Somali in Different Languages: the Somali language in 89 languages
Somali is Soomaaliga in Somali, الصومالية (aṣ-ṣūmālīyâ) in Arabic, ሶማልኛ (somaləñña) in Amharic and kisomali in Swahili; the tables list the name in 89 languages.
Somali, a Cushitic language with a Latin alphabet
Somali belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland and Ethiopia and a national language in Djibouti.1 The Somali Latin alphabet has been the official script since October 1972; before that, Arabic script was used, and the Osmanya alphabet was one of several local inventions of the twentieth century.1 Its ISO 639 codes are so and som.2
The word itself barely changes. somali covers six languages in one row, from Breton to Walloon, and сомали serves Russian, Mongolian and Ossetian. What varies is the frame around it: Spanish, Catalan and Galician add an accent (somalí), Slavic languages an adjective ending (somalijski, сомалийски), Turkic ones a suffix (Somalice, somaliycha), and Thai and Lao the word for “language” (ภาษาโซมาลี, ພາສາໂຊມາລີ).
Amharic shows a pattern of its own. ሶማልኛ (somaləñña) ends in -ñña, the ending also seen in the Amharic names of Faroese (ፋሮኛ), French (ፈረንሳይኛ) and Turkish (ቱርክኛ). Hindi and Nepali share सोमाली (somālī), Chinese writes 索馬裡語/索马里语 for the spoken and 索馬裡文/索马里文 for the written language, and Japanese shortens the country name to ソマリ語 (somarigo).
Somali in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
51 rows; shared spellings are grouped, so the English row also covers Afrikaans, Faroese, Scottish Gaelic and Tagalog.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Somali | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English, Afrikaans, Faroese, Scottish Gaelic, Tagalog · eng, afr, fao, gla, tgl | Somali | |
| Breton, Finnish, French, Interlingua, Portuguese, Walloon · bre, fin, fra, ina, por, wln | somali | |
| Catalan, Galician, Spanish · cat, glg, spa | somalí | |
| Croatian, Polish · hrv, pol | somalijski | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | somalicə | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | somalijski | |
| Czech · ces | somalština | |
| Welsh · cym | Somaleg | |
| Danish · dan | somalisk | |
| German · deu | Somalisch / Somaliſch; Somali / Somali | |
| Esperanto · epo | somala | |
| Estonian · est | somaali | |
| Basque · eus | somaliera | |
| West Frisian · fry | Somalysk | |
| Irish · gle | Somáilis | |
| Hungarian · hun | szomáliai | |
| Indonesian · ind | bahasa Somali | |
| Icelandic · isl | sómalíska | |
| Italian · ita | somalo | |
| Latin · lat | somaliane | |
| Latvian · lav | somāliešu | |
| Lithuanian · lit | somalių | |
| Malagasy · mlg | sômalianina | |
| Maltese · mlt | Somalu | |
| Moldovan (Latin) · mol | somaleză | |
| Malay (Latin) · msa | bahasa Somali | |
| Dutch · nld | Somalisch | |
| Norwegian · nor | somalisk; somali | |
| Romanian · ron | somaleză | |
| Slovak · slk | somálčina | |
| Slovio (Latin), constructed · no ISO code | Somalio | |
| Slovene · slv | somalijščina | |
| Somali · som | Soomaaliga | |
| Albanian · sqi | somalishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kisomali | |
| Swedish · swe | somaliska | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | somali | |
| Turkish · tur | Somalice | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | somaliycha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Somali | |
| Xhosa · xho | isi-Somali | |
| Zulu · zul | isiSomali | |
| Belarusian (Latin) · bel | samalijskaja | |
| Kazakh (Latin) · kaz | somalï | |
| Kyrgyz (Latin) · kir | somali | |
| Serbian (Latin) · srp | somalijski | |
| Tajik (Latin) · tgk | somaligī | |
| South Azerbaijani (Latin) · azb | somalicə | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | somalî | |
| Persian (Latin) · fas | somâli | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | somaliche |
Somali in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic and Asian scripts
44 rows with romanisations. Right-to-left scripts are set as read.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Somali | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | сомалиҹә | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | сомалијски | |
| Moldovan (Cyrillic) · mol | сомалезэ | |
| Malay (Arabic script) · msa | بهاس سومالي | |
| Slovio (Cyrillic), constructed · no ISO code | Сомалио | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | сомали | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | сомалийча | |
| Uzbek (Arabic script) · uzb | سامەلىيچە | |
| Mongolian, Ossetian, Russian · mon, oss, rus | сомали | somali |
| Belarusian (Cyrillic) · bel | самалійская | |
| Bulgarian · bul | сомалийски | somalijski |
| Kazakh (Cyrillic) · kaz | сомали | |
| Kazakh (Arabic script) · kaz | سومالي | |
| Kyrgyz (Cyrillic) · kir | сомали | |
| Kyrgyz (Arabic script) · kir | سومالئ | |
| Macedonian · mkd | сомалијски | somalijski |
| Serbian (Cyrillic) · srp | сомалијски | |
| Tajik (Cyrillic) · tgk | сомалигӣ | |
| Tajik (Arabic script) · tgk | ساملیگی | |
| Ukrainian · ukr | сомалі | somali |
| Arabic · ara | الصومالية | aṣ-ṣūmālīyâ |
| South Azerbaijani (Arabic script) · azb | سومالیجه | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | سۆمالی | |
| Persian (Arabic script) · fas | سومالی | |
| Dari · prs | سومالی, سومالیایی | sōmālī, sōmāliyāyī |
| Pashto · pus | سومالي, سوماليايي | sōmālī, sōmāliyāyī |
| Sindhi · snd | سومالي | sōmālī |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | سومالىچە | |
| Uyghur (Cyrillic) · uig | сомаличә | |
| Urdu · urd | سومالی | sōmālī |
| Hebrew · heb | סומלית | sōmalīt |
| Yiddish · yid | סאָמאַליש | somališ |
| Amharic · amh | ሶማልኛ | somaləñña |
| Greek · ell | σομαλικά | somaliká |
| Armenian · hye | սոմալերեն | somaleren |
| Georgian · kat | სომალიური | somaliuri |
| Hindi, Nepali · hin, nep | सोमाली | somālī |
| Malayalam · mal | സോമാലി | sōmāli |
| Tamil · tam | சொமாலி | comāli |
| Chinese · zho | 索馬裡語/索马里语, 索馬裡文/索马里文 | suǒmǎlǐyǔ, suǒmǎlǐwén |
| Japanese · jpn | ソマリ語 | somarigo |
| Korean · kor | 소말리아어 | somalliaeo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาโซมาลี | pʰāsā sōmālī |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາໂຊມາລີ | pʰāsā sōmālī |
Questions about the name of Somali
What is Somali called in Somali?
Soomaaliga, as the Latin-script table shows. Swahili says kisomali and Arabic الصومالية.
Which alphabet does Somali use?
The Somali Latin alphabet, official since 1972. Arabic script was used before, and Osmanya is one of several twentieth-century Somali scripts.
What is Somali in Arabic?
الصومالية, aṣ-ṣūmālīyâ. Persian, Dari and Urdu write سومالی (sōmālī).