7 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.
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