Folktales on Kapchits.Online

Drought in Somali Folklore

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A column (“Kolumni”) by Dr. Georgi Kapchits, first published in “Afrikan Sarvi / Horn of Africa Journal”, No. 1/2012, issued by Suomen Somalia-verkosto ry (Finnish Somalia Network).

‘From where rain was expected dust has come’, said one of the Somali ancestors, first looking at the pale sky and then at the herd of camels which he had just brought from the half empty Well of the Last Hope. ‘A she-camel which has not drunk water for thirty days will endure three days more’, answered his brother, trying to soothe him. ‘But what shall I do with them’, asked he, pointing at his sheep and goats which were hiding themselves under the tree from the hot rays of the Sun at its zenith. ‘A drought is coming’, uttered the first one.

Men and Women in the Somali Narrative Folklore

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The paper for the Buranbur conference in San Diego — 3 March 2007.

I am going to remind you of some Somali proverbs about women, their role in the traditional society and their relationships with men. Each proverb carries a message of the Somali ancestors to the present generation of the Somalis. Some of them are very funny and I hope you will enjoy them.

According to the following proverb, men are desperate about women. They say: Naago ama u samir, ama ka samir — Either suffer from women or suffer without them. But men understand that they badly need them: Naag waa belaayo loo baahan yahay — Woman is a disaster one cannot do without.

On Some Peculiarities of the Somali Language, Proverbs and Folktales

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The paper for the Buranbur conference in San Diego — 3 March 2007.

I

Somali is a very rich language from the point of view of phonetics, syntax and vocabulary. In its “Northern variant” (maxaad tidhi) it is a tonal accent language. The main classes of words in Somali are nouns and verbs.

Some words with attributive meanings belong to the class of verbs: dheer — to be long, cad — to be white, etc. The majority of words with adverbial meaning belong to the class of nouns: hoos-ta — bottom, si-da — mode, mean.