Vocabulary
Somali's main lexical borrowings come from Arabic, another Afro-Asiatic language. They stem from the Somali people's extensive social, cultural, commercial and religious links and contacts with nearby populations in the Arabian peninsula. Soravia (1994) noted a total of 1,436 Arabic loanwords in Agostini a.o. 1985, a prominent Somali dictionary. Most of the terms consisted of commonly-used nouns. These lexical borrowings may have been more extensive in the past since a few words that Zaborski (1967:122) observed in the older literature were absent in Agostini's later work.
The Somali language also contains a few Italian and English loanwords retained from the colonial period. A large number of neologisms were created following independence, when Somali became the official language, to express new concepts used in government and education.
Read more about this topic: Somali Language
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“I have a vocabulary all my own. I “pass the time” when it is wet and disagreeable. When it is fine I do not wish to pass it; I ruminate it and hold on to it. We should hasten over the bad, and settle upon the good.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“A new talker will often call her caregiver “mommy,” which makes parents worry that the child is confused about who is who. She isn’t. This is a case of limited vocabulary rather than mixed-up identities. When a child has only one word for the female person who takes care of her, calling both of them “mommy” is understandable.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.”
—Marina Warner (b. 1946)