Somali is considered an East Cushitic ethnic language, primarily spoken in Somalia. The language is derived from a group of Afro-Asiatic languages spoken alongside Arabic and Italian. Located in eastern Africa, Somalia is bordered by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. As such, it contains similarities to languages in neighboring regions, so call CIT to work with a Somali interpreter or translator who knows the difference.
CIT is available to assist you with your Somali needs in any realm. We can assist you in providing an in-person interpreter, over-the-phone interpreter and/or a document translation. Our qualified and professional linguists are available to assist you in breaking the communication barrier in industries like education, business, manufacturing, law, technology and countless more. No matter what setting you need a Somali translator or interpreter in, we can provide an expert.
The Somali language is classified into three dialects – Northern, Central and Coastal. When looking deeper into the background of the language, most consider the dialects to be forgotten as they are from extremely exotic geographical areas.
Northern Somali – Spoken by 60% of the Somalian population. Northern Somali is where they are considered to speak proper Somali. Somalia is divided into three (3) linguistic regions which are Northern Somali proper, Darod group, and Lower Juba group.
Central Somali – Simultaneously referred to as the Rahanweyn Somalis, Central Somalia is divided into two (2) groups: the Digil and Maay. Digital consists of dialects known as Tunni, Garre, Dabarre, and Jiddu, which is considered the most ungraspable and the hardest to understand. Maay is made up of the Northern and Bur Hakaba dialects.
Coastal Somali – Known as the Benadir Coast, the dialects of Somali spoken in this region are split between two (2) dialects: Benadir and Ashraf. The Benadir coast stretches from Hoboyo to the South of Merca. The Benadir dialect of the Somali language consists of the Northern and Southern language, whereas the Ashraaf dialect is made up of the Shingani and Lower Shabelle.
Anyone who has attempted to learn the Somali language can testify to the difficulty of learning the language. There are a few ways that the Somalian language uses to indicate the location of the interest or focus. For instance, the usage of the words baa, ayaa, and waxaa puts the attention on the nouns and phrases. The word waa pulls the attention to the verbs and verb phrase. Typically, in the Somalian language, sentences are formed in the order of Subject, Object, Verb. Nouns provide the tone, both feminine and masculine, of the sentence.
Absolutive case – known as the basic form of Somalian nouns where the word maintains the vowel
Nominative case – part of the sentence where the article takes the vowel; in cases of multiple nouns, only the last noun is to take the ending of the word
Genitive case – expressed by the tonal change of the word, including the feminine nouns that consist of the final consonant of the root word
Vocative case – designated by the suffixes and change in tone
Gender – usually obvious in its existence and does not require a rule
Pronouns are simple and comprised of short and objective forms of the noun.
Verbs – demonstrates a mood composed of four tenses, uses only with a modal verb and formed by an ending.
Infinitive/Verbal nouns – created through the suffix
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