LEXICAL TYPOLOGY OF

SOMALI
A FEW ISSUES

Giorgio Banti (Oriental University of Naples)

 Typology of Somali (I)

The language
• Here and in most of the literature on “Somali” it
actually is Northern Somali (NS) that is described: a
cluster of closely related varieties spoken in Puntland,
Somaliland, Djibouti, most of the Region 5 of Ethiopia
and some other areas of Kenya and former Somalia.
• Written Somali has developed from this dialect base,
but is NOT a standardized language in a strict sense,
like standard Italian, French, or German are:
― a high degree of orthographic variation (the
present Latin-based orthography was officially
introduced only in 1972);
― a certain degree of phonological, morphological,
and lexical variation.
 Typology of Somali (II)
Prosodic typology
• A tone language (formerly also analyzed as a pitch-
accent language), with one H tone per word, unless a
word has been grammaticalized from a 2-word phrase.
Tone-bearing units are moras, not syllables, e.g.,
contour tones only occur on long vowels and
diphthongs.
Parts of speech
• Ns and Vs.
• Adjs are morphologically and syntactically a special class
of stative verbs (C4 verbs).
• Very few proper Advs, e.g., shálayto „yesterday‟. Several
MW Ns and NPs have “adverb”-like usages.
• Ps are 4 particles that occur in clitic chains before Vs
and NP predicates.
 Typology of Somali (III)
Word order
• NPs are mainly L-headed:
− relative clauses follow their head Ns;
− two types of possessive constructions: (a.) L-headed
with genitive inflection (gúri-ga Calí „house:ABS-
the:ABS cAli:GEN‟), (b.) R-headed with possessive clitic
(Cáli gúri-gîisa „cAli:ABS house:ABS-his:ABS‟);
− articles cliticize to the R of their head Ns (m. -ka, f.
-ta);
− Numerals are Ns and heads of their phrases: counted
Ns follow them in a special form of numerative (post-
numeral) genitive.
• Ss are V-final, both main clauses and subordinate ones:
− Auxiliaries follow lexical Vs, that precede them in a
special infinitive form.
 Typology of Somali (IV)
“Case”
• Nominative, genitive, and vocative cases are marked
phrase finally, NOT on each inflectable word of their
phrases.
• Nominative only occurs with non-focussed subjects.
• Other NPs, e.g., DOs, IOs (with ditransitives), &c. occur
in an unmarked absolute case, that has been frequently
and improperly called an absolutive: all varieties of
Somali and all other East Cushitic languages have a
(Marked) Nominative - Accusative alignment typology,
NOT an ergative - absolutive one.
• Other case-like relationships with oblique objects and
adjuncts are either marked by means of the 4 Ps before
the predicate, or of a rich system of locational or
relational nouns in inverted genitive constructions, e.g.,
mîis-ka hóos-tîisa „table-the under_part-its‟ (= „under the
table‟).
 Some morphology (I)
Classes of Vs
• Suffix-conjugated (s-c) Vs like kêen „bring‟. The majority
of verbs, inflecting according to three conjugations: C1
(primary and some derived Vs), C2 (mainly causative
and factitive derived Vs), C3 (mainly middle and de-
verbal incohative Vs).
• Prefix-conjugated (p-c) Vs like âal „stay‟. Only 7 occur as
“living” p-c Vs in NS: „stay‟, „know‟, „be‟ (copula), „come‟,
„say‟ (3 different Vs), out of a total of ca. 15 p-c Vs
attested in other dialects and Somali-related languages,
e.g., „eat‟, „drink‟, „kill‟, „die‟, „run‟, &c. (Yet some tenses
are inflected according to C1 or C3, of „be‟ to C4).
• Qualitative-conjugated (C4) Vs like óg „know‟. Ca. 50
primary Vs., e.g., „have‟, „know‟, „love‟, „hate‟, „live‟,
„agree‟, „be red‟, „be difficult‟ ~ „be hard‟, „be near‟, &c.
There also is an open subclass of derived stative Vs,
most of them with the stem extension -án.
 Some morphology (II)

Classes of Vs
kêen âal óg
Neg. Present Neg. Present Neg. Present
1 sg. má keenó má ’áal má ogí
2 sg. má keentó má táal má ogíd
3 sg. m. má keenó má yáal má ogá
3 sg. f. má keentó má táal má ogá
1 pl. má keennó má náal má ogín
2 pl. má keentâan má taallîin má ogidín
3 pl. má keenâan má yaallîin má ogá
 Some morphology (III)
Classes of deverbal Ns
s-c Vs p-c Vs C4 Vs

Verbal stem nouns: stem nouns internal

nouns or C1 primary Vs with internal morphology:
masdars Ø, morphology: dhérer ←
C2 -is m., odháah ← dhéer,
C3 -ad m. dhéh kulâyl ←
different suffixes: different kulúl
C1 -id f., -is f., suffixes: special
&c., -id f., suffixes:
C2 -in f., -imâad m., -i f.,
C3 -asho f., -tin m. -o f.,
-aan f. -aan f.
Agent -e m., -to f. timáaddo f. -e m., Ø f.
nouns táallo f.
 Somali compounds (I)

• Two overall classes of compounds:

a) compound Ns, and
b) compound Vs.
• Compound Ns usually have only one H tone, i.e., the
component words lose their individual H tones and a
new H tone is reassigned to the compound.
[NB: orthographic features are often not enough for
identifying compounds in a written corpus]
 Somali compounds (II)

• Compound Vs frequently also allow a multi-word

(MW) analysis, rather than a compound V one, e.g.,
as light verb constructions. For instance:

W-uu lacág beelay

FOC-he money lost:3sgm
„He remained with no money‟

On the other hand, masdars derived from such

constructions are clearly compound Ns:
lacagbeelíd f. „remaining with no money‟
 Compound Ns (I)
• [NN N]N and [N N-VVd]N with non-verbal Ns as heads are
L-headed:
afgúri m. „dialect‟ (áf „language‟ + gúri „home‟)
qaansaroobâad m. „rainbow‟ (qáanso „bow‟ + rôob „rain‟)
• [N NV]N with deverbal Ns (masdars, agent nouns &c.) as
heads are R-headed:
adhijír f. „shepherds‟ (ádhi „shoats‟ + jír „tend, look after‟,
with ádhi DO of VTRAN)
biyadhác m. „waterfall‟ (biyó „water‟ + dhác „fall‟, with biyó
S of VINTR)
(NB: here the two deverbal stem Ns -jír and -dhác are
respectively an agent N and a concrete N)
aqoonyáhan m. „scholar‟ (aqóon „knowledge‟ + -yáhan m.
agent N „eater‟ > „one who knows thoroughly‟ < old p-c
V *-Vhm- „eat‟, now only in compound Ns)
 Compound Ns (II)
• [N [N V]REL-S]N:
baqabéenle m. „feigned retreat‟ (báqe „fear, retreat‟ +
béen „lie‟ + -le < léh V4 „have‟)
(NB: -le is a deverbal stem N, but here it is not an agent
noun as in dáble m. „soldier, one who has/carries a dáb,
i.e., a firearm‟, or in gacankudhíigle cf. the next slide)
• [[N [V4]REL-S] NV]N:
warxungêe m. „a kind of poisonous spider‟ (wár „news‟ +
xún V4 „be bad‟ + gêe < gêe „bring‟)
• [N P NV]N:
gadaal-ka-imâad m. „newly arrived people‟ (gadáal
„behind‟ [Locational N] + ká „from‟ + imâad < imôw
„come, arrive‟)
(NB: also here the two deverbal stem Ns -gêe and -
imâad are agent Ns)
 Compound Ns (III)
• [N P N le]N:
gacankudhíigle m. „assassin‟ (gacán „hand‟ + kú „on‟
+ dhîig „blood‟ + -le < léh V4 „have‟)
(NB: the P kú is not as in the clause gacánta dhîig
bûu kú léeyahay „he has blood on the hand‟)
• [N-i V-INFL]N:
abaarikéentay m. ~ f. „newly arrived people‟ (abaari
NOM of abáar f. „drought‟ + kéentay „she brought
(them)‟)
• [la ma NV]N:
lamacanáante m. „a person one cannot rebuke‟ (la
IMPERS + má „not‟ + canáante agent N ← canaanó
„rebuke, scold‟)
(NB: agent Ns usually refer to who/what performs an
action, here canáante refers to who undergoes it)
 Compound Vs
• [NLOC V]V-TR:
ág jôog „stay beside sb.‟ (ág „beside‟ [Locational N] +
jôog „stay‟)
dúl saarán „stay with, be placed on top of‟ (dúl
„above‟ [Locational N] + saarán V4 „be placed‟)
• [NDO V]V-INTR:
lacág bêel „remain without money‟ (lacág „money‟ +
bêel „lose, remain without‟)
• [NOBL V]V-INTR:
híyi kác „become excited‟ (híyi „heart, emotions‟ +
kác „rise‟)
qurúx badán „be beautiful‟ (qurúx „beauty‟ + badán V4
„be much, be many‟)
(NB: in most such cases the NOBL can also be
analysed as a NS within the compound or MW V)
Thank you!