Somali Language

Friday, 22 February 2013

Swedish guy speakingand Singing Somali language

Somali language Grammer( lesson 2) Present tense,Continues and Past

Open Collage in a new Window

Email the Collage

Loading suggestions ...

Djibouti
Djibouti (Arabic: جيبوتي‎ Jībūtī, French: Djibouti, Somali: Jabuuti, Afar: Gabuuti), officially the Republic of Djibouti (Arabic: جمهورية جيبوتي‎ Jumhūriyyat Jībūtī, French: République de Djibouti, Afar: Gabuutih Ummuuno, Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Jabuuti), is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east. Djibouti, which had a population of 818,159 at the 2009 census, is one of the least populous countries in Africa.Islam is the largest religion in the country, practiced by 94% of the population. The land was known as Obock and French Somaliland (Côte française des Somalis) in the 19th century; in 1967, it changed its name to Afars and Issas after new treaties with France. The territory was declared an independent nation in 1977 and changed its name to the "Republic of Djibouti" after its principal city. Djibouti joined the United Nations on September 20, 1977. While Djibouti is an independent sovereign state, it maintains deep French relations, and through various military and economic agreements with France, it receives continued security and economic assistance.

wn.com/Djibouti
Ethiopia
Ethiopia ( /ˌiːθiˈoʊpiə/) (Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km². Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Sudan and South Sudan to the west, and Kenya to the south. With its capital at Addis Ababa, it is also the most populous landlocked nation in the world.
Ethiopia was a monarchy for most of its history, and the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 2nd century BC. Ethiopia is also one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity's oldest traces. It may be the region from which Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. Alongside Rome, Persia, China and India, the Ethiopian Aksum Empire was considered one of the great world powers of the 3rd century. During the Scramble for Africa, Ethiopia was the only African country beside Liberia that retained its sovereignty as a recognized independent country, and was one of only four African members of the League of Nations. After a brief period of Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. When other African nations received their independence following World War II, many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's flag, and Addis Ababa became the location of several international organizations focused on Africa.

wn.com/Ethiopia
Kenya
Kenya ( /ˈkɛnjə/ or /ˈkiːnjə/), officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. With the Indian Ocean to its south-east, it is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km² and a population of nearly 41 million, representing 42 different peoples and cultures. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi.
Kenya has a warm and humid climate along its coastline on the Indian Ocean which changes to wildlife-rich savannah grasslands moving inland towards the capital Nairobi. Nairobi has a cool climate that gets colder approaching Mount Kenya, which has three permanently snow-capped peaks. The warm and humid tropical climate reappears further inland towards lake Victoria, before giving way to temperate forested and hilly areas in the western region. The North Eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh-water lake (after Lake Superior in the US and Canada) and the world's largest tropical lake, is situated to the southwest and is shared with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse world-famous wildlife reserves such as Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park.

wn.com/Kenya
Mogadishu
Mogadishu ( /ˌmɒɡəˈdɪʃuː/; Somali: Muqdisho; Arabic: مقديشو‎ Maqadīshū; Italian: Mogadiscio, literally "The Seat of the Shah"), popularly known as Xamar, is the largest city in Somalia and the nation's capital. Located in the coastal Benadir region on the Indian Ocean, the city has served as an important port for centuries.
Tradition and old records assert that southern Somalia, including the Mogadishu area, was historically inhabited by hunter-gatherers of Bushman physical stock. These were later joined by Cushitic agro-pastoralists, who would go on to establish local aristocracies. Starting in the late 9th or 10th centuries, Arab and Persian traders also began to settle in the region.
During its medieval Golden Age, Mogadishu was ruled by the Somali-Arab Muzaffar dynasty, a vassal of the Ajuuraan State. It subsequently fell under the control of an assortment of local Sultanates and polities, most notably the Gobroon Dynasty. The city later became the capital of Italian Somaliland in the colonial period.

wn.com/Mogadishu
Puntland
Puntland (Somali: Buntlaand, Arabic: أرض البنط‎), officially the Puntland State of Somalia (Somali: Maamul Goboleedka Buntlaand ee Soomaaliya), is a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998.
Puntland is bordered by Somaliland to its west, the Gulf of Aden in the north, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, the central Galmudug region of Somalia in the south, and Ethiopia in the southwest.
A third of Somalia's population lives in the territory, which contains about a third of the nation's geographical area. Unlike neighbouring Somaliland, Puntland, as with all other regions in the country, does not seek outright independence from Somalia.
The name "Puntland" is derived from the Land of Punt mentioned by ancient Egyptian sources. The exact location of the fabled territory is still a mystery. Many studies suggest that the Land of Punt was located in present-day Somalia, while others propose that it was situated elsewhere.

wn.com/Puntland
Somalia
Somalia ( /soʊˈmɑːliə/ soh-MAH-lee-ə; Somali: Soomaaliya; Arabic: الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl), officially the Somali Republic (Somali: Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, Arabic: جمهورية الصومال‎ Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl) and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory. The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls only a small part of the country. Somalia has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and most violent states in the world.
Somalia lies in the easternmost part of Africa. It is bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, the Gulf of Aden with Yemen to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Ethiopia to the west. It has the longest coastline on the continent, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, along with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall.

wn.com/Somalia
Somaliland
Somaliland (Somali: Soomaaliland, Arabic: صوماللاند‎ Ṣūmālilānd or أرض الصومال Arḍ aṣ-Ṣūmāl) is an unrecognised self-declared de facto sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent on June 26, 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting with the Trust Territory of Somalia (the former Italian Somaliland) on July 1, 1960 to form the Somali Republic.
Somaliland is bordered by Ethiopia in the south and west, Djibouti in the northwest, the Gulf of Aden in the north, and the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia to the east.
In 1988, the Siad Barre regime committed massacres against the people of Somaliland, which were among the events that led to the Somali Civil War. The war left the economic and military infrastructure severely damaged. After the collapse of the central government in 1991, the local government, led by the Somali National Movement (SNM), declared independence from the rest of Somalia on May 18 of the same year.

wn.com/Somaliland
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen (Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية‎ al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah), commonly known as Yemen ⁱ/ˈjɛmən/ (Arabic: اليَمَن‎ al-Yaman), is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east. Yemen is considered one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Its capital and largest city is Sana'a. Yemen's territory includes over 200 islands, the largest of which is Socotra, about 415 km (258 mi) to the south of mainland Yemen, off the coast of Somalia. It is the only state in the Arabian Peninsula to have a purely republican form of government. Approximately 53% of Yemenis are Sunnis, while 45% are Zaydi Shias.
One etymology derives Yemen from yamin, meaning "on the right side", as the south is on the right when facing the sunrise. Another derives Yemen from yumn, meaning "felicity", as the region is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix (Happy Arabia) as opposed to Arabia Deserta (Deserted Arabia), which was their term for northern Arabia.

wn.com/Yemen

Afar language
Afar (Qafár af) is a Lowland East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It is believed to have 1.5 million speakers, the Afar. The basic word order in Afar, like in other East Cushitic languages, is subject–object–verb. Its speakers have a literacy rate of between one and three per cent. Its closest relative is the Saho language.
In Eritrea, Afar is recognized as one of nine national languages which formally enjoy equal status (though Tigrinya and Arabic are by far of greatest significance in official usage). There are daily broadcasts in the national radio and a translated version of the Eritrean constitution. In education, however, Afar speakers prefer Arabic – which many of them speak as a second language – as the language of instruction. In the Afar Region of Ethiopia, Afar is partially used in some of the few schools, while Amharic is the region's working language.
The consonants of the Afar language in the standard orthography are listed below (with IPA notation in brackets):

wn.com/Afar_language
Bajuni people
The Bajuni people are a minority ethnic group that live in East Africa.
The Bajuni principally inhabit the tiny Bajuni Islands in the Indian Ocean. Many also traditionally reside in Kenya, mainly in Mombasa and other towns in that country's Coast Province. Some are also found in the Kismayo region in more northerly Somalia.
The population's members trace their origins to diverse groups, primarily coastal Bantu and bushmanoid hunter-gather groups, as well as later additions such as Arab, Persian and Cushitic immigrants.
The Bajuni are traditionally fishermen and sailors. Some also pursue other trades such as metalwork.
The Bajuni people collectively refer to themselves and are known as Wabajuni. They speak Kibajuni, a dialect of the Bantu Swahili language.

wn.com/Bajuni_people
Oromo language
Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa(a) (and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names; Oromic, Afan Oromo, etc.), is an Afro-Asiatic language. It is the most widely spoken tongue in the family's Cushitic branch. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and neighbouring peoples in Ethiopia and parts of northern Kenya. Some linguists think of Oromo as a dialect continuum, since not all varieties are mutually intelligible. It is a sociolinguistic language, consisting of four varieties: Borana–Arsi–Guji Oromo, Eastern Oromo (also called Qottu), Orma, and West Central Oromo. Older publications often refer to the language as Galla, a term that is considered pejorative and no longer used.
About 95 percent of Oromo speakers live in Ethiopia, mainly in Oromia Region. In Somalia, there are also some speakers of the language. In Kenya, the Ethnologue also lists 322,000 speakers of Borana and Orma, two languages closely related to Ethiopian Oromo. Within Ethiopia, Oromo is the second most spoken widely spoken language.

wn.com/Oromo_language
Osman Yusuf Kenadid
Osman Yusuf Kenadid (Somali: Cusmaan Yuusuf Keenadiid, Arabic: عثمان يوسف كينايديض‎) was a Somali poet and ruler.
In the early 1920s, in response to a national campaign to settle on a standard orthography for the Somali language (which had long lost its ancient script), Kenadid, a leader in the Majeerteen Sultanate of Hobyo in Somalia and nephew of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid, devised a phonetically sophisticated alphabet called Osmanya for representing the sounds of Somali.
Kenadid's Osmanya alphabet was subsequently introduced into the local schools in his Sultanate. When the Italian colonial authorities got wind of this, they promptly imprisoned him in Mogadishu since they feared that the script was a manifestation of nationalism. With Kenadid's arrest, all efforts to develop a standard orthography for the Somali language abruptly came to a halt for the next 25 years.
The rise of nationalist sentiment that followed the end of the Second World War – and especially the birth of the Somali Youth League political party, of which Kenadid was a founding member – brought about a revival of interest in and use of the Osmanya script. This renaissance would last until the government of then President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre unilaterally elected in 1972 to make the modified Latin script devised by Shire Jama Ahmed the nation's official writing script.

wn.com/Osman_Yusuf_Kenadid
Shire Jama Ahmed
Shire Jama Ahmed (Somali: Shire Jaamac Axmed, Arabic: شيري جامع أحمد‎) was a Somali linguist who is credited with having devised a unique Latin script for transcribing the Somali language. Shire Jama's winning Somali Orthoraphy was chosen from eighteen competing new orthographies in 1972 by the Language Committee and the ruling party. The committee commenced its work back in 1960.
In the late 1960s, Shire and a few other Somali linguists presented before the Somali Language Committee, an organization in charge of settling Somalia's outstanding language issue, and eventually deciding between several prospective orthographies. These scripts ranged from Arabic to some resembling Ge'ez, an ancient Ethio-Semitic writing system. Among those proposed was the Osmanya script, an orthography invented in the early twentieth century by the Majeerteen poet and ruler, Osman Yusuf Kenadid, which had enjoyed a strong following. Shire's competing orthography, for its part, was derived from Latin characters, and it omitted a few letters (p, v and z) to accommodate the unique sounds of the Somali language. Shire also introduced combination letters (kh, dh and sh), which were in many ways exclusive to the language. In 1972, his proven orthography was selected as Somalia's national writing script for Af Soomaali (as the Somali language is traditionally referred to).

wn.com/Shire_Jama_Ahmed
Siad Barre
Mohamed Siad Barre (Somali: Maxamed Siyaad Barre, Arabic: محمّد زياد بري‎) (October 6, 1919 – January 2, 1995) was the military dictator and President of the Somali Democratic Republic from 1969 to 1991. During his rule, he styled himself as Jaalle Siyaad ("Comrade Siad").
At the time of independence in 1960, Somalia was touted in the West as the model of a democracy in Africa. However, clanism and extended family loyalties and conflicts were social problems the civilian government failed to eradicate and eventually succumbed to itself.
The Barre-led military junta that came to power after a coup d'état in 1969 said it would adapt scientific socialism to the needs of Somalia. It drew heavily from the traditions of China. Volunteer labour harvested and planted crops, and built roads and hospitals. Almost all industry, banks and businesses were nationalised, and cooperative farms were promoted. The government forbade clanism and stressed loyalty to the central authorities. A new writing script for the Somali language was also adopted. To spread the new language and the methods and message of the revolution, secondary schools were closed in 1974 and 25,000 students from fourteen to sixteen years of age and an additional 3,000 military and civil service employees were sent to rural areas to educate their nomadic relatives.

wn.com/Siad_Barre
Somali Bantu
The Somali Bantu (also called Jareer, Gosha or Mushunguli) are an ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, near the Juba and Shabelle rivers. They are descendants of people from various Bantu ethnic groups, most of whom were captured from Southeast Africa and sold into slavery in Somalia and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia as part of the 19th century Arab slave trade. Bantus are ethnically, physically, and culturally distinct from Somalis, and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia.
These Bantu are not to be confused with the members of Swahili society in coastal towns, such as the Bajuni, who speak dialects of the Bantu Swahili language.
All in all, the number of Bantu inhabitants in Somalia before the civil war is thought to have been about 80,000 (1970 estimate), with most concentrated between the Juba and Shabelle rivers in the south. However, recent estimates place the figure as high as 900,000 persons.

wn.com/Somali_Bantu
Somali civil war
The Somali Civil War is an ongoing civil war taking place in Somalia. It began in 1991, when a coalition of clan-based armed opposition groups ousted the nation's long-standing military government.
Various factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum that followed, which precipitated an aborted UN peacekeeping attempt in the mid-1990s. A period of decentralization ensued, characterized by a return to customary and religious law in many areas as well as the establishment of autonomous regional governments in the northern part of the country. The early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations, culminating in the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in 2004. In 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nation's southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups, notably Al-Shabaab, which have since been fighting the Transitional Federal Government and its AMISOM allies for control of the region. In 2011, a coordinated military operation between the Somali military and multinational forces began, which is believed to represent one of the final stages in the war's Islamist insurgency.

wn.com/Somali_civil_war
Somali diaspora
The Somali diaspora refers to expatriate Somalis who reside in areas of the world that have traditionally not been inhabited by their ethnic group. The Somali Civil War greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many of the best educated Somalis left for the Middle East, Europe and North America.
While the distribution of Somalis per country in Europe is difficult to measure since the Somali expatriate community on the continent has grown so quickly in recent years, there are significant Somali communities in the United Kingdom: 108,000; the Netherlands: 31,237 (2011);Sweden: 21,597 (2007);Norway: 19,656 (2007);Denmark: 16,550 (2008); and Finland: 14,045 (2011).
Although most Somalis in the United Kingdom are recent arrivals, the first Somalis to arrive were seamen and traders who settled in port cities in the late 19th century. By 2001, the UK census reported 43,532 Somali-born residents, making the Somali community in Britain the largest Somali expatriate population in Europe. An official 2010 estimate indicates that 108,000 Somalis live in the UK, with Somali community organisations putting the figure at 90,000 residents.

wn.com/Somali_diaspora
Somali people
Somalis (Somali: Soomaaliyeed, Arabic: الصوماليون‎) are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Ethnic Somalis number around 15-17 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia (more than 10 million), Ethiopia (4.6 million), Yemen (a little under 1 million), Kenya (900,000), Djibouti (464,600), and an unknown but large number live in parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe.
Samaale, the oldest common ancestor of several Somali clans, is generally regarded as the source of the ethnonym Somali. The name "Somali" is, in turn, held to be derived from the words soo and maal, which together mean "go and milk" — a reference to the ubiquitous pastoralism of the Somali people. Another plausible etymology proposes that the term Somali is derived from the Arabic for "wealthy" (dhawamaal), again referring to Somali riches in livestock.

wn.com/Somali_people

Somali Language in Easy Steps 1.1

Master Somali Language in just10 minutes a day. Specially Designed for English Readers....

published: 04 Jan 2012

author: SomLingo

Somali language (Lesson)

...

published: 22 Mar 2012

author: Dugsigga Aflax

Somali Language lesson01

this is a basic Somali langauge lesson, iam covering personal pronouns and small sentences...

published: 06 Feb 2010

author: Dugsigga Aflax

war baafo somali week 25 10 10

...

published: 26 Oct 2010

author: ibrahimbaafo

Swedish guy speakingand Singing Somali language

Swedish guy speaking and Singing Somali language, Its wonderful story how,why,when,He will...

published: 06 Dec 2008

author: 21stArawelo

American Speaking Somali language

somali community Meeting in Eden Prairie Minnesota, this speech was given by Paul Nicolli....

published: 05 Apr 2008

author: somaliagov

Somali Language in easy steps 3.1

Read, write and speak Somali quickly....

published: 10 Jan 2012

author: SomLingo

War Somali Week Last Baafo 01 11 10.mpg

todobaadka somalida oo lasoo gebegebeeyey warbixin gaar ah daawo by baafo ibrahimbaffo@hot...

published: 01 Nov 2010

author: ibrahimbaafo

War Somali Week Baafo 27 10 10.mpg

warbixin kusaabsan Somali Week by Baafo...

published: 27 Oct 2010

author: ibrahimbaafo

Somali language Grammer( lesson 2) Present tense,Continues and Past

Somali Language Grammer ( Lesson 2) Present tense,Continues, and past please let me know w...

published: 11 May 2012

author: Dugsigga Aflax

Somali Language in Easy Steps 1.2

Learn Somali for English Readers. Just 10 minutes a day....

published: 05 Jan 2012

author: SomLingo

Somali Language for Foreign teachers

this is how you can ask or talk to your Somali Students and some useful words...

published: 08 Oct 2010

author: Dugsigga Aflax

Somali Language lesson03

family members...

published: 06 Feb 2010

author: Dugsigga Aflax

Somali for English Speakers (Lesson 5.1)

Learn Somali Language the Easy way. less than 10 minutes a day....

published: 03 Mar 2012

author: SomLingo

<li class="playlistitemli thumbnail border_color bgr_color_content font_color">
        <div class="video_facebook">
            <a href="http://web.archive.org./web/20130222215151/http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://wn.com/somali_language&t=<%= title %>" title="Share this video" data-title="Share this video" target="_blank" style="target-name: new; target-new: tab;"></a>
        </div>

photo: AP / Photo

Villagers view the bodies of suspected attackers from the Pokomo tribe, following tribal clashes in Kipao village in the Tana River Delta region of southeastern Kenya Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.

Neighbors Kill Neighbors in Kenya as Election Tensions Stir Age-Old Grievances

The New York Times

22 Feb 2013

MALINDI, Kenya — In a room by the stairs, Shukrani Malingi, a Pokomo farmer, writhed on a metal cot, the skin on his back burned off. Down the hall, at a safe distance, Rahema Hageyo, an Orma girl, stared blankly out of a window, a long scar above her thimble-like neck. She was nearly decapitated by a machete chop — and she is only 9 months old. Connect With Us on Twitter ... Twitter List. Reporters and Editors ...   ... Op-Ed ... N.Y ... ....(size: 6.3Kb)

photo: AP / Aijaz Rahi

An official of India's National Investigation Agency looks for evidence in the debris at one of the two bomb blast sites, in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.

Hyderabad bomb investigators examine links with Islamist militant group

The Guardian

22 Feb 2013

Indian Mujahideen group reported to have ties to Pakistan and may be behind dual bomb attack that killed 15. Officials look for evidence in the debris of one of the two bomb blast sites in Hyderabad, India. Photograph. Aijaz Rahi/AP ... India's recent execution of an Islamic militant is being examined as a possible motive for the bombings, he said ... They had also visited various spots in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune ... ....(size: 4.8Kb)

photo: AP

Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius , in court Friday Feb. 22, 2013 in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius ’knows jail almost guaranteed’

Canberra Times

22 Feb 2013

Oscar Pistorius appears at the Magistrate Court in Pretoria on day four of his bail hearing. Photo. AFP. The lead lawyer prosecuting Oscar Pistorius on murder charges has told a Pretoria bail hearing the sprinter knows a long spell in jail is ‘‘almost guaranteed’’ and is a flight risk ... ‘‘He must realise that a long term of imprisonment is almost guaranteed ... AFP/AAP . ....(size: 3.0Kb)

photo: Creative Commons / Strike Eagle

Police investigation at the area of the first blast at Hyderabad-India.

Hyderabad bomb blasts: Five young students among 14 dead

The Times of India

22 Feb 2013

HYDERABAD. A trip to purchase books for the exam of sub-inspector in excise department proved to be the last outing of Vijay Kumar, who was among the five students killed in the twin blasts in the city. Among the other students killed was Rajasekhar, who was pursuing MBA, Harish, an engineering student from Kottapet locality in the city, and Swapna, another MBA student ... ....(size: 2.0Kb)

photo: AP / Themba Hadebe

Investigating officer Hilton Botha, sits inside the court witness box during the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013.

Lead investigator in Pistorius case facing attempted murder charges

Deutsche Welle

21 Feb 2013

The lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius murder case has been charged with attempted murder, according to South African police. On the third day of bail hearings, the defense is seeking to discredit police action. Police confirmed on Thursday that lead investigator Hilton Botha would appear in court in May on seven charges of attempted murder ... His defence has claimed Pistorius had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)

timeline:
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

Twitter's dangerous lack of transparency on terrorism

Al Jazeera

10 Feb 2013

It was February 3, 2012, and the Somali militant group al-Shabaab was angry at Twitter ... Further confounding the issue was the fact that al-Shabaab's Arabic and Somali-language accounts had remained open while their English-language account was closed, despite their similar content ... The IJU's account consisted mainly of Uzbek-language tweets and links to its website, Sodiqlar.info....(size: 22.8Kb)

Lifting the arms embargo spells new catastrophe for Somalia [Editorial]

Gareowe Online

08 Feb 2013

“…the Security Council may wish to consider the repeated request by the (Somali) government for lifting the arms embargo.” ... Taken at face value, this statement appears to be normal, as the Somali people are tired of clan politics ... Somalia is a large country that is home to multiple communities that proudly share the Islamic religion, the Somali language and a cultural heritage....(size: 9.7Kb)

Al Shabab Opens New Twitter Account

Voa News

30 Jan 2013

Somali insurgent group al-Shabab has opened ... Al-Shabab's Arabic and Somali-language accounts were not suspended. As of Monday, the group's new English-language account still had fewer than 1,000 followers....(size: 1.1Kb)

Al-Qaida Twitter account suspended without explanation (Video)

The Examiner

26 Jan 2013

An al-Qaida Twitter account has been suspended without explanation after the English-language social media account was used to post photographs of an executed French commando and threats to execute Kenyan hostages, according to a Jan ... The timing of the suspension of the English-language al-Qaida ... Their Somali-language account also remains operational....(size: 6.6Kb)

Twitter suspends account of Islamic militants al-Shabaab

The Independent

25 Jan 2013

After losing Somalia's cities to African Union forces and scores of fighters to defections, Islamic militants al-Shabaab lost their online platform today as Twitter suspended their account ... "The enemies have shut down our Twitter account," a spokesman for al-Shabaab told Reuters ... The militants' Arabic and Somali-language accounts appeared to still be working ... ....(size: 1.8Kb)

Somali President Visits Djibouti to Attend a Ceremony for the Somali Language

All Africa

17 Dec 2012

[Shabelle]Somali president Hassan Sheikh ......(size: 0.2Kb)

Al-Shabab remains a threat in Somalia

The Columbus Dispatch

08 Dec 2012

KISMAYO, Somalia — On the 4-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past ... In place of al-Shabab, Kenya’s Somali allies, ......(size: 3.8Kb)

Al-Shabab militants still roam countryside in Somalia

Stars and Stripes

07 Dec 2012

KISMAYO, Somalia — On the four-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past ... In place of al-Shabab, Kenya’s Somali allies, ......(size: 4.7Kb)

Visit to Kismayo, Somalia, shows al Shabab militants still roam countryside

The State

06 Dec 2012

KISMAYO, Somalia — On the four-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past ... Kenyan-Somali forces launch assault on al Qaida in Somalia Story. Four Somali journalists die in two days of attacks in Mogadishu Story....(size: 5.6Kb)

Visit to Kismayo, Somalia, shows al Shabab militants still roam countryside - Wire World News ...

Sacramento Bee

06 Dec 2012

KISMAYO, Somalia -- On the four-mile stretch of paved road between the Kenyan army’s main base and the southern Somali city of Kismayo, a man leading a donkey cart whispered a short warning in the local Somali language as a fleet of Kenyan troops and allied Somali militiamen rolled past ... In place of al Shabab, Kenya’s Somali allies, ......(size: 3.8Kb)

Visit to Kismayo, Somalia, shows al Shabab militants still roam countryside - Wire related stories ...

Sacramento Bee

06 Dec 2012

BBC Journalist Held Without Charge

Mareeg

27 Nov 2012

Nairobi Mareeg.com) â Somali authorities must immediately release Ibrahim Mohamed Adan, a correspondent for the Somali service of the BBC, who has been held for nearly a week in Mogadishu without charge, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today ... In his Somali-language report, which aired earlier in November, Ibrahim had interviewed a Somali who claimed his cousin, a soldier, had been executed....(size: 2.5Kb)

“Impunity: War on Somalia’s Journalists” – a NUSOJ report (RSF - Reporters sans frontières)

noodls

23 Nov 2012

On the eve of International Day to End Impunity, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), yesterday released a report about violence against Somali media personnel since 2007 and the impunity enjoyed by those responsible ... Shortly after releasing its report, NUSOJ learned that Ibrahim Mohamed Adan, a reporter for the BBC's Somali-language service, was arrested in Mogadishu on 21 November on a charge of "false news."...(size: 3.2Kb)

timeline:
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

Somali

Af-Soomaali
الصومالية

Spoken in

Somalia
- Somaliland (unrecognised state)
Djibouti
Somali communities in Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, Middle East, Europe and North America

Native speakers 13.9 million (2006)^[1]

Language family

Afro-Asiatic

Cushitic
- East
  - Macro-Somali
    - Somali languages
      - Somali

Writing system Latin (official), Arabic, Osmanya, Borama

Official status

Official language in Somalia

Language codes

ISO 639-1 so

ISO 639-2 som

ISO 639-3 som

Somali-speaking region

This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Somali language (Somali: Af-Soomaali; Arabic: الصومالية‎) is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages,^[2] with academic studies beginning before 1900.

1 Number of speakers
2 Geographic distribution
- 2.1 Official status
- 2.2 Varieties
3 Sounds and phonology
4 Grammar
5 Vocabulary
6 Writing system
- 6.1 Overview
- 6.2 Modern history
7 Notes
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

Number of speakers [link]

The exact number of speakers of Somali is unknown. One source estimates that there are 7.78 million speakers of Somali in Somalia itself and 12.65 million speakers globally.^[3] Combined with a large international expatriate community, it is difficult to get a specific number of Somali speakers, but somewhere between 16 and 20 million worldwide seems a reasonable estimate. According to Gordon (2005), approximately 13 million people speak Somali, but upwards of 25 million individuals are commonly estimated to speak the language.^[4]

Geographic distribution [link]

The Somali language is spoken by ethnic Somalis in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya, and by the Somali diaspora.

Official status [link]

Culture of Somalia
Part of a series on the

History Maritime history Military history Economic history
People Somalis Benadiris Bantus Bajunis Bravanese Italian Somalians
Languages Somali Arabic Bravanese Maay language Bajuni
Traditions Games
Mythology and folklore
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion Islam in Somalia Christianity in Somalia
Art Architecture
Literature
Music and performing arts
Media Radio Television Cinema
Sport Somalia at the Olympics
Monuments World Heritage Sites
Symbols Flag National anthem Coat of arms
Organisations Institutions

Culture portal Somalia portal
v t e

Somali has been the national language of Somalia since 1972, gaining official status with standardization (Standard Somali) and the adoption of the Latin script, developed under orders of then president Siad Barre. Shire Jama Ahmed's script became The Official Somali Language Script. For nine years, The Somali Language Committee sifted through 18 competing scripts. The Committee was first commissioned in 1961 by Aden Abdulle Osman Daar, Somalia's first post-colonial president.

After the collapse of the central Somali government in the Somali civil war in the 1990s, Somali has remained an official language or de facto national language of the various regional governments such as Somaliland and Puntland.

Varieties [link]

Main article: Somali languages

Somali dialects are divided into three main groups: Northern, Benaadir and Maay. Northern Somali (or Northern-Central Somali) forms the basis for Standard Somali. Benaadir (also known as Coastal Somali) is spoken on the Benadir coast from Cadaley to south of Marka, including Mogadishu, and in the immediate hinterland. The coastal dialects have additional phonemes which do not exist in Standard Somali.

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 many 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.

Sounds and phonology [link]

Main article: Somali phonology

Somali has 22 consonant phonemes, with at least one in every place of articulation described on the IPA chart, except epiglottal. It has five basic vowel sounds, each having a front and back variation, as well as long or short versions, giving distinct 20 pure vowel sounds. It also exhibits three tones: high, low and falling.

Grammar [link]

Main article: Somali grammar

Somali is an agglutinative language, using a number of markers for case, gender and number. Characteristic differences between Somali and most Indo-European languages include multiple forms of most personal pronouns, the use of particles to signify the focus of a sentence, extensive use of tone to denote differences in case and number, and gender polarity (the gender of many words is different in the singular and plural forms).

Vocabulary [link]

Somali contains a number of loan words from Arabic and the former colonial languages English and Italian. Somalis are almost exclusively Sunni Muslims and the language has taken much religious terminology from Arabic. From the pastoral epoch there are Arabic loan words for objects of settled living such as the Somali albaabka (the door), from the Arabic الباب al baab, which displays the same inclusion of the definite article as do many European words derived from Arabic.

A large number of neologisms were created after Somali became the official language to express concepts used in government and education.

Writing system [link]

Overview [link]

Main article: Somali alphabet

14th century Somali-Arabo stone tablet from the Ajuuraan Period.

An ancient script seems to have been used to write Somali.^[5] Since then a number of writing systems have been used for transcribing the language. Of these, the Somali Latin alphabet is the most widely-used, and has been the official writing script in Somalia since the government of former President of Somalia Mohamed Siad Barre formally introduced it in October 1972.^[6] The script was developed by the Somali linguist Shire Jama Ahmed specifically for the Somali language, and uses all letters of the English Latin alphabet except p, v and z. This alphabet has 21 consonants and 5 vowels. There are no diacritics or other special characters except the use of the apostrophe for the glottal stop, which is not word-initial. There are three consonant digraphs: DH, KH and SH. Tone is not marked; front and back vowels are not distinguished. Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence and for proper names.

Starting from 1960, debate about which writing system to use for transcribing the Somali language dragged on for nine years. No fewer than a dozen linguists were tasked with developing a workable script. Eventually, Shire Jama Ahmed's refined Somali Latin script was adopted, an alphabet which he used to publish pamphlets and small Af Soomaali drillbooks in his own printing press. Ahmed argued that even though most people were in favor of using the Arabic script, it was more practical to use Latin primarily due to its simplicity, the fact that it lent itself well to writing Somali since it could cope with all of the sounds in the language, and the already widespread existence of machines and typewriters designed for its use.^[7]

Besides Ahmed's Latin script, other orthographies that have been used for centuries for writing Somali include the long-established Arabic script and Wadaad's writing.^[8] Indigenous writing systems developed in the twentieth century include the Osmanya, Borama and Kaddare scripts, which were invented by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur and Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare, respectively.^[9]

Modern history [link]

Before the arrival of the Italians and British, Somalis and religious fraternities either wrote in Arabic or used an ad hoc transliteration of Somali into Arabic script referred to as Wadaad's writing. Most of the renowned Somali rebel leader Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's missives, including a letter he wrote to a scholar who betrayed him to the colonial powers, were in Arabic. Qur'anic schools (madrassas) were ubiquitous throughout Somalia, so children were exposed to the Arabic alphabet from a very young age. Material first discovered in 1940, mainly ancient letters and tomb inscriptions, demonstrates that the Somali language, like the Urdu and Persian languages, had long been written with the Arabic alphabet. However, this was likely not codified, and questions remain about the extent of its use.

A number of attempts had been made from the 1920s onwards to standardize the language using a number of different alphabets. Pamphlets explaining the new standardization were released to the public in a soccer stadium in Mogadishu on October 10, 1972.

The first comprehensive dictionaries were produced in 1976, the Qaamuus kooban ee af Soomaali ah and Qaamuuska Af-Soomaaliga. On the orders of the Barre regime, civil servants were required to pass language proficiency exams, and a vast literacy campaign was launched wherein students were sent to rural areas to teach others the new script. By 1978, the majority of Somalis were reportedly literate. This would go down historically as one the fastest developments of mass literacy anywhere in the world.

Notes [link]

^ Somali at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
^ A software tool for research in linguistics and lexicography: Application to Somali
^ Ethnologue: Somalia Ethnologue.com
^ [1]
^ Ministry of Information and National Guidance, Somalia, The writing of the Somali language, (Ministry of Information and National Guidance: 1974), p.5
^ Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), Middle East annual review, (1975), p.229
^ Andrew Simpson, Language and National Identity in Africa, (Oxford University Press: 2008), p.288
^ http://www.nlscorps.org/Languages/SM.aspx
^ David D. Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience, (University Of Chicago Press: 1977), pp.86-87

References [link]

Diriye Abdullahi, Mohamed. 2000. Le Somali, dialectes et histoire. Ph.D. dissertation, Université de Montréal.
Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1987. Somali Reference Grammar. Springfield, VA: Dunwoody Press.
Saeed, John Ibrahim. 1999. Somali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_language

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.

Playlist

Film Summary

Make changes yourself !

Contents

Number of speakers [link]

Geographic distribution [link]

Official status [link]

Varieties [link]

Sounds and phonology [link]

Grammar [link]

Vocabulary [link]

Writing system [link]

Overview [link]

Modern history [link]

Notes [link]

References [link]

Further reading [link]

External links [link]

http://wn.com/Somali_language

Related pages:

http://it.wn.com/Lingua somala

http://cs.wn.com/Somálština

http://id.wn.com/Bahasa Somali

http://es.wn.com/Idioma somalí

http://ru.wn.com/Сомалийский язык

http://nl.wn.com/Somalisch

http://pl.wn.com/Język somalijski

http://fr.wn.com/Somali

http://de.wn.com/Somali (Sprache)

http://hi.wn.com/सोमाली भाषा

http://pt.wn.com/Língua somali