How many languages are spoken in Somalia?
An estimated 10-11 million people speak Somali today. The official languages of Somalia are Arabic and Somali. As a result of its colonial past, many southern Somalis also speak Italian.
What is the main language in Somalia?
Somali
Somalia/Official languages
Does Somalia have a written language?
The Somali language belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. 1973 and 1974, which made Somali a written language (in Latin characters) for the first time.
Are Bantu Somali?
The Somali Bantus are an ethnic group from Somalia, largely from the Shebelle and Jubba River valleys, in the Southwestern part of the country. Brought to Somalia in the 19th century by Arab slave traders, Bantus endured centuries of oppression in the horn of Africa as agricultural laborers.
Who made Somali language?
Osman Yusuf Kenadid
It was invented between 1920 and 1922 by Osman Yusuf Kenadid of the Majeerteen Darod clan, the nephew of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo (Obbia). A phonetically sophisticated alphabet, Kenadid devised the script at the start of the national campaign to settle on a standard orthography for Somali.
Is Somali a hard language?
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. While Arabic and Somali have difficult sounds, Arabic has a consistent writing system.
What is the difference between Somali and Somali Bantu?
Unlike Somalis, most of whom are traditionally nomadic herders, Bantus are mainly sedentary subsistence farmers. The Bantus’ predominant “Negroid” physical traits also serve to further distinguish them from Somalis.
How many Somali Bantu are there?
In recent years, the Somali government has promoted the notion that Somalia is a homogeneous country, but Somalia is actually comprised of several different groups. The Somali population is estimated at about 7.5 million people, of those, the Somali Bantu population is estimated at about 600,000.