SOMALI----ENGLISH DICTIONARY

(waa tijaabadii hore, fadlan wax ku darso oo noo soo sheeg ereyga aad rabto in lagu daro iyo wixii qalad ah ee aanu samaynay)

A B      C  D  DH     E   F  G  H      I  J  K      KH  L    (M  N  O     Q  R

S  T  U    X  W Y  way soo socdaan/coming soon)

HORDHAC-----INTRODUCTION

Somali Pronunciation:

 Somali pronunciation is fairly straight forward.  There are two sets of vowels: long and short vowels (shaqal gaaban and shaqal dheer respectively).  The short vowels correspond to the English a, e, o , i, and u, and the long vowels are aa, ee, ii, oo and uu and essentially extend the short vowels.

 a: at, after                     aa: bat

e: red  ee:

 i:  bin   ii: need, read 

 u: noon

oo: Soomaali, so

o:  look

 Gender:

 all nouns in Somali have feminine or masculine gender.  An article is added to the end of each noun that denotes gender. 

 Relative article: the

 da, sha and ta are feminine relative articles

ka, ga, ah are masculine articles

there are no rules, but the following may serve as a guide.

nouns ending in "d" or "mo" are usually feminine and take the ending da.

nouns ending in "g" are usually masculine and take the ending a.

nouns ending in "q" are usually feminine and take the ending da.

nouns ending in "a" are usually masculine and take the ending ah.

 We have indicated the gender of all nouns listed in this dictionary.  We have also provided the noun with the relative article to many nouns in this dictionary.   

 Reflexive (prenomial) verbs.

 Many verbs in Somali can be used in the reflexive form.  Some forms can only be     

used in this reflexive form.  This is somwhat similar to the French and, in fact, the French use of "se" is reoughly similar to the use of "is" in Somali:

 Waanu is la hadalaynaa           (French) On se parle  We are talking to each other

Waynu is arki                            On se verra  We will see each other

way is dilayn                                         ils s'est tue' They killed each other

is dil                                        se suicider     suicide 

In the cases where a verb must be used in the reflexive form, we presented it as such, but in the first person form.  For example, the Somali verb is casil (to resign) can only be used in the reflexive form.  We also present some verbs in both forms when that is appropriate as in the example given above (is dil; commit suicide), but also dil to kill.

Somali verbs can be divided into two forms: those that have different subject and object and those that the subject and the object can be the same. eat or make someone eat (a baby a sick person) cun or cunsi; but help caawi is .....is caawi

caawi hadal, cunsii, raacsii, akhrisii