pronounced as /notice/
This article describes the phonology of the Somali language.
Common Somali has 23 consonant phonemes. Its consonants cover every place of articulation on the IPA chart, though not all of these distinctions are phonemic.
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ * | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
pronounced as //b// is often realized as pronounced as /[β̞]/ when in a stressed intervocalic position. As in “Toban” pronounced as /[toβ̞an]/, 'Ten'.[1]
pronounced as //d// is often realized as pronounced as /[ð]/ when in a stressed intervocalic position. As in “Madow” pronounced as /[maðow]/, 'Black'.
pronounced as //ɖ// is a voiced retroflex stop. Some phoneticians say that it has an implosive quality for some speakers. It is sometimes realised as a flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/ between vowels.
The Somali language does not possess the phoneme pronounced as /ink/, but when it comes from Arabic; then it is used as mere loanwords as in (pronounced as /ar/) and (pronounced as /ar/) simply to be put.
The voiceless stops pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //k// are always aspirated.
pronounced as //ʕ//, the voiced pharyngeal fricative, may have creaky voice.
pronounced as //r// is often pronounced with breathy voice and may be partially devoiced. Between vowels it may be a single tap.
pronounced as //q// can, in some dialects, be realized as pronounced as /[x]/.
pronounced as //q// is sometimes epiglottalized.
pronounced as //ʍ// is often realized as pronounced as /[ʍᶹ]/ in the alluvial planal dialects. pronounced as //ʍ// is realized as pronounced as /[w]/ in word-final positions like qaboow.
Somali has five vowel, each of them are elongated and represented orthographically as double vowels.
| High | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
Lexical prominence in Somali can be classified under a pitch accent system, in which there is one high-tone mora per word.
The tone system distinguishes both grammatical and lexical differences. Differences include numbers singular and plural (a grammatical distinction), and masculine and feminine genders (a grammatical and sometimes also lexical distinction). One example is inán ('girl') versus ínan ('boy'). This reflects a tonal pattern that codes grammatical gender, such as dameér ('female donkey') versus daméer ('male donkey').
The question of the tone system in Somali has been debated for decades. The modern consensus is as follows.
In Somali, the tone-bearing unit is the mora rather than the vowel of the syllable. A long vowel or a diphthong consists of two morae and can bear two tones. Each mora is defined as being of high or low tone. Only one high tone occurs per word and this must be on the final or penultimate mora. Particles do not have a high tone. (These include prepositions, clitic pronouns for subject and object, impersonal subject pronouns and focus markers.) There are therefore three possible "accentual patterns" in word roots.
Phonetically there are three tones on long vowels: high, low and falling:
This use of tone may be characterized as pitch accent. It is similar to that in Oromo.
Stress is connected with tone. The high tone has strong stress; the falling tone has less stress and the low tone has no stress.
When needed, the conventions for marking tone on written Somali are as follows:
Tones on long vowels are marked on the first vowel symbol.
The syllable structure of Somali is (C)V(C).
Root morphemes usually have a mono- or di-syllabic structure.
Clusters of two consonants do not occur word-initially or word-finally, i.e., they only occur at syllable boundaries. The following consonants can be geminate: pronounced as //b//, pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //ɖ//, pronounced as //ɡ//, pronounced as //ɢ//, pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //n//, pronounced as //r// and pronounced as //l//. The following cannot be geminate: pronounced as //t//, pronounced as //k// and the fricatives.
Two vowels cannot occur together at syllable boundaries. Epenthetic consonants, e.g. pronounced as /[j]/ and pronounced as /[ʔ]/, are therefore inserted.
When a vowel occurs in word-initial position, a glottal stop (pronounced as /[ʔ]/) is inserted before it.
Phonological changes occur at morpheme boundaries (sandhi) for specific grammatical morphemes. There may be assimilation or elision. One unusual change which can occur is pronounced as //lt// to pronounced as /[ʃ]/ (compare Spanish mucho to Latin multus).
Coalescence also occurs. This is a kind of external sandhi in which words join, undergoing phonological processes such as elision. In Somali it is sometimes obligatory and sometimes it is dependent on the speech style.
Roots have front-back vowel harmony. There is also a process of vowel harmony in strings longer than a word, known as "harmonic groups".
Intonation (as opposed to tone, see above) does not carry grammatical information, although it may convey the speaker's attitude or emotion.