21 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150121105039/http://www.comesaria.org/site/en/news_details.php?chaine=regional-somali-language-academy-launched-in-djibouti&id_news=17578&id_article=119|url-status=dead}}

As of 2025, Somali, Afar and Oromo are the only 3 Cushitic languages available on Google Translate.{{cite news|title=Google Translate - now in 80 languages|url=http://googletranslate.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/google-translate-now-in-80-languages.html|access-date=30 December 2013|newspaper=Google Translate|date=10 December 2013}}

{{main|Somali languages|Northern Somali|Benadiri Somali}}

File:Distribution-of-Somali-dialectals.png

The Somali languages are broadly divided into three main groups: Northern Somali, Benadir and Maay.{{Harvcoltxt|Dalby|1998|p=571}} Northern Somali forms the basis for Standard Somali. It is spoken by the majority of the Somali population{{harvcoltxt|Dalby|1998|p=571}} with its speech area stretching from Djibouti, and the Somali Region of Ethiopia to the Northern Frontier District.{{cite book|title=Mundus, Volumes 23-24|publisher=Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft|year=1987|page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQlJAQAAIAAJ}} This widespread modern distribution is a result of a long series of southward population movements over the past ten centuries from the Gulf of Aden littoral.{{Harvcoltxt|Andrzejewski|Lewis|1964|p=6}} Lamberti subdivides Northern Somali into three dialects: Northern Somali proper (spoken in the northwest; he describes this dialect as Northern Somali in the proper sense), the Darod group (spoken in the northeast and along the eastern Ethiopia frontier; greatest number of speakers overall), and the Lower Juba group (spoken by northern Somali settlers in the southern riverine areas).{{cite book|last=Lamberti|first=Marcello|date=1986 |title=Map of Somali dialects in the Somalia Democratic Republic|publisher=H. Buske|url=http://dspace-roma3.caspur.it/bitstream/2307/3034/1/Map%20of%20the%20Somali%20Dialects%20in%20the%20Somali%20Democratic%20Republic.pdf|isbn=9783871186905}}

File:Shaxmednuradc1.ogg

Benadir (also known as Coastal Somali) is spoken on the central Indian Ocean seaboard, including Mogadishu. It forms a relatively smaller group. The dialect is fairly mutually intelligible with Northern Somali.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=4}}

File:Northern_Somali_Dialects.png

Maay is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans in the southern regions of Somalia.{{Harvcoltxt|Dalby|1998|p=571}} Its speech area extends from the southwestern border with Ethiopia to a region close to the coastal strip between Mogadishu and Kismayo, including the city of Baidoa. Maay is partially mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali,Somali Dialects in the United States: How intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? by Deqa Hassan (Minnesota State University - Mankato) with the degree of divergence comparable to that between Spanish and Portuguese.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5AZyEhMtbkC|title=Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society|last=Lewis|first=I. M.|date=1998-01-01|publisher=The Red Sea Press|isbn=9781569021033|page=74|language=en}} Despite these linguistic differences, Somali speakers collectively view themselves as speaking a common language.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c81yAAAAMAAJ|title=Somali nationalism: international politics and the drive for unity in the Horn of Africa|publisher=Department of Linguistics and the African Studies Center, University of California, Los Angeles|year=1963|page=24|isbn=978-0-674-59435-7 }} It is also not generally used in education or media. However, Maay speakers often use Standard Somali as a lingua franca, which is learned via mass communications, internal migration and urbanization.{{cite web|title=Maay - A language of Somalia|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ymm|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=7 May 2013}}

{{main|Somali phonology}}

Different analyses have proposed somewhat different vowel inventories and features for Somali, depending on the set of speakers whose dialects are studied. Up to four features may be phonologically distinctive: height, backness, tongue root, and length.

Saeed (1982) and Orwin (1994) both propose systems with five core vowels, but only Orwin's system makes a tongue root distinction.{{cite journal |last1=Saeed |first1=John I. |title=Central Somali--A Grammatical Outline |journal=Afroasiatic Linguistics |date=1982 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=1--43 |url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/933/1/Central%20Somali.%20A%20grammatical%20Outline%20%28John%20I.%20Saeed%29.pdf |access-date=12 April 2025}}{{rp|3}}{{cite book |last1=Orwin |first1=Martin |title=Aspects of Somali Phonology |date=1994 |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33834/1/11010624.pdf |access-date=12 April 2025}}{{rp|61}} Gabbard (2010) proposes a system with six core vowels, with a tongue root distinction, but only on front vowels.{{harvcoltxt|Gabbard|2010|p=15}}

Orwin argues that, in addition to the vowels listed above, each of these five vowels has a fronted (advanced tongue root) variant, based on the existence of minimal pairs such as:

• duul ("fly!") vs. du̘u̘l ("attack!")
• keen ("bring!") vs. ke̘e̘n ("he brought")

Gabbard claims that only the front vowels ({{IPA slink|i}} and {{IPA slink|e}}) have advanced variants, though his system includes a sixth vowel, {{IPA slink|ɑ}}. Both Orwin and Gabbard agree that the precise phonetic and phonological difference between the advanced and retracted tongue root vowels are unclear.{{rp|61}}

Somali has 22 consonant phonemes.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=7}}

:{{note|lent|†|The consonants {{IPA link|/b d̪ ɡ/}} often lenite to {{IPA link|[β̞ ð ɣ]}} intervocalically.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=8}}}}

The retroflex plosive {{IPA|/ɖ/}} may have an implosive quality for some Somali Bantu speakers, and intervocalically it can be realized as the flap {{IPA|[ɽ]}}. Some speakers produce {{IPA|/ħ/}} with epiglottal trilling as /{{IPA link| ʜ}}/ in retrospect.{{Harvcoltxt|Gabbard|2010|p=14}} {{IPA|/q/}} is often epiglottalized.{{Harvcoltxt|Edmondson|Esling|Harris|2004|p=5}}

The letter {{grapheme|dh}} is pronounced as a retroflex flap {{IPAblink|ɽ}} when it occurs intervocalically, as in qudhaanjo.

The letter {{grapheme|kh}}, found in Arabic loanwords, is rarely pronounced as a velar fricative. It is more often conflated with {{IPAslink|q}}, which is pronounced {{IPAblink|χ}} in syllabic coda position.

Pitch is phonemic in Somali, but it is debated whether Somali is a pitch accent, or it is a tonal language.{{cite book|last=Keith Brown|first=Sarah Ogilvie|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World|year=2010|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0080877754|page=987|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC}} Andrzejewski (1954) posits that Somali is a tonal language,{{cite book|last1=Andrzejewski|first1=Bogumit Witalis|title="Is Somali a Tone-language?", Proceedings of the Twenty-Third International Congress of Orientalists|date=1954|publisher=Royal Asiatic Society|pages=367–368|oclc=496050266}} whereas Banti (1988) suggests that it is a pitch system.

The syllable structure of Somali is (C)V(C).

Root morphemes usually have a mono- or di-syllabic structure.

Clusters of two consonants do not occur word-initially or word-finally, i.e., they only occur at syllable boundaries. The following consonants can be geminate: /b/, /d/, /ɖ/, /ɡ/, /ɢ/, /m/, /n/, /r/ and /l/. The following cannot be geminate: /t/, /k/ and the fricatives.

Two vowels cannot occur together at syllable boundaries. Epenthetic consonants, e.g. [j] and [ʔ], are therefore inserted.

{{main|Somali grammar}}

Somali is an agglutinative language, and also shows properties of inflection. Affixes mark many grammatical meanings, including aspect, tense and case.{{Harvcoltxt|Dubnov|2003|p=11}}

Somali has an old prefixal verbal inflection restricted to four common verbs, with all other verbs undergoing inflection by more obvious suffixation. This general pattern is similar to the stem alternation that typifies Cairene Arabic.{{cite book|last=Kraska|first=Iwona|title=Analogy: the relation between lexicon and grammar|year=2007|publisher=Lincom Europa|isbn=978-3895868986|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFxiAAAAMAAJ}}

Somali has two sets of pronouns: independent (substantive, emphatic) pronouns and clitic (verbal) pronouns.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=68}} The independent pronouns behave grammatically as nouns, and normally occur with the suffixed article -ka/-ta (e.g. adiga, "you"). This article may be omitted after a conjunction or focus word. For example, adna meaning "and you..." (from adi-na). Clitic pronouns are attached to the verb and do not take nominal morphology.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=72}} Somali marks clusivity in the first person plural pronouns; this is also found in a number of other East Cushitic languages, such as Rendille and Dhaasanac.{{Harvcoltxt|Weninger|2011|p=43}}

As in various other Afro-Asiatic languages, Somali is characterized by polarity of gender, whereby plural nouns usually take the opposite gender agreement of their singular forms.{{cite journal|last=Tosco|first=Mauro|author2=Department of Anthropology |author3=Indiana University |title=Is There an "Ethiopian Language Area"?|journal=Anthropological Linguistics|year=2000|volume=42|issue=3|page=349|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MOZoAAAAIAAJ|access-date=8 May 2013}}{{Harvcoltxt|Zwicky|Pullum|1983|p=389}} For example, the plural of the masculine noun dibi ("bull") is formed by converting it into feminine dibi. Somali is unusual among the world's languages in that the object is unmarked for case while the subject is marked, though this feature is found in other Cushitic languages such as Oromo.{{cite book|last=John I. Saeed|title=The Syntax of Focus & Topic in Somali|year=1984|publisher=H. Buske|isbn=3871186724|page=66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JxoOAAAAYAAJ}}

Somali is a subject–object–verb (SOV) language. It is largely head final, with postpositions and with obliques preceding verbs.{{Harvcoltxt|Heine|Nurse|2000|p=253}} These are common features of the Cushitic and Semitic Afroasiatic languages spoken in the Horn region (e.g. Amharic).{{cite book|last=Klaus Wedekind|first=Charlotte Wedekind, Abuzeinab Musa|title=A learner's grammar of Beja (East Sudan): grammar, texts and vocabulary (Beja-English and English-Beja)|year=2007|publisher=Rüdiger Köppe Verlag|isbn=978-3896455727|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vs4XAQAAIAAJ}} However, Somali noun phrases are head-initial, whereby the noun precedes its modifying adjective.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|pp=164, 173}} This pattern of general head-finality with head-initial noun phrases is also found in other Cushitic languages (e.g. Oromo), but not generally in Ethiopian Semitic languages.{{Harvcoltxt|Fisiak|1997|p=53}}

Somali uses three focus markers: baa, ayaa and waxa(a), which generally mark new information or contrastive emphasis.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=117}} Baa and ayaa require the focused element to occur preverbally, while waxa(a) may be used following the verb.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=240}}

File:Somlangbooks.jpg

Somali loanwords can be divided into those derived from other Afroasiatic languages (mainly Arabic), and those of Indo-European extraction (mainly Italian).

Somali's main lexical borrowings come from Arabic, and are estimated to constitute about 20% of the language's vocabulary.{{Harvcoltxt|Laitin|1977|p=25}} This is a legacy of the Somali people's extensive social, cultural, commercial and religious links and contacts with nearby populations in the Arabian peninsula. Arabic loanwords are most commonly used in religious, administrative and education-related speech (e.g. aamiin for "faith in God"), though they are also present in other areas (e.g. kubbad-da, "ball").{{Harvcoltxt|Dubnov|2003|p=71}} Soravia (1994) noted a total of 1,436 Arabic loanwords in Agostini a.o. 1985,{{Harvcoltxt|Versteegh|2008|p=273}} a prominent 40,000-entry Somali dictionary.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=5}} Most of the terms consisted of commonly used nouns. These lexical borrowings may have been more extensive in the past since a few words that Zaborski (1967:122) observed in the older literature were absent in Agostini's later work. In addition, the majority of personal names are derived from Arabic.{{Harvcoltxt|Saeed|1999|p=2}}

The Somali language also contains a few Indo-European loanwords that were retained from the colonial period. Most of these lexical borrowings come from English and Italian and are used to describe modern concepts (e.g. telefishen-ka, "the television"; raadia-ha, "the radio").{{Harvcoltxt|Dubnov|2003|p=73}} There are 300 loan words from Italian, such as garawati for "tie" (from Italian {{lang|it|cravatta}}), dimuqraadi from {{lang|it|democratico}} (democratic), mikroskoob from {{lang|it|microscopio}}, and so on.

Additionally, Somali contains lexical terms from Persian, Urdu and Hindi that were acquired through historical trade with communities in the Near East and South Asia (e.g. khiyaar "cucumber" from {{langx|fa|خيار}} khiyār ). Other loan words have also displaced their native synonyms in some dialects (e.g. jabaati "a type of flat bread" from Hindi: चपाती chapāti displacing sabaayad). Some of these words were also borrowed indirectly via Arabic.{{Harvcoltxt|Sheik-ʻAbdi|1993|p=45}}

As noted by Somali historian Mohammed Nuuh Ali, the Somali language also incorporates various loanwords from Old Harari.{{cite book |last1=Ali |first1=Mohamed |title=History in the Horn of Africa, 1000 B.C.-1500 A.D. Aspects of Social and Economic Change Between the Rift Valley and the Indian Ocean |publisher=UCLA |page=151 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/History_in_the_Horn_of_Africa_1000_B_C_1/7gYucAAACAAJ?hl=en}}

As part of a broader governmental effort of linguistic purism in the Somali language, the past few decades have seen a push in Somalia toward replacement of loanwords in general with their Somali equivalents or neologisms. To this end, the Supreme Revolutionary Council during its tenure officially prohibited the borrowing and use of English and Italian terms.

{{main|Somali alphabets}}

File:Ciismaniya.jpg writing script for Somali.]]

File:10437 2015 9184 Fig8 HTML.webp

Archaeological excavations and research in Somalia uncovered ancient inscriptions in a distinct writing system.Ministry of Information and National Guidance, Somalia, The writing of the Somali language, (Ministry of Information and National Guidance: 1974), p.5 In an 1878 report to the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, scientist Johann Maria Hildebrandt noted upon visiting the area that "we know from ancient authors that these districts, at present so desert, were formerly populous and civilised[...] I also discovered ancient ruins and rock-inscriptions both in pictures and characters[...] These have hitherto not been deciphered."Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 22, "Mr. J. M. Hildebrandt on his Travels in East Africa", (Edward Stanford: 1878), p. 447. According to the 1974 report for Ministry of Information and National Guidance, this script represents the earliest written attestation of Somali.

Much more recently, Somali archaeologist Sada Mire has published ancient inscriptions found throughout Somaliland. As for much of Somali linguistic history the language was not widely used for literature, Dr. Mire's publications however prove that writing as a technology was not foreign nor scarce in the region.{{Cite journal|last=Mire|first=Sada|date=2015-03-01|title=Mapping the Archaeology of Somaliland: Religion, Art, Script, Time, Urbanism, Trade and Empire|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=32|issue=1|pages=111–136|doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9184-9|issn=1572-9842|doi-access=free}} These pieces of writing are from the Semitic Himyarite and Sabaean languages that were largely spoken in what is modern day Yemen —"there is an extensive and ancient relationship between the people and cultures of both sides of the Red Sea coast" Mire posits. Yet, while many more such ancient inscriptions are yet to be found or analyzed, many have been "bulldozed by developers, as the Ministry of Tourism could not buy the land or stop the destruction".

Besides Ahmed's Latin script, other orthographies that have been used for centuries for writing the Somali language include the long-established Arabic script and Wadaad's writing.{{cite web|title=Somali writing scripts |url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm|website=Omniglot|access-date=8 May 2013}} According to Bogumił Andrzejewski, this usage was limited to Somali clerics and their associates, as sheikhs preferred to write in the liturgical Arabic language. Various such historical manuscripts in Somali nonetheless exist, which mainly consist of Islamic poems (qasidas), recitations and chants.{{cite book|last1=Andrezewski|first1=B. W.|title=In Praise of Somali Literature|date=July 2013|publisher=Lulu|isbn=978-1291454536|pages=130–131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90CdBQAAQBAJ|access-date=17 January 2015}} Among these texts are the Somali poems by Sheikh Uways and Sheikh Ismaaciil Faarah. The rest of the existing historical literature in Somali principally consists of translations of documents from Arabic.{{cite book|last1=Andrezewski|first1=B. W. |title=In Praise of Somali Literature|date=July 2013|publisher=Lulu|isbn=978-1291454536|page=232 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90CdBQAAQBAJ|access-date=17 January 2015}}

Since then a number of writing systems have been used for transcribing the Somali language. Of these, the Somali Latin alphabet, officially adopted in 1972, is the most widely used and recognised as official orthography of the state.Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), Middle East annual review, (1975), p.229 The script was developed by a number of leading scholars of Somali, including Musa Haji Ismail Galal, B. W. Andrzejewski and Shire Jama Ahmed specifically for transcribing the Somali language, and uses all letters of the English Latin alphabet except p, v and z.{{harvcoltxt|Abdullahi|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00diri/page/n98 73]}}{{Cite book|last=Lewis|first=I. M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eK6SBJIckIsC&pg=PR17|title=A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa|date=1999|publisher=James Currey Publishers|isbn=978-0-85255-280-3}} There are no diacritics or other special characters except the use of the apostrophe for the glottal stop, which does not occur word-initially. There are three consonant digraphs: DH, KH and SH. Tone is not marked, and front and back vowels are not distinguished.

Writing systems developed in the twentieth century include the Osmanya, Borama and Kaddare alphabets, which were invented by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur and Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare, respectively.{{Harvcoltxt|Laitin|1977|pp=86–87}}

Several digital collections of texts in the Somali language have been developed in recent decades. These corpora include Kaydka Af Soomaaliga (KAF), Bangiga Af Soomaaliga, the Somali Web Corpus (soWaC),Sketch Engine. https://www.sketchengine.eu/sowac-somali-corpus/. Retrieved October 19, 20204. a Somali read-speech corpus, Asaas (Beginning in Somali) and a Web-Based Somali Language Model and text Corpus called Wargeys (Newspaper in Somali).Nimaan, Abdillahi. 2014. Building and Evaluating Somali Language Corpora. In Jeff Good, Julia Hirschberg & Owen Rambow (eds.), Proceedings of the 2014 Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages, 73–76. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.3115/v1/W14-2210.

{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2020}}

For all numbers between 11 kow iyo toban and 99 sagaashal iyo sagaal, it is equally correct to switch the placement of the numbers, although larger numbers is some dialects prefer to place the 10s numeral first. For example 25 may both be written as labaatan iyo shan and shan iyo labaatan (lit. Twenty and Five & Five and Twenty).

Although neither the Latin nor Osmanya scripts accommodate this numerical switching.

*the commas in the Osmanya number chart are added for clarity

• Languages of Djibouti
• Languages of Somalia
• Languages of Kenya
• Somali Sign Language
• Somali literature
• Somali Studies

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|22em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book |last=Abdullahi |first=Mohamed Diriye |title=Culture and Customs of Somalia |publisher=Greenwood |year=2001 |url=https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00diri |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-313-31333-2 }}
• {{cite book|last1=Ammon|first1=Ulrich|last2=Hellinger|first2=Marlis|year=1992|title=Status Change of Languages|publisher=Walter de Gruyter}}
• {{cite book|last1=Andrzejewski|first1=B.|last2=Lewis|first2=I.|title=Somali poetry: an introduction|year=1964|publisher=Clarendon Press|url=https://archive.org/details/somalipoetryintr0000andr|url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book|last=Dalby|first=Andrew|title=Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1998}}
• {{cite book|last=Dubnov|first=Helena|title=A Grammatical Sketch of Somali|year=2003|publisher=Rudiger Koppe Verlag|location=Koln}}
• {{cite report |last1=Edmondson |first1=Jerold A. |last2=Esling |first2=John H. |last3=Harris |first3=Jimmy G. |year=2004 |title=Supraglottal cavity shape, linguistic register, and other phonetic features of Somali |url=http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/somali.pdf |access-date=2020-11-21 |archive-date=2012-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315001803/http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/somali.pdf |url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book|first=Jacek|last=Fisiak|title=Linguistic reconstruction and typology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zBV_O3Y4Ov0C&pg=PA53|year=1997|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-014905-0}}
• {{citation|last=Gabbard|first=Kevin|year=2010|title=A Phonological Analysis of Somali and the Guttural Consonants|publisher=The Ohio State University|hdl=1811/46639|type=Thesis}}
• {{cite book|last1=Heine|first1=Bernd|first2=Derek|last2=Nurse|title=African Languages: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7XhcYoFxaQC&pg=PA349|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66629-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Laitin|first=David|year=1977|title=Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience|publisher=University Of Chicago Press}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Lecarme|first1=Jacqueline|last2=Maury|first2=Carole|year=1987|title=A software tool for research in linguistics and lexicography: Application to Somali|journal=Computers and Translation|volume=2|pages=21–36|publisher=Paradigm Press|doi=10.1007/BF01540131|s2cid=6515240}}
• {{cite book|last=Saeed|first=John|year=1999|title=Somali|location=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins|isbn=1-55619-224-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Sheik-ʻAbdi|first=ʻAbdi ʻAbdulqadir|title=Divine madness: Moḥammed ʻAbdulle Ḥassan (1856-1920)|year=1993|publisher=Zed Books}}
• {{cite book|last=Versteegh|first=Kees|title=Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4|year=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9004144767|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQOAQAAMAAJ}}
• {{cite book|first=Stefan|last=Weninger|title=Semitic Languages: An International Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMzgBLT87MkC&pg=PA42|year=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-025158-6}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Zwicky|first1=Arnold|last2=Pullum|first2=Geoffrey|year=1983|title=Phonology in Syntax: The Somali Optional Agreement Rule|journal=Natural Language & Linguistic Theory|volume=1|issue=3|pages=385–402|url=http://www.stanford.edu/~zwicky/SomaliOptional.pdf|doi=10.1007/bf00142471|s2cid=170420275}}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Lilias E. |author-link=Lilias Armstrong |year=1969 |title=The phonetic structure of Somali |orig-date=orig. pub. 1934, Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen zu Berlin, vol. 37 |hdl=2307/4698 |hdl-access=free |publisher=Gregg International Publishers |isbn=0576-11443-X}}
• {{cite book |last=Bell |first=C. R. V. |year=1953 |title=The Somali Language |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co.}}
• {{cite book |last=Berchem |first=Jörg |year=1991 |title=Referenzgrammatik des Somali |location=Köln |publisher=Omimee |isbn=3921008018}}
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Somaliland | volume= 25 |last= Cana |first= Frank Richardson |author-link= | pages = 378–384;see page 379 |quote= Inhabitants.—The Somali belong to the Eastern (Abyssinia) Hamitic family.... Their influence has been very slight even on the Somali language, whose structure and vocabulary are essentially Hamitic, with marked affinities to the Galla on the one hand and to the Dankali (Afar) on the other.|short= 1}}
• {{cite book |last=Cardona |first=G. R. |year=1981 |chapter=Profilo fonologico del somalo |title=Studi Somali I: Fonologia e Lessico |editor-first=G. R. |editor-last=Cardona |editor-first2=F. |editor-last2=Agostini |publisher=Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Dipartimento per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, Comitato Tecnico Linguistico per l'Universita Nazionale Somala |location=Roma |language=it |oclc=15276449}}
• {{cite thesis |last=Diriye Abdullahi |first=Mohamed |year=2000 |title=Le Somali, dialectes et histoire |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=Université de Montréal |hdl=1866/30162 |hdl-access=free |lang=fr}}
• {{cite book |last=Dobnova |first=Elena Z. |year=1990 |title=Sovremennyj somalijskij jazyk |location=Moskva |publisher=Nauka}}
• {{cite book |last=Lamberti |first=M. |year=1986 |title=Die Somali-Dialekte |location=Hamburg |publisher=Buske}}
• {{cite book |last=Lamberti |first=M. |year=1986 |title=Map of the Somali-Dialects in the Somali Democratic Republic |location=Hamburg |publisher=Buske}}
• {{cite book |last=Puglielli |first=Annarita |year=1997 |chapter=Somali Phonology |title=Phonologies of Asia and Africa |volume=1 |editor-first=Alan S. |editor-last=Kaye |location=Winona Lake |publisher=Eisenbrauns |pages=521–535 |isbn=978-1-57506-019-4}}
• {{cite book |last=Saeed |first=John Ibrahim |year=1987 |title=Somali Reference Grammar |location=Springfield, VA |publisher=Dunwoody Press |isbn=0931745330 |oclc=18561242 |lccn= 87-073464}}

{{InterWiki|code=so}}

{{Wikivoyage|Somali phrasebook|Somali|a phrasebook}}

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{{Wikiquote|Somali proverbs}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/19991130050350/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Louvre/2521/somali.html Somali Language Page: Resources, links and information on the Somali language.]
• [http://hooyo.web.free.fr/E_table.html Hooyo.Web - Somali Grammar]
• [http://hdl.handle.net/2077/51577 Somali Language and Linguistics: A Bibliography]
• [http://learn101.org/somali.php Learn101 - Learn Somali]
• [https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/osmanya.htm Virtual keyboard for historical Osmanya script]. Lexilogos.
• [http://www.digitaldialects.com/Somali.htm Digital Dialects - Somali language learning games]
• [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7QxuLt-N559YjhzUXdXYmotaG8/view Enhancing the Quality of Google Somali Translations]

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