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.

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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.

The WardheerNews Interview (2006): Selected Passages

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:00:00 +0000

On 25 January 2006 the website WardheerNews.com published a long interview with Dr. Georgi Kapchits, conducted in Somali by Isamail A. Hassan (“Khaliil”). Dr. Kapchits was staying in Berlin at the time, working on his dictionary of Somali proverbs. The interview was picked up by other Somali websites and became one of the most widely read pieces WardheerNews published that year.

The full Somali original is reproduced here: Wareysigii ay mareegtada WardheerNews la yeelatay Dr. Georgi Kapchits.

Somali-Language on Kapchits.Online

On Some Peculiarities of the Somali Language, Proverbs and Folktales

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The WardheerNews Interview (2006): Selected Passages