Jama Musse Jama (ed), Hussein Mohamed Adam "Tanzania": In Honour of an Extraordinary Scholarship. (East Africa Academic Monograph Series.) Pp. 103-140. Deeqsan / Ponte Invisible: Hargeysa, Djibouti, Pisa. ISBN: 9 782487 618176 - , 2024
This paper addresses the question of what is the Somali language that is commonly spoken and writ... more This paper addresses the question of what is the Somali language that is commonly spoken and written by the Somali-speaking people, which has been referred to as "common Somali" or "general Somali" (af Soomaaliga guud), or even as "standard Somali".
After a review of what has been written about the internal differentiation of Somali into different varieties and dialects, as well as about its registers, the paper addresses the issue of the language of the Somali oral literature, especially of its poetry and wisdom literature such as proverbs and similar genres.
Subsequently, the history of writing in Somali is addressed, i.e., the history of its so called "language question" (It. questione della lingua), which sometimes has been discussed under the headline of turxaanbixinta af Soomaaliga 'cleaning up the Somali language' in recent times. On the one hand, there is a huge literature about the choice of a script for this language, and the cultural and political debates about it. Less has been said about the quality of the language that had to be written, and about the orthographical choices between concurrent spellings, even in reference works such as monolingual dictionaries. Recent remarkable exceptions are Morgan Nilsson's recent work on the language of schoolbooks, and several of Cabdalla Cumar Mansuur's works, e.g., Habdhigaalka af Soomaaliga Guud (2024, 'The way of writing General Somali'). In this framework, the author highlights different choices that were made by the Guddiga af Soomaaliga 'the Somali Language Committee' especially during the first years of the Siyaad Barre government, and by important authors like Yaasiin Cismaan Keenadiid, and Xuseen Sheekh Axmed "Kaddare". Yet also the written language of more recent novels and essays by major authors such as Axmed Faarax Cali "Idaajaa", Maxamed Daahir Afrax, Cali Jimcaale Axmed and others are addressed in the final part of this paper.
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Papers by Giorgio Banti
After a review of what has been written about the internal differentiation of Somali into different varieties and dialects, as well as about its registers, the paper addresses the issue of the language of the Somali oral literature, especially of its poetry and wisdom literature such as proverbs and similar genres.
Subsequently, the history of writing in Somali is addressed, i.e., the history of its so called "language question" (It. questione della lingua), which sometimes has been discussed under the headline of turxaanbixinta af Soomaaliga 'cleaning up the Somali language' in recent times. On the one hand, there is a huge literature about the choice of a script for this language, and the cultural and political debates about it. Less has been said about the quality of the language that had to be written, and about the orthographical choices between concurrent spellings, even in reference works such as monolingual dictionaries. Recent remarkable exceptions are Morgan Nilsson's recent work on the language of schoolbooks, and several of Cabdalla Cumar Mansuur's works, e.g., Habdhigaalka af Soomaaliga Guud (2024, 'The way of writing General Somali'). In this framework, the author highlights different choices that were made by the Guddiga af Soomaaliga 'the Somali Language Committee' especially during the first years of the Siyaad Barre government, and by important authors like Yaasiin Cismaan Keenadiid, and Xuseen Sheekh Axmed "Kaddare". Yet also the written language of more recent novels and essays by major authors such as Axmed Faarax Cali "Idaajaa", Maxamed Daahir Afrax, Cali Jimcaale Axmed and others are addressed in the final part of this paper.