Language/Somali/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Somali Language Alphabet and Pronunciation

Hello Polyglots 😀

In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Somali alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.

You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.

Somali is a Cushitic language spoken by around 20 million people in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. If you want to learn Somali, one of the first things you'll need to do is to become familiar with its alphabet and pronunciation. In this lesson, we'll go over the Somali alphabet and provide some tips on how to correctly pronounce Somali letters.

Somali has been written using several different writing systems throughout history. These have included the Arabic-based abjad known as Wadaad's writing, as well as the Borama, Osmanya, and Kaddare alphabets, all of which were based on the Arabic script. In more recent times, Somali has also been written using a Latin-based alphabet.

Wadaad's writing, which was introduced in the 13th century by Sheikh Yusuf al-Kowneyn to aid in the teaching of the Quran, was further developed in the 19th century by Sheikh Uways al-Barawi. He based the Somali writing system on the Maay dialect spoken in Southern Somalia. Later, in the 1950s, a Somali linguist named Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal introduced new symbols for the vowels and radically changed the spelling conventions for Somali written with the Arabic script.

Despite these developments, the current official script for Somali is the Latin alphabet, which was introduced in the mid-20th century and is now widely used in both Somalia and Somali-speaking communities around the world.

Somali Letters

The Somali language was historically written using various scripts, including the Arabic script. However, in 1972, the Somali Latin alphabet, based on the Latin script, was introduced and officially adopted as the standard writing system for the Somali language. The Somali Latin alphabet consists of 26 letters, similar to the English alphabet, but with a few modifications to accommodate the unique sounds in the language.

The Somali alphabet consists of 28 letters, which are represented, in its latin version, by the following symbols:

A, B, T, J, X, KH, D, R, S, SH, DH, C, G, F, Q, K, L, M, N, W, H, Y, E, and O.

Note that the Somali alphabet does not contain the letters P, Z, or V . However, some loanwords from Arabic, English, and other languages may contain these letters.

Pronunciation

Now that we've gone over the Somali alphabet, let's talk about how to pronounce its letters.

• A - pronounced like "ah" as in "father"
• B - pronounced like "b" as in "boy"
• T - pronounced like "t" as in "tea"
• J - pronounced like the "j" in "jazz"
• D - pronounced like "d" as in "dog"
• R - pronounced like a rolled "r" as in Spanish or Italian
• S - pronounced like "s" as in "snake"
• SH - pronounced like "sh" as in "shoe"
• C - pronounced like the arabic letter Ain
• G - pronounced like "g" as in "girl"
• F - pronounced like "f" as in "father"
• K - pronounced like "k" as in "king"
• L - pronounced like "l" as in "love"
• M - pronounced like "m" as in "mother"
• N - pronounced like "n" as in "nice"
• W - pronounced like "w" as in "water"
• H - pronounced like "h" as in "house"
• Y - pronounced like "y" as in "yellow"
• E - pronounced like "e" as in "bet"
• O - pronounced like "o" as in "boat"

Unique Somali Letters

There are a few letters in the Somali Latin alphabet that differ from the standard Latin script. These letters represent sounds that are unique to the Somali language. They may take some practice to master.

• C: This letter represents a voiced dental fricative, similar to the 'th' sound in the English word "this." It is pronounced as /ɖ/, pronounced like the arabic letter Ain
• DH: This letter represents a voiced dental fricative, similar to the 'th' sound in the English word "that." It is pronounced as /ð/.
• KH: This letter represents a voiceless velar fricative, similar to the 'ch' sound in the German word "Bach." It is pronounced as /x/.
• Q: In Somali, the letter 'Q' represents a voiceless uvular stop, similar to the 'q' sound in the Arabic word "Quran." It is pronounced as /q/, like the arabic letter Qaaf.
• X: This letter represents a voiceless velar fricative, similar to the 'ch' sound in the Scottish word "loch." It is pronounced as /χ/.

Different Scripts: Latin, Osmanya & Arabic

Latin	Osmanya	Arabic	IPA (pronunciation)
'		ء	[ʔ]
B b	𐒁	ب	[b]
T t	𐒂	ت	[t]
J j	𐒃	ج	[d͡ʒ]
X x	𐒄	ح	[ħ]
KH kh	𐒅	خ	[χ]
D d	𐒆	د	[d]
R r	𐒇	ر	[r]
S s	𐒈	س	[s]
SH sh	𐒉	ش	[ʃ]
DH dh	𐒊	ط	[ɖ]
C c	𐒋	ع	[ʕ]
G g	𐒌	غ	[g]
F f	𐒍	ف	[f]
Q q	𐒎	ق	[q]
K k	𐒏	ك	[k]
L l	𐒐	ل	[l]
M m	𐒑	م	[m]
N n	𐒒	ن	[n]
W w	𐒓	و	[w, ʉː, uː]
H h	𐒔	ه	[h]
Y y	𐒕	ي	[j, iː, ɪː]
A a	𐒖	ا	[æ, ɑ]
E e	𐒗	ئ	[e, ɛ]
I i	𐒘	ى	[i, ɪ]
O o	𐒙	ؤ	[ɞ, ɔ]
U u	𐒚	و	[ʉ, u]
aa	𐒛	آ	[æː, ɑː]
ee	𐒜	أى	[eː, ɛː]
oo	𐒝	أو	[ɞː, ɔː]
ii		ىٓ
uu		وٓ

Somali Osmanya Online Virtual Keyboard

Sources

• https://omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_alphabets