Languages of Somalia
Languages of Somalia | |
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Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic | |
Foreign | Arabic (13.3% as second language),[1] English, Italian, Swahili |
Signed | Somali Sign Language |
Keyboard layout |
The
Cushitic languages
Somali language
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Culture of Somalia |
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Culture |
People |
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As of 2006, there were approximately 16.6 million speakers of Somali, of which about 8.3 million reside in Somalia.
Somali
Northern Somali (Maxaa Tiri) is the main Somali dialect spoken in the country, it is also the main Somali dialect of Djibouti.[11]
The Somali language is regulated by the Regional Somali Language Academy, an intergovernmental institution established in June 2013 by the governments of Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is officially mandated with preserving the Somali language.[12]
Somali Sign Language
The
Minorities
Other minority languages include
Vulnerable and endangered languages
Vulnerable Cushitic languages
- Garre Garre language (57,500 speakers as of 1992)
- Tunni[14] Tunni language (23,000 speakers as of 2006)
Endangered Cushitic languages
- Aweer Aweer language, also known as "Boni", Waata, Wata, Sanye, Wasanye, Waboni, Bon, Ogoda, or Wata-Bala (Less than 200 speakers)
- Boon Boni language, also known as Af-Boon or Boni (59 speakers as of 2000).
Endangered Atlantic-Congo languages
- Mushungulu, also known as Kimushungulu or Mushunguli language(23,000 speakers as of 2006).
Adjacent islands
In 2010, Somalia claimed that the island of
Semitic languages
Arabic
In addition to Somali, Arabic, which is also an Afro-Asiatic tongue, is an official language in Somalia, although as a non-indigenous language, it is considered exoglossic.[3][4] SIL estimates the total number of speakers, regardless of proficiency, at just over two million.[16] It is used as a liturgical language as it is the language of Qur'an. Somalis learn to read and write Arabic from a young age.
Af-Somali's main lexical borrowings come from Arabic. Soravia (1994) noted a total of 1,436 Arabic
Soqotri
Due to the close distance between Somalia and Socotra, there has always been extensive relations between the two peoples particularly with the nearby region of Puntland which is the nearest mainland shore to Socotra. These interactions between Puntites and Soqotris include instances of aid during shipwrecks on either coasts, trade as well as the exchange of cultural facets and trade. These interactions have also meant that some inhabitants of localities of the nearest linear proximity such as Bereeda and Alula have become bilingual at both the Soqotri and Somali languages.[19]
European languages
Italian
Italian is a legacy of the Italian colonial period of Somalia when it was part of the Italian Empire. Italian was the mother tongue of the Italian settlers of Somalia.
Although it was the primary language since colonial rule, Italian continued to be used among the country's ruling elite even after 1960 independence when it continued to remain as an official language. It is estimated that more than 200,000 native Somalis (nearly 20% of the total population of former Somalia italiana) were fluent speaking Italian when independence was declared in 1960.[24]
After a
However, Italian is still widely spoken by the elderly, the educated, and by the governmental officials of Somalia. Prior to the
English
Orthography
A number of
Besides Ahmed's Latin script, other orthographies that have been used for centuries for writing Somali include the long-established
See also
Notes
- ^ "Somalia". ethnologue.com.
- ^ Eno, Mohamed A., Abderrazak Dammak, and Omar A. Eno. "From linguistic imperialism to language domination." Journal of Somali Studies 3.1-2 (2016): 9-52.
- ^ a b Onwuegbule, Chinyere Gift, Chukwuka A. Chukwueke, and Nkama Anthony Ezeuduma. "OPTIMAL INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE USE AS STRATEGY FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT." The Melting Pot 4.1 (2018).
- ^ a b "The Federal Republic of Somalia - Provisional Constitution" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
The official language of the Federal Republic of Somalia is Somali (Maay and Maxaa-tiri), and Arabic is the second language.
- World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 2009-05-14. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
- ^ I. M. Lewis, Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho, (Red Sea Press: 1998), p.11.
- S2CID 6515240.
- ^ "Somali". SIL International. 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2013.
- ^ Taylor, Christian, Tanner Semmelrock, and Alexandra McDermott. "The Cost of Defection: The Consequences of Quitting Al-Shabaab." International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV) 13 (2019): a657-a657.
- ^ Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages, (Columbia University Press: 1998), p.571.
- ^ Blench, Roger (2006). "The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List" (PDF). p. 3.
- ^ "Regional Somali Language Academy Launched in Djibouti". COMESA Regional Investment Agency. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
- ^ a b "Mushungulu". Ethnologue.
- ^ "Did you know Tunni is vulnerable?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- ^ "For First Time in History, Somalia Claims Socotra as Its Own hiv and aids statistics treatment of hiv aids hiv statisticsbest free text spy app spy text app 100 free spy apps for androidchlamydia test kits stdstory.com early signs of chlamydia- Yemen Post English Newspaper Online". www.yemenpost.net. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
- ^ "Somalia". Ethnologue.
- ^ Versteegh (2008:273)
- ^ Annesley, George (1809). Voyages and travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt. p. 377.
- ^ Zajonz, Uwe, et al. "The coastal fishes and fisheries of the Socotra Archipelago, Yemen." Marine pollution bulletin 105.2 (2016): 660-675
- ^ Blaha, David Ryan. Pushing Marginalization: British Colonial Policy, Somali Identity, and the Gosha'Other'in Jubaland Province, 1895 to 1925. Diss. Virginia Tech, 2011.
- ^ Strangio, Donatella. "The Somali People: Between Trusteeship and Independence." The Reasons for Underdevelopment. Physica, Heidelberg, 2012. 1-37.
- ^ According to article 7 of Transitional Federal Charter for the Somali Republic: The official languages of the Somali Republic shall be Somali (Maay and Maxaatiri) and Arabic. The second languages of the Transitional Federal Government shall be English and Italian.
- ^ According to article 5 of Provisional Constitution: The official language of the Federal Republic of Somalia is Somali (Maay and Maxaa-tiri), and Arabic is the second language.
- ^ "Somalia Dieci Anni dopo". Archived from the original on 2021-12-14 – via www.youtube.com.
- ^ Scuola media di Mogadiscio (Picture)
- ^ Oliver, Roland Anthony (1976). History of East Africa, Volume 2. Clarendon Press. p. 7.
- ^ Hadden, Robert L. The geology of Somalia: A selected bibliography of Somalian geology, geography and earth science. ARMY TOPOGRAPHIC ENGINEERING CENTER ALEXANDRIA VA, 2007.
- ^ Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), Middle East annual review, (1975), p.229
- ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2.
- ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3.
- ^ "Somali alphabets, pronunciation and language". www.omniglot.com.
- ^ Laitin (1977:86–87)
References
- Diriye Abdullahi, Mohamed. 2000. Le Somali, dialectes et histoire. Ph.D. dissertation, Université de Montréal.
- Laitin, David (1977). Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience. University Of Chicago Press.
- Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1987. Somali Reference Grammar. Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press.
- Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1999. Somali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Versteegh, Kees (2008). Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics, Volume 4. Brill. ISBN 978-9004144767.