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Somali language

Not to be confused with Somali languages.

Somali
Af Soomaali,[1] Soomaali[2]
𐒖𐒍 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘, 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘
اف صومالِ, صومالِ,
Pronunciation[af soːmaːli]
RegionHorn of Africa
EthnicitySomalis
Native speakers
24 million (2019–2023)[3]
Dialects
Somali Latin alphabet (Latin script; official)
Wadaad's writing (Arabic script)
Osmanya alphabet
Borama alphabet
Kaddare alphabet
Official status
Official language in
 Somalia
 Somaliland
 Djibouti
 Ethiopia
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byRegional Somali Language Academy
Language codes
ISO 639-1so
ISO 639-2som
ISO 639-3som
Glottologsoma1255
Linguasphere14-GAG-a
Primary Somali Sprachraum
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Somali (/səˈmɑːli, soʊ-/ sə-MAH-lee, soh-;[4][5] Latin script: Af Soomaali; Wadaad: اف صومالِ‎; Osmanya: 𐒖𐒍 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘 [af soːmaːli])[6] 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,[7] 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.[8][9]

  1. ^ "Somali alphabets, pronunciation and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  2. ^ "cldr/so.xml at master · unicode-org/cldr". Unicode. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference eth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.), English Pronouncing Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 3-12-539683-2
  5. ^ "Somali". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  6. ^ Saeed (1999:107)
  7. ^ AfricaNews (2020-03-04). "One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages". Africanews. Archived from the original on 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  8. ^ Lewis, I.M. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 175. ISBN 3825830845.
  9. ^ Lewis, I.M. (1958), The Gadabuursi Somali Script, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 21, pp. 134–156.

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