SomaliSomali is spoken by more than nine million people in the Horn of Africa and by expatriate communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. It is the official language of Somalia and an important regional language in Ethiopia and Kenya. As a Cushitic language Somali is part of the great Afroasiatic language family whose other branches include Semitic, Berber, Chadic and Ancient Egyptian. This book provides a comprehensive description of the grammar of the language that will be of interest to non-specialists and linguists interested in typology and language comparison. The author's accessible investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse structure allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of Somali and, through Somali, of a Cushitic language. A further important feature of the book is its use of authentic data from a range of sources, including prose, poetry and proverbs. |
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction | 1 |
Chapter 2 Phonological units | 7 |
Chapter 3 Phonological Rules | 25 |
Chapter 4 Grammatical Categories | 53 |
Chapter 5 Word formation | 133 |
Chapter 6 Phrases | 163 |
Chapter 7 Simple sentences | 183 |
Chapter 8 Subordinate Clauses | 209 |
Chapter 9 Discourse | 229 |
Appendix I Data Sources | 251 |
Appendix II Texts | 253 |
Notes | 267 |
| 279 | |
| 289 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accentual accentual pattern adjectives adpositions adverbial affix agreement argument auxiliary basic become causative changes chapter clitic pronouns coalescence complement compounds consists consonant constructions declension derived described determiners dialects discussed distinction dynamic verbs elements ending example father feminine final focus focused forms function girl give grammatical head High tone identify imperative important independent INTR languages lexical main clause marked masculine meaning middle names negative nominal Note noun phrase object occur paradigms past pattern person plural position possessive possible present question relative clause restricted root rules semantic sentence type marker short simple singular Somali speakers stem structure subordinate clauses suffix syllable tone usually verb verbal group vowel wáxa(a