The uniqueness of the Somali Language

[aero]

nuune;945918 wrote:

Toddob

= January

Fuushane

= February

Gu’soore

= March

Samuulaad

= April

Dirir

= May

Diraacgood

= June

Laxadhaqe

= July

Samalaho

= August

Kalahaan

= September

Dambarsame

= October

Baldaaq

= November

Lixkor

= December

I did some digging around and found literature by Said Shidad Hussein http://wardheer.startlogic.com/public_html/Articles%202012/Dec/31_Somali_calendar_Said.pdf using these months in his writing. This is by far the most coolest thing I have yet to read in a while. Keep them coming.

[nuune]

^ Thanks Aero for the link, that is a great link, my sources number more than 20 and most of them are oral, some from books, others from online even though not many, I was recently in the Miyiga and was interested in asking about Somali Astronomy, this was a subject they knew very well, I will write about it Inshaa Allah even though there is a topic in Dood Wadaag called: Astro physics in Somali.

[nuune]

Aero, from that link of WardheerNews, it is clear that there wasn't a mention of a particular year, as in the case of Hijra or the Gregorian the Somalis at the time used to count the year using the system of seasons, the Somali year consist of 365 days, I will read more on that article you posted and summarize the Somali year.

 

 

It is very clear that a Somali year can be established, starting from a particular big event that Somalis regard as an important, as was the case for the Hijri Calendar which marked the migration to Medina, or the gregorian which claims to have come from different sources.

 

 

So, we Somalis can devise a Somali year since we already have unique Somali months, days of the week, seasons, and everything in between.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Nuunka, kuwaan meel Facebook ka tirsan oo afkeena lagu hormariyo ku koobiyeeye. Hope you don't mind.

[nuune]

MMA, hor mari sxb faafi, anigaba boqolaala sources from Miyiga to jiiro aangalooyin aan la sheegi karin ka soo wada dhiitiyey camal.

[SomaliPhilosopher]

Lamme wanaagsan

[Tallaabo]

SomaliPhilosopher;946579 wrote:

Lamme wanaagsan

:confused:

[SomaliPhilosopher]

Something wrong Tallaabo?

[Safferz]

nuune;945918 wrote:

Somali Calendar Months:

 

Ancient Somali Calendar Months

 

Dago

= Muxarram

Maalmadoone

= Safar

Bildhurahore

= rabiicul awwal

Bildhuradhexe

= rabiicul thaani

Bildhuradambe

= jamaadul awwal

Lifato

= jamaadu thaani

Rajalhore

= rajab

Rajaldhexe

= shacbaan

Rajaldambe

= ramadan

Waabariis

= shawwaal

Gasayar

= thul-qacd

Sabuux

=thul-xajj

 

The next list is the most recent Somali Months that are used on daily bases and has few Arabic words as well as unique Somali names.

 

1-

Seko

= Muxarram

2-

Safar

= safar

3-

Mawliid

= rabiicul awwal

4-

Rajalhore,

=rabiicu thaani

5-

Rajaldhexe

= jamaadul awwal

6-

Rajaldambe

= jamaadu thaani

7-

Sabbuux

=rajab

8-

Waaberiis

= shacbaan

9-

Soon

= Ramadan

10

Soonfur

= shawwaal

11-

Sidataal

= thul qacd

12-

Carrafo

= thul xajj

 

The next list of Somali Months date from durinng Fircoon times, but they lasted and were heard last as recent as 18th century, still is being heard in miyiga of any Somali territory.

 

Toddob

= January

Fuushane

= February

Gu’soore

= March

Samuulaad

= April

Dirir

= May

Diraacgood

= June

Laxadhaqe

= July

Samalaho

= August

Kalahaan

= September

Dambarsame

= October

Baldaaq

= November

Lixkor

= December

Which one is older, the Toddob-Lixkor calendar or the Dago-Sabuux calendar? Fircoon times are "ancient" as well, do you mean the first calendar was used before that?

[Tallaabo]

SomaliPhilosopher;946595 wrote:

Something wrong Tallaabo?

Lamme??? Is it a Kikuyu language? Our ancient Somali looks so alien.

[nuune]

^^ Actually Tallaabo, to support the name "Lamme" which is an ancient name for maalinta isniinta, I had figured out and found few games that contemporary children at early age used to play, the games are:

 

Gariir = it is common for gabdhaha to play ciyaarta Gariirka, and it is done with small rocks, girls against each otherr performing this adventure game.

 

How is "Lamme" or "isniinta" related to Gariir, here it is:

 

When Gariir is being played, and you want to count your numbers, numbers in this game are counted in shan-shan, you start by saying this:

 

Lamme, lamme-kaale, Litte, Litte-abuure, Aw-loojin, this is like saying, one two three four and five.

 

So Lamme or isniinta as being the first day of the week in the Somali Calendar, we can say that traditions has evolved and oral literature has being passed generations to generations.

 

 

So we can say that, the game "Gariir" has supported this word "lamme", please don't confuse with Lammo which is number two,vowels in Somali language are dangerous and extra careful is needed.

 

 

There was another game, but its seems the word Lamme has being misused, the game is called, "Kuun-kuun", again, it is an adventure game played by girls, when the counting begins, one says "kuun-kuun lammina, lammina-tabaaraka, sarta-una-baraka-siyeedoow-walax, hakayaa, wa.celaa baxayaa".

 

As you can see, the word "Lamme" referring to as being one has being maintained even though little bit of vowel misuse happened.

 

 

 

The originality of the Somali language is something that needs to be appreciated.

 

 

 

I am now gathering information about Somali Numbers, and the Somali Calendar Year even though ancient people used Somali Seasons to refer to years.

[Miyir]

Nuune Thanks a lot keep the good work.

[oba hiloowlow]

) Dago = Muharram = January

2) Buldurohroe = Saphar = February

3) Buldurodambe = Rabia I = March

4) Rajal Hore = Rabia II = April

5) Rajal Dehhe = Jomada I = May

6) Rajal dambe = Jomada II = June

7) Sebuhh = Rajab = July

8) Waberis = Shaaban = August

9) Son = Ramadan = September

10) Sonfur = Shawwal = October

11) Sidatal = Dulkaada = November

12) Arafo = Dulheggia = December

[Marksman]

Reasons Why Somali is Harder Than Your Language

 

Recently I was discussing with @JaredRomey about an article he posted, “9 hard languages for English speakers.” I replied that I don’t know why Somali never makes it onto those lists; they tend to be the same list: Chinese, Arabic, etc.

 

Jared suggested I blog about why Somali deserves to be on the list. He suggested five reasons why it’s hard– I came up with eight, but I’m only a beginner.

 

In difficulty, Somali can stand its ground against the hardest languages. Yet the Foreign Service Institute puts Somali in category 2, where 3 is the hardest. Category 2 includes Farsi and 3 includes Arabic. I’ve studied both, and I don’t see how this is so. Somali seems to be way harder than Farsi and of at least the same level of difficulty as Arabic. If you drew a Venn diagram of languages and their hardest aspects, Somali would overlap with a lot of them.

 

While Mandarin and Somali have tones, Mandarin has no case. While German and Somali have case, German has fairly simple sounds. While Arabic and Somali have difficult sounds, Arabic has a consistent writing system. Plus Somali does some odd things with prepositions you’ll have to read about, below.

 

Somali is a doosy, but the challenge is made lighter by the joy of Somalis hearing their language spoken by a foreigner.

 

For a bit of background: Somali belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family, in the Cushitic branch. More famous branches of this family are Semitic, to which Arabic and Hebrew belong, and Egyptian, which includes the language of the ancient Pharaohs. Some overlap with Arabic, then, is natural.

 

1. Three (four?) writing systems. When Somali was originally written down in the Arabic script in the 13th century (Wadaad script). In 1920, another script was invented that somewhat resembled the Ethiopian writing system (Osmanya script). A more minor script was invented in 1930, called the Borama script. The official script since 1972 has been a Latin-based alphabet (Somali alphabet).

 

2. All the hard sounds of Arabic: The guttural sounds that foreigners have trouble with in Arabic – they’re all in Somali. The emphatic ha, the ayin, the qaf, the raspy kha – they’re all there. (They’re spelled x, c, q, and kh, respectively.) Additionally, Somali distinguishes between short and long vowels, like in Arabic, and other languages like Japanese and Finnish. So my friends correct me if I say “si” rather than “sii.” Finally, they have a retroflex “d” (spelled dh) like in Indian languages.

 

3. Some of the tones of Mandarin: Most have heard of the four different tones of Mandarin: high, low, falling, and rising. Somali only has two, high and low, but they can sound different depending on the environment they are found in. They change the meaning of the word, too! “Boy” is ínan, and “girl” is inán; “dog” is éy and “dogs” is eý.

 

4. Irregular plurals like German or Arabic: A Somali noun forms its plural according to a pattern that is not predictable from its singular, and Somali has 7 or so patterns. This concept may sound familiar to German or Arabic-speakers. Unlike English, which almost always forms its plural with “-(e)s,” Somali has no “regular” plural suffix. So the plural of áf “language,” flattens the tone and repeats the last syllable: afaf. For some nouns, a suffix is used, so hoóyo“mother” goes to hoyoóyin, and áabbe goes to aabayaal (also note the tone shift). Finally, words may shift gender as they go from singular to plural.

 

5. Prepositions – unlike anything: Somali prepositions don’t resemble any language I know. They’re a challenge, so I’ll explain as well as I can based largely on this academic source andthis textbook. They are divided into prepositions and “deictic particles.” They have four prepositions, roughly “to”, “in”, “from”, and “with”. “Deictic particles” indicate activity relative to the speaker; the four Somali deictic particles indicate toward the speaker, away from the speaker, toward each other, or away from each other. One may need to use both a preposition and a deictic particle. Somali tends to place these items in front of the verb, not the noun.

 

For example, “I pulled the man out of the well with a rope” is nínkíi bàan cèelka xádhig kagá sóo saaray. The last five words literally mean, “well-the rope with-from towards_me I-raised.” Similarly, “they used to give us news about it” is way inoogá warrámi jireen, literally, “They us-to-about news gave.” They could have thrown a soo in there, too, right after inoogá. It seems to me they cluster all the prepositions together. In the first example, “from” goes with “well” and “with” goes with “rope,” but both stick by the verb. In the second, “to” goes with “us” and “about” goes with the unspoken “it.” Unscrambling in real time what preposition goes with what is beyond my level right now.

 

6. Cases – like Greek or German: Somali has four cases, but not the ones you may know from, say German or Greek. They are absolutive, subject, genitive, and vocative. Absolutive is used when it is by itself, and subject if there is another noun in the sentence. Genitive, like in other languages, indicates possession, and vocative is used in directly addressing someone or something. Like the plural, they are marked with a suffix or tone change, depending on the class of the noun. In addition, like in German and Greek, the absolutive and subject are marked on the article, as well. However, Somali also has different articles depending on whether the noun was mentioned before or not (similar to English “a” and “the”).

 

8. Poetry: Somalis are known for their love of poetry. Richard Burton noted in the 19th century the widespread recitation and performance of poetry among Somalis. When Somali is spoken it is peppered with poetic allusion, proverbs, and alliteration. The uninitiated cannot understand the depth of the language without a deep knowledge and appreciation of the poetry.

 

Before you feel discouraged, let me tell you that Somalis love to hear their language spoken by foreigners.

 

Some non-Somalis have become YouTube sensations by simply interviewing in Somali. When you try to learn the language, you will receive tons of help. Somalis love their language, and their love is infectious. Enjoy taking on this challenge of learning Somali and all the new, friendly people you will recruit to help your efforts and entertain with your enthusiasm.

 

Source

[Alpha Blondy]

good stuff.