| Ashraaf | |
| Nativename: | Af-Ashraaf |
| States: | Somalia |
| Speakers: | ? |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Cushitic |
| Fam3: | Lowland East |
| Fam4: | Somali languages |
| Fam5: | Somali |
| Iso3: | none |
| Iso3comment: | (included in [som]) |
| Glotto: | afas1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Af-Ashraaf |
| Ethnicity: | Asharaf Somalis |
Ashraf (Somali: Af-Ashraaf) is a speech variety of Somali spoken in the Marka district of the Lower Shebelle region and Banaadir region of southern Somalia.
According to Blench (2006) there are two sub-dialects: Shingaani and Lower Shebelle.[1] As noted in recent work on the speech variety, Green & Jones (2016):[2]
"What we hope to have illustrated in this talk is that while Marka (Af Ashraaf) may be similar in certain ways to both Northern Somali and Maay, it nonetheless boasts a number of unique properties, particularly in its morphology, that we believe merit its treatment not as a Somali or Maay dialect, but as a language variety of its own"A similar level of skepticism towards the labelling of other Omo-Tana languages in Somalia (such as Maay, Dabarre, Jiddu) is expressed in Tosco (2012):[3]
"It is well-known that the term 'dialects' may refer to different 'things'. Within Somalia, it is safe to say that all the Somali dialects are 'dialects' from a sociolinguistic point of view, that is, in terms of their social role, their general absence in written media, and the speakers' acceptance of Northern-Central Somali as a common medium. From a strictly linguistic point of view, however, mutual comprehension should be assessed and dialects labelled accordingly (as mutually understandable varieties of a language). No classification so far does that."
The phonological inventory of Ashraaf is as follows:
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar (Palato- alveolar) | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /d/ | ɖ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | pronounced as /ʔ/ | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | (ɸ) | (β) | pronounced as /f/ | (ð) | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | ɣ | χ | ħ ʕ | pronounced as /h/ | |||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /r/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /j/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | pronounced as /l/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/, /iː/ | /u/, /uː/ | ||
| Mid | /e/, /eː/ | /o/, /oː/ | ||
| Open | /a/, /aː/ |