Somali language
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox language Somali (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;Template:Refn<ref name="Cllds">Template:Cite web</ref> Latin script: Template:Lang; Wadaad: Template:Script/Arabic; Osmanya: ππ ππππππ Template:IPA)<ref name="s107">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken primarily in Greater Somalia, and by the Somali diaspora as a mother tongue. Somali is an official language in both Somalia and Ethiopia,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and serves as a national language in Djibouti. It is also a recognised minority language in Kenya. The Somali language is officially written with the Latin alphabet, although the Arabic script and several Somali scripts like Osmanya, Kaddare and the Borama script are informally used.<ref name="Lewis175">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Lewis">Lewis, I.M. (1958), The Gadabuursi Somali Script, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 21, pp. 134β156.</ref>
Classification
Template:Main Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, specifically, Lowland East Cushitic in addition to Afar and Saho.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Somali is the best-documented of the Cushitic languages,<ref name="lm22"/> with academic studies of the language dating back to the late 19th century.<ref name="d9">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Geographic distribution of Somali
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.<ref name="s3">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
As of 2021, there are approximately 24 million speakers of Somali, spread in Greater Somalia of which around 17 million reside in Somalia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The language is spoken by an estimated 95% of the country's inhabitants,<ref name="d9" /> and also by a majority of the population in Djibouti.<ref name="lm22">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
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.<ref name="eth">Template:Cite web</ref>
Official status
Template:Culture of Somalia Constitutionally, Somali and Arabic are the two official languages of Somalia.<ref name="Frspc">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Ammon">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> The state-run Radio Mogadishu has also broadcast in Somali since 1951.<ref name="The New York Times 2010 x241">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Radio Muqdisho 2022 m972">Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, other regional public networks like Somaliland National TV and Puntland TV and Radio and, as well as Eastern Television Network and Horn Cable Television, among other private broadcasters, air programs in Somali.<ref name="Smmhctv">Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
Somali is recognized as an official working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia.<ref name="Llicuv">Template:Cite book</ref> Although it is not an official language of Djibouti, it constitutes a major national language there. Somali is used in television and radio broadcasts,<ref name="d9" /><ref name="Ethndjib">Template:Cite web</ref> with the government-operated Radio Djibouti transmitting programs in the language from 1943 onwards.<ref name="d10">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
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.<ref name="Crslalid">Template:Cite web</ref>
As of 2025, Somali, Afar and Oromo are the only 3 Cushitic languages available on Google Translate.<ref name="Gtniel">Template:Cite news</ref>
Varieties
The Somali languages are broadly divided into three main groups: Northern Somali, Benadir and Maay.<ref name="Dalby2">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Northern Somali forms the basis for Standard Somali.<ref name="Dalby2"/> It is spoken by the majority of the Somali population<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> with its speech area stretching from Djibouti, and the Somali Region of Ethiopia to the Northern Frontier District.<ref name="Mwv2">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="Andrzlewis2">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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).<ref name="Lamberti">Template:Cite book</ref> The sub dialect of Northern Somali that the Isaaq speak has the highest prestige of any other Somali dialect.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="s4">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Maay is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans in the southern regions of Somalia.<ref name="Dalby">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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.<ref name="s4" /> Maay is partially mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali,<ref>Somali Dialects in the United States: How intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? by Deqa Hassan (Minnesota State University - Mankato)</ref> with the degree of divergence comparable to that between Spanish and Portuguese.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite these linguistic differences, Somali speakers collectively view themselves as speaking a common language.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is also not generally used in education or media. However, Maay speakers often use Standard Somali as a lingua franca,<ref name="s4" /> which is learned via mass communications, internal migration and urbanization.<ref name="Ethnymm">Template:Cite web</ref>
Phonology
Vowels
Somali has five vowel articulations that all contrast murmured and harsh voice as well as vowel length.Template:Clarify There is little change in vowel quality when the vowel is lengthened. Each vowel has a harmonic counterpart, and every vowel within a harmonic group (which notably can be larger than a word in Somali) must harmonize with the other vowels. The Somali orthography, however, does not distinguish between the two harmonic variants of each vowel.
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.<ref name=Saeed1982>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp<ref name=Orwin1994>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Gabbard (2010) proposes a system with six core vowels, with a tongue root distinction, but only on front vowels.<ref name=Gabbard2010>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
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. duΜuΜl ("attack!")
- keen ("bring!") vs. keΜeΜn ("he brought")
| First element is front | First element is back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long |
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
Gabbard claims that only the front vowels (Template:IPA slink and Template:IPA slink) have advanced variants, though his system includes a sixth vowel, Template:IPA slink. Both Orwin and Gabbard agree that the precise phonetic and phonological difference between the advanced and retracted tongue root vowels are unclear.<ref name=Orwin1994 />Template:Rp<ref name=Gabbard2010 />
Consonants
Somali has 22 consonant phonemes.<ref name="s7">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
The retroflex plosive Template:IPA may have an implosive quality for some Somali Bantu speakers, and intervocalically it can be realized as the flap Template:IPA. Some speakers produce Template:IPA with epiglottal trilling as /Template:IPA link/ in retrospect.<ref name="g14">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Template:IPA is often epiglottalized.<ref name="Edmondson 2004 5">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
The letter Template:Grapheme is pronounced as a retroflex flap Template:IPAblink when it occurs intervocalically, as in qudhaanjo.
The letter Template:Grapheme, found in Arabic loanwords, is rarely pronounced as a velar fricative. It is more often conflated with Template:IPAslink, which is pronounced Template:IPAblink in syllabic coda position.
Tone
Pitch is phonemic in Somali, but it is debated whether Somali is a pitch accent, or it is a tonal language.<ref name="Ceolotw">Template:Cite book</ref> Andrzejewski (1954) posits that Somali is a tonal language,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> whereas Banti (1988) suggests that it is a pitch system.
Phonotactics
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/, /Ι/, /Ι‘/, /Ι’/, /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 [Κ], are therefore inserted.
Grammar
| Person | Emphatic | Clitic (short) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Object | ||||
| 1 | singular | aniga | aan | i | |
| plural | Template:Small | innaga | aynu | ina | |
| Template:Small | annaga | aannu | na | ||
| 2 | singular | adiga | aad | ku | |
| plural | idinka | aydin | idin | ||
| 3 | singular | Template:Small | isaga | uu | -- |
| Template:Small | iyada | ay | -- | ||
| plural | iyaga | ay | -- | ||
Morphology
Somali is an agglutinative language, and also shows properties of inflection. Affixes mark many grammatical meanings, including aspect, tense and case.<ref name="d11">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
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.<ref name="Kraska">Template:Cite book</ref>
Somali has two sets of pronouns: independent (substantive, emphatic) pronouns and clitic (verbal) pronouns.<ref name="s68">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> The independent pronouns behave grammatically as nouns, and normally occur with the suffixed article -ka/-ta (e.g. adiga, "you").<ref name="s68" /> This article may be omitted after a conjunction or focus word. For example, adna meaning "and you..." (from adi-na).<ref name="s68" /> Clitic pronouns are attached to the verb and do not take nominal morphology.<ref name="s72">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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.<ref name="w43">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
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.<ref name="Tosco">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="zp389">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> For example, the plural of the masculine noun dibi ("bull") is formed by converting it into feminine dibi.<ref name="Tosco"/> 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.<ref name="Saeed84">Template:Cite book</ref>
Syntax
Somali is a subjectβobjectβverb (SOV) language.<ref name="eth"/> It is largely head final, with postpositions and with obliques preceding verbs.<ref name="hn253">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> These are common features of the Cushitic and Semitic Afroasiatic languages spoken in the Horn region (e.g. Amharic).<ref name="Wedekind">Template:Cite book</ref> However, Somali noun phrases are head-initial, whereby the noun precedes its modifying adjective.<ref name="hn253" /><ref name="s164173">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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.<ref name="hn253" /><ref name="f53">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Somali uses three focus markers: baa, ayaa and waxa(a), which generally mark new information or contrastive emphasis.<ref name="s117">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Baa and ayaa require the focused element to occur preverbally, while waxa(a) may be used following the verb.<ref name="s240">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Vocabulary
Somali loanwords can be divided into those derived from other Afroasiatic languages (mainly Arabic), and those of Indo-European extraction (mainly Italian).<ref name="d71" />
Somali's main lexical borrowings come from Arabic, and are estimated to constitute about 20% of the language's vocabulary.<ref name="l25">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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").<ref name="d71">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> Soravia (1994) noted a total of 1,436 Arabic loanwords in Agostini a.o. 1985,<ref name="Versteegh">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> a prominent 40,000-entry Somali dictionary.<ref name="s5">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> 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.<ref name="Versteegh"/> In addition, the majority of personal names are derived from Arabic.<ref name="s2">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
The Somali language also contains a few Indo-European loanwords that were retained from the colonial period.<ref name="Ammon"/> 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").<ref name="d73">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> There are 300 loan words from Italian, such as garawati for "tie" (from Italian Template:Lang), dimuqraadi from Template:Lang (democratic), mikroskoob from Template:Lang, 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 Template:Langx khiyΔr ).<ref name="d73"/> Other loan words have also displaced their native synonyms in some dialects (e.g. jabaati "a type of flat bread" from Hindi: ΰ€ΰ€ͺΰ€Ύΰ€€ΰ₯ chapΔti displacing sabaayad). Some of these words were also borrowed indirectly via Arabic.<ref name="d73"/><ref name="Admmahe">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
As noted by Somali historian Mohammed Nuuh Ali, the Somali language also incorporates various loanwords from Old Harari.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref name="Ammon"/>
Writing system
Archaeological excavations and research in Somalia uncovered ancient inscriptions in a distinct writing system.<ref name="MOIANG">Ministry of Information and National Guidance, Somalia, The writing of the Somali language, (Ministry of Information and National Guidance: 1974), p.5</ref> 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."<ref>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.</ref> According to the 1974 report for Ministry of Information and National Guidance, this script represents the earliest written attestation of Somali.<ref name="MOIANG"/>
Much more recently, Somali archaeologist Sada Mire has published ancient inscriptions found throughout Somalia. 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.<ref name=Mire>Template:Cite journal</ref> These pieces of writing are from the Semitic Himyarite and Sabaean languages that were largely spoken in what is modern day Yemen β"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".<ref name=Mire/>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to BogumiΕ 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), Middle East annual review, (1975), p.229</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name="laitin">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>
Resources
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),<ref>Sketch Engine. https://www.sketchengine.eu/sowac-somali-corpus/. Retrieved October 19, 20204.</ref> a Somali read-speech corpus, Asaas (Beginning in Somali) and a Web-Based Somali Language Model and text Corpus called Wargeys (Newspaper in Somali).<ref>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, 73β76. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.3115/v1/W14-2210.</ref>
Numbers and calendrical terms
Numbers
| English | Somali | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | # | |
| Zero | Eber | ππππ | π |
| One | kow | πππ | π‘ |
| Two | laba | ππππ | π’ |
| Three | saddex | ππππππ | π£ |
| Four | afar | ππππ | π€ |
| Five | shan | πππ | π₯ |
| Six | lix | πππ | π¦ |
| Seven | toddoba | πππππππ | π§ |
| Eight | siddeed | ππππππ | π¨ |
| Nine | sagaal | πππππ | π© |
| Ten | toban | πππππ | π‘π |
| English | Somali | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | # | |
| Eleven | kow iyo toban | πππ πππ πππππ | π‘π‘ |
| Twelve | laba iyo toban | ππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π’ |
| Thirteen | saddex iyo toban | ππππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π£ |
| Fourteen | afar iyo toban | ππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π€ |
| Fifteen | shan iyo toban | πππ πππ πππππ | π‘π₯ |
| Sixteen | lix iyo toban | πππ πππ πππππ | π‘π¦ |
| Seventeen | toddoba iyo toban | πππππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π§ |
| Eighteen | sideed iyo toban | πππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π¨ |
| Nineteen | sagaal iyo toban | πππππ πππ πππππ | π‘π© |
| Twenty | labaatan | πππππππ | π’π |
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.
Multiples of 10
| English | Somali | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | # | |
| Ten | toban | πππππ | π‘π |
| Twenty | labaatan | πππππππ | π’π |
| Thirty | soddon | ππππππ | π£π |
| Forty | afartan | πππππππ | π€π |
| Fifty | konton | ππππππ | π₯π |
| Sixty | lixdan | ππππππ | π¦π |
| Seventy | todobaatan | πππππππππ | π§π |
| Eighty | sideetan | πππππππ | π¨π |
| Ninety | sagaashan | πππππππ | π©π |
Names of large numbers
| English | Somali | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | #* | |
| One hundred | boqol | πππππ | π‘π π |
| One thousand | kun | πππ | π‘,π π π |
| One million | milyan | ππππππ | π‘,π π π ,π π π |
| One billion | bilyan | ππππππ | π‘,π π π ,π π π ,π π π |
*the commas in the Osmanya number chart are added for clarity
Days of the week
| English | Somali | |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | |
| Sunday | Axad | ππππ |
| Monday | Isniin | πππππ |
| Tuesday | Salaasa/Talaado | ππππππ/ππππππ |
| Wednesday | Arbaca/Arbaco | ππππππ/ππππππ |
| Thursday | Khamiis | π ππππ |
| Friday | Jimce/Jimco | πππππ |
| Saturday | Sabti | πππππ |
Months of the year
| English | Somali | |
|---|---|---|
| Latin | Osmanya | |
| January | Janaayo | ππππππππ |
| February | Febraayo | πππππππππ |
| March | Maarso | πππ |
| April | Abriil | πππππ |
| May | Maajo | πππ |
| June | Juun | πππ |
| July | Luuliyo | πππππ |
| August | Agoosto | ππππ |
| September | Sebteembar | πππππππππ |
| October | Oktoobar | πππππππ |
| November | Nofeembar | ππππππππ |
| December | Diseembar | πππππππ |
Computational linguistics
In recent years, the Somali language has become the subject of research in computational linguistics due to its complex morphology and low-resource status. Efforts have been made to develop lemmatization, part-of-speech tagging, and automatic speech recognition systems for Somali.<ref>Template:Cite arxiv</ref>
See also
- Languages of Djibouti
- Languages of Somalia
- Languages of Kenya
- Somali Sign Language
- Somali literature
- Somali Studies
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
Template:InterWiki Template:Wikivoyage Template:Scholia Template:Wikiquote
- Somali Language Page: Resources, links and information on the Somali language.
- Hooyo.Web - Somali Grammar
- Somali Language and Linguistics: A Bibliography
- Learn101 - Learn Somali
- Virtual keyboard for historical Osmanya script. Lexilogos.
- Digital Dialects - Somali language learning games
- Enhancing the Quality of Google Somali Translations