Somali grammar

Somali is an agglutinative language, using a large number of affixes and particles to determine and alter the meaning of words.

Morphology

As in other related languages, Somali nouns are inflected for gender, number and case.

Affixes change according to a number of rules. The definite article is a suffix, with the basic form being -ki or -ka for masculine nouns and -ti or -ta for female nouns. The k or t is the actual article marker, although it can change depending on the preceding consonant, with the following vowel determined by the case of the noun. Articles do not change for singular or plural.

Nouns

Absolutive case

The basic form of a Somali noun is in absolutive case. In this case, the article maintains the vowel -a.

Somali	English
buug	(a) book
buug-ga	the book
gacan	(a) hand
gacanta	the hand

Nominative case

The subject of a sentence takes nominative case. In this case, the article takes the vowel -u. If the subject of the sentence includes multiple nouns, only the last takes the nominative ending for the article.

If there is no article, a tonal change signifies nominative case, although this is not represented in the orthography. Some feminine nouns take the suffix -i in nominative case without an article.

Somali	English
nin	man
nin-ka	the man
nin-ku...	the man... (followed by a verb)
nin-ka iyo wiil-ku...	the man and the boy...

Genitive case

Genitive case is generally indicated through a tonal change. Some feminine nouns take an ending, -eed, -aad or -od, depending on the final consonant of the root word.

Somali	English
áf	(a) language
carab	Arab (people)
áf carabeed	Arabic language (i.e. language of the Arabs)

Vocative case

Vocative case is indicated either through a tonal change or with the suffixes -ow (m. sg.), -ohow (m. pl.), -eey/-aay/-ooy (f. sg.) or -yahay (f. pl.).

Gender

Gender is not marked in nouns without the definite article. The gender of nouns does not follow any particular rule and is not generally obvious.

Number

Nouns form their plural in three ways, including reduplication. Many nouns exhibit gender polarity, whereby they change gender in the plural form, e.g. buug-ga (the book) is masculine in the singular, but buugag-ta (the books) is feminine.

Pronouns

There are both subject and object forms for each personal pronoun, with each form further divided into short and emphatic forms.

	Subject pronouns		Object pronouns
Person	Emphatic	Short	Emphatic	Short
1. Sing.	anigu	aan	aniga	i(i)
2. Sing.	adigu	aad	adiga	ku(u)
3. Sing. m.	isagu	uu	isaga	(u)
3. Sing. f.	iyadu	ay	iyada	(u)
1. Pl. (inclusive)	innagu	aynu	innaga	ina/inoo
1. Pl. (exclusive)	annagu	aannu	annaga	na/noo
2. Pl.	idinku	aad	idinka	idin/idiin
3. Pl.	iyagu	ay	iyaga	(u)

Verbs

Somali verbs consist of a stem to which suffixes are added. Verbs in indicative mood exist in four tenses, present, present continuous, past and past continuous, in addition to a subjunctive mood form for present and future tense. Verbs in Somali conjugate mainly through the addition of suffixes, although a very small number of common verbs use a conjugation using prefixes.

Infinitive and verbal nouns

The infinitive is created through the suffix -i or -n depending on verb class, e.g. keeni (to bring) and siin (to give). The infinitive is used in present tense only with the modal verb karid (to be able). Verbal nouns are formed with the endings -id, -n and -sho, e.g. keenid (the bringing), siin (the giving) and barasho (the learning) and are used and declined as per normal nouns.

Pareto principle

According to Ahmad (2013), the Pareto principle is in effect with regard to Somali grammar. When applied to Standard Somali, the adjective and verb, which collectively represent around 20% of Somali grammatical categories, would thereby constitute about 80% of both spoken and written Somali. This is due to the fact that tenses have an effect on both grammatical categories.^[1]

Indicative mood

Present

Present tense refers to an action which may or may not be happening at present. It may be used to express something which happens habitually or repeatedly. The present tense conjugation of keen (to bring) follows:

Person	Present	English
1. Sing.	keenaa	I bring
2. Sing.	keentaa	you bring
3. Sing. m.	keenaa	he brings
3. Sing. f.	keentaa	she brings
1. Pl.	keennaa	we bring
2. Pl.	keentaan	you (pl.) bring
3. Pl.	keenaan	they bring

Past

Past tense is used to describe a completed action in the past with a discrete duration. The conjugation of keen (to bring) is:

Person	Form	English
1. Sing.	(waan) keenay	I brought
2. Sing.	(waad) keentay	you brought
3. Sing. m.	(wuu) keenay	he brought
3. Sing. f.	(way) keentay	she brought
1. Pl.	(waan) keennay	we brought
2. Pl.	(waad) keenteen	you (pl.) brought
3. Pl.	(way) keeneen	they brought

nb: The final -ay can also be pronounced and written -ey.

Present continuous

The present continuous tense is formed with the suffix -ay- / -na- (depending on dialect) and the endings from the present tense. The present continuous forms of keen are:

Person	Form	English
1. Sing.	(waan) keenayaa	I am bringing
2. Sing.	(waad) keenaysaa	you are bringing
3. Sing. m.	(wuu) keenayaa	he is bringing
3. Sing. f.	(way) keenaysaa	she is bringing
1. Pl.	(waan) keenaynaa	we are bringing
2. Pl.	(waad) keenaysaan	you (pl.) are bringing
3. Pl.	(way) keenayaan	they are bringing

Past continuous

Past continuous is formed with the suffix -na / -ay and the past tense endings: keen+ay+ey = keenayey = I was bringing. Is it used to describe actions in the past which happened over a period of time: Intuu akhrinayey wargeyska wuu quracanayey. = While he was reading the newspaper, he was eating breakfast.

Future

Future tense is formed with the infinitive of the required verb and the present tense of doon (to want):

Person	Form	English
1. Sing.	(waan) keeni doonaa	I will bring
2. Sing.	(waad) keeni doontaa	you will bring
3. Sing. m.	(wuu) keeni doonaa	he will bring
3. Sing. f.	(way) keeni doontaa	she will bring
1. Pl.	(waan) keeni doonaa	we will bring
2. Pl.	(waad) keeni doontaan	you (pl.) will bring
3. Pl.	(way) keeni doonaan	they will bring

Subjunctive mood

The subjunctive is used only in subordinate clauses and certain prepositional phrases. The present subjunctive differs from the indicative only in that the vowel in the endings changes from a to o. Future subjunctive uses the infinitive plus the present subjunctive form of doon.

Syntax

Somali has several strategies to indicate where the intention or the interest or the focus is located in the phrase: a topic-comment or focus construction. The words baa, ayaa, and waxaa put the focus on nouns and noun phrases.

Example:

John baa baxay - John Focus (baa) went out
John ayaa baxay - John Focus (ayaa) went out
Waxaa baxay John - Focus (waxaa) went out John

Thus, the words baa, ayaa, and waxaa unconsciously raise the question of who went out? Therefore the noun.

Somali also has the word waa which puts the focus on verbs and verb phrases.