# Somali language
**Somali** (Af-Soomaali, اف صومالي) is a Lowland East Cushitic language of the Afro-Asiatic family spoken in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen, and [Somaliland](https://www.edgepedia.org/somaliland). The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages describes it as spoken by some 26 million people in several countries of the [Horn of Africa](https://www.edgepedia.org/horn-of-africa),[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) while Omniglot gives a total of about 21.8 million speakers, including about 7.8 million in Somalia.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) It is official in Somalia and in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, a national language in Djibouti, and a recognized minority language in Kenya.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Classification | Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, Lowland East Cushitic[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) |
| Speakers | About 26 million per the Oxford handbook; about 21.8 million per Omniglot, of whom about 7.8 million live in Somalia[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) • [2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) |
| Official status | Official in Somalia and the Somali Region of Ethiopia; national in Djibouti; recognized minority language in Kenya[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) |
| Official script | Latin alphabet, announced 21 October 1972; Shire Jama Ahmed's system chosen from eighteen competing orthographies[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/) • [2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) |
| Other scripts | Arabic (Wadaad's writing), Osmanya, Borama/Gadabuursi, and Kaddare alphabets[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) |
| Structural traits | Tonal accent, vowel harmony, and a focus-marking system in syntax; basic word order subject-object-verb[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) • [4](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1671848/FULLTEXT01.pdf) |
| Codes and vitality | ISO 639-3: som; Glottocode: soma1255; Glottolog status "not endangered," with statutory national language status under the 2012 Somali Constitution, Article 5[5](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/soma1255) |
## Classification and related languages
Somali belongs to the Lowland East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family.[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) Its closest relatives include Oromo and Afar.[4](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1671848/FULLTEXT01.pdf) Shared vocabulary across the branch is limited: a review by the linguist B. W. Andrzejewski (a Polish-born Africanist who studied [Cushitic languages](https://www.edgepedia.org/cushitic-languages) in depth) found a lexical correspondence of about 20% between Somali and Galla (Oromo), under 3% between the Somali-Galla group and Afar-Saho-Sidamo, and under 1% between Agau-Bedauye and Kaffa-Ometo.[6](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/fringe-cushitic-an-experiment-in-typological-comparison1/6680B0DFAC70D514B1C3B566DB31F5EE) Somali is probably the best documented, in linguistic terms, of all the Cushitic languages, according to a SOAS doctoral thesis on Somali phonology.[7](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33834/1/11010624.pdf)
J. W. C. Kirk, author of a 1905 grammar reissued by [Cambridge University Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/cambridge-university-press), noted that Somali and the neighboring Gala (Oromo) languages are mutually unintelligible despite sharing many fundamental characteristics, evidence of their close relationship.[8](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/grammar-of-the-somali-language/introduction/355A50389D492FE65B4655E53002CB4F)
## Linguistic structure
Three features of Somali stand out in typological description. In phonology, the language has a tonal accent and a vowel harmony system.[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) Tones are marked in the orthography with the acute accent for high tone, the grave accent for low tone, and the circumflex for falling tone; vowels also contrast breathy and harsh voice, and vowel length.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm)
In syntax, Somali is noted for its focus marking system, which reflects how information is packaged in the sentence.[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) Like other Cushitic languages such as Oromo and Afar, it follows a basic subject-object-verb word order.[4](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1671848/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
## Dialects
Two major dialect groups dominate descriptions of the language. The standard language is based on Af-Maxaa Tiri (also spelled Af Mahaa tiri, "northern" or "majority" speech), while Af-Maay is spoken primarily by agropastoralists in southern Somalia.[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/) • [9](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false) A University of Nairobi study of the Waqooyi and Maay dialects treats them as two of the major dialects of Somali and compares their phonology, morphology, and lexis.[10](https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/157230/Addow_Morphophonological%20and%20Lexical%20Variations%20of%20the%20Waqooyi%20and%20Maay%20Dialects%20of%20Somali.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1) A 1970s Soviet description drawn from Radio Mogadishu broadcasts and fieldwork observed that, despite acknowledged phonetic differences among dialects, most Somalis understand each other well and consider themselves to be speaking a single language.[11](https://dornsife.usc.edu/alexander-zholkovsky/wp-content/uploads/sites/187/2023/11/Somali_Syntax_Translation.pdf)
The dialect question has political weight. The Somali Academy's history of standardization records that the 1972 script was suited to Af-Maxaa Tiri, that Af-Maay speakers and speakers of other Somali varieties found it unsuitable for their speech, and that criticism was repressed in the name of cultural homogeneity and monolingualism.[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/) Whether Af-Maay and Af-Maxaa Tiri are dialects of one language or separate, partially intelligible languages remains a live classification question.[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/)
## Writing the language
**Before 1972.** Somali has been written in several scripts. [Arabic script](https://www.edgepedia.org/arabic-script), known locally as Wadaad's writing (وَداد), was introduced in the 13th century by Sheikh Yusuf al-Kowneyn to aid Koranic teaching; in the 19th century Sheikh Uways al-Barawi improved it on the basis of the Maay dialect, and in the 1950s the Somali linguist Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal radically altered its spelling conventions and introduced a set of new symbols for the vowels.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) Galaal had switched to the Latin camp by 1956, when he published *Hikmad Soomaali* (Somali wisdom), a collection of traditional narratives.[9](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false) The Osmanya script (far soomaali or cismaanya) was invented by Cismaan Yuusuf Keenadiid between 1920 and 1922,[12](https://arc.dbs.org/data/scripts/Osma/) and the Borama/Gadabuursi and Kaddare alphabets also circulated.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) Omniglot dates the first writing of Somali to the 13th century.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm)
**The orthography debate.** After independence the script question remained unresolved for over a decade, threatening, as one *American Historical Review* study puts it, the cohesion of a republic integrating two colonial territories with different written languages, Italian and English, whose use in government privileged an urban educated elite.[9](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false) In 1961 both the Latin and Osmanya scripts were adopted for use in Somalia, but in 1969 a coup occurred, with the resolution of the writing-system debate among its stated aims.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) During the second civilian administration (1964 to 1967) the government invited a committee of three foreign experts sponsored by UNESCO, B. W. Andrzejewski, S. Strelcyn, and J. Tubiana, who arrived in [Mogadishu](https://www.edgepedia.org/mogadishu) in March 1966 to a city shaken by demonstrations hostile to a [Latin script](https://www.edgepedia.org/latin-script); they reviewed existing scripts and interviewed their devisers, were critical of local and Arabic scripts, and had few objections to Latin-based scripts.[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/)
**Adoption and aftermath.** After the October 1969 coup by Mohamed Siad Barre, the Somali Revolutionary Council appointed a new Somali Language Commission (Guddiga Af-Somaaliga) in 1971 with instructions to recommend a language without concern of script. On 21 October 1972, the third anniversary of the coup, a helicopter dropped multicolor leaflets in a new Latin script over a parade in Mogadishu, and from that day the script became official.[3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/) Shire Jama Ahmed (Shire Jaamac Axmed) is credited with the Latin spelling system, chosen from among eighteen competing new orthographies; at the same time Somali was made the sole official language of Somalia.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm)
The adoption had immediate administrative reach. By the end of 1972 the entire state apparatus had begun a process of Somalization, with all communications and government services transitioning to Somali within three months, and the daily *Xiddigta Oktoobar* (The October Star) replacing the Arabic and Italian newspapers.[9](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false) The regime tied the orthography to literacy campaigns and textual production; UNESCO later described how mass education programs, mobile teaching units, and radio and printed materials dramatically increased literacy rates in a short period and promoted a shared national identity grounded in a common written language.[13](https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/protecting-somalias-documentary-heritage-unesco-supports-somali-memory-institutions-develop?hub=378) The same study records that the use of Somali in schools and textbooks gave the country, for the first time in its history, a standardized education system.[9](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false) Somali's adoption of a Latin script for its politically dominant dialect in 1972 may also have influenced the choice of Latin-based scripts developed for other Cushitic varieties.[14](https://library.au.int/node/247853)
## Status and modern development
Glottolog classifies Somali as not endangered, with a national statutory status under Article 5 of Somalia's 2012 Constitution, and assigns the codes [ISO 639-3](https://www.edgepedia.org/iso-639-3) **som** and Glottocode **soma1255**.[5](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/soma1255) Institutional work on the language continues in Somalia: in June 2026 the National Communications Authority, with the Academy of Science, Culture and [Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/literature) and the Regional Somali Language Academy, launched a Somali cybersecurity terminology glossary as part of ongoing efforts to develop the language for emerging technology concepts.[15](https://nca.gov.so/news/national-communications-authority-launches-somali-cybersecurity-terminology-glossary) In computational linguistics Somali remains low-resource: a 2026 arXiv release of SomaliWeb v1, a quality-filtered web corpus of 819,322 documents (about 303 million tokens) with a matched BPE-16K tokenizer, notes that Somali had lacked a documented dedicated pretraining corpus, and reports that the BPE tokenizer emits 40.2% fewer tokens than GPT-4's cl100k_base on the FLORES-200 Somali devtest.[16](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18232)
The language carries a rich oral literary tradition,[1](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876) and its written form, barely two generations old, sits on a history of competing scripts that stretched from 13th-century Koranic teaching to the leaflets dropped over the 1972 parade.[2](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm) • [3](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/)
## References
1. [Somali, in The Oxford Handbook of Ethiopian Languages, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/46265/chapter-abstract/405501876)
2. [Somali alphabets, pronunciation and language, Omniglot](https://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm)
3. [HISTORY: Elif Maay Standardization efforts, The National Academy of Maay Culture and Sciences](https://maayacademy.so/historic-launch-of-elif-maay-script-in-baidoa-marks-new-era-for-somali-linguistic-diversity/)
4. [Low-Resource: Somali (Af-Soomaali), Uppsala University thesis](https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2%3A1671848/FULLTEXT01.pdf)
5. [Somali, Glottolog 5.3](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/soma1255)
6. [A. N. Tucker, "Fringe Cushitic: an experiment in typological comparison," Bulletin of SOAS 30:3 (1967), Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/fringe-cushitic-an-experiment-in-typological-comparison1/6680B0DFAC70D514B1C3B566DB31F5EE)
7. [Aspects of Somali Phonology, SOAS eprints](https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33834/1/11010624.pdf)
8. [J. W. C. Kirk, A Grammar of the Somali Language, Introduction, Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/grammar-of-the-somali-language/introduction/355A50389D492FE65B4655E53002CB4F)
9. ["Revolution of Letters," The American Historical Review 131:3 (2026)](https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/131/3/891/8287790?login=false)
10. [Addow, Morphophonological and Lexical Variations of the Waqooyi and Maay Dialects of Somali, University of Nairobi](https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/157230/Addow_Morphophonological%20and%20Lexical%20Variations%20of%20the%20Waqooyi%20and%20Maay%20Dialects%20of%20Somali.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)
11. [Zholkovsky, Somali Syntax data description, University of Southern California](https://dornsife.usc.edu/alexander-zholkovsky/wp-content/uploads/sites/187/2023/11/Somali_Syntax_Translation.pdf)
12. [Osmanya script, ARC database of scripts](https://arc.dbs.org/data/scripts/Osma/)
13. [Protecting Somalia's documentary heritage, UNESCO](https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/protecting-somalias-documentary-heritage-unesco-supports-somali-memory-institutions-develop?hub=378)
14. [Orality, Literacy, and Somali Oral Poetry, AUC Library](https://library.au.int/node/247853)
15. [National Communications Authority Launches Somali Cybersecurity Terminology Glossary](https://nca.gov.so/news/national-communications-authority-launches-somali-cybersecurity-terminology-glossary)
16. [SomaliWeb v1: A Quality-Filtered Somali Web Corpus, arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18232)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Languages and dialects › Named languages by region › Languages of Africa*
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