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This article describes thephonology of theSomali language.
Somali has 23consonants which cover everyplace of articulation on theIPA chart; though not all of these distinctions arephonemic.
| Bilabial | Coronal | Post- alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t̪⟨t⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | q⟨q⟩ | ʔ⟨'⟩ | |||
| voiced | b⟨b⟩ | d̪⟨d⟩ | ɖ⟨dh⟩ | ɡ⟨g⟩ | ||||
| Affricate | d͡ʒ⟨j⟩ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f⟨f⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ʃ⟨sh⟩ | x⟨kh⟩ | χ⟨kh⟩ | ħ⟨x⟩ | h⟨h⟩ |
| voiced | z⟨s/z⟩* | ʕ⟨c⟩ | ||||||
| Trill | r⟨r⟩ | ɽ⟨dh⟩ | ||||||
| Approximant | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨y⟩ | w⟨w⟩ | |||||
/b,d,g/ is often lenited to[β̞,ð̞,ɣ̞] in stressed intervocalic positions, as intoban[t̪ʰòβ̞án] 'ten' andmadow[màðów] 'black'.[4]
/ɖ/ is avoiced retroflex stop. Some phoneticians say that it has animplosive quality for some speakers. It is sometimes realized as aflap[ɾ] between vowels.
/z/, a non-native phoneme often found in loanwords, may be pronounced by some speakers; it is normally substituted with/s/.
The voiceless stops/t,k/ are unreleased[t̪̚,k̚] in coda positions and areaspirated[t̪ʰ,kʰ] elsewhere.
/ʕ/, thevoiced pharyngeal fricative, may havecreaky voice.
/ʕ/ word initially is[ʡ͜ʢ][5]
An epenthetic glottal stop ([ʔ]) is inserted before vowels in word-initial position.
/r/ is often pronounced withbreathy voice and may be partially devoiced. Between vowels, it may be a singletap.
In some dialects,/q/ can be realized as[χ] or[ʡ].
/ʍ/ is often realized as[ʍᶹ] in theSomali alluvial-plain dialects./ʍ/ is realized as[w] in word-final positions likeqaboo'.
/h/ is often voiced to[ɦ] in intervocalic positions.
Somali has five vowel articulations that all contrastmurmured andharsh voice as well asvowel length.[clarification needed] There is little change in vowel quality when the vowel is lengthened. Each vowel has a harmonic counterpart, and every vowel within a harmonic group (which notably can be larger than a word in Somali) must harmonize with the other vowels. The Somali orthography, however, does not distinguish between the two harmonic variants of each vowel.
Different analyses have proposed somewhat differentvowel inventories and features for Somali, depending on the set of speakers whose dialects are studied. Up to four features may be phonologicallydistinctive:height,backness,tongue root, andlength.
Saeed (1982) and Orwin (1994) both propose systems with five core vowels, but only Orwin's system makes a tongue root distinction.[6]: 3 [7]: 61 Gabbard (2010) proposes a system with six core vowels, with a tongue root distinction, but only on front vowels.[8]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i[a]⟨i⟩iː⟨ii⟩ | u[b]⟨u⟩uː⟨uu⟩ | |
| Mid | e⟨e⟩eː⟨ee⟩ | o⟨o⟩oː⟨oo⟩ | |
| Low | a⟨a⟩aː⟨aa⟩ |
Orwin argues that, in addition to the vowels listed above, each of these five vowels has a fronted (advanced tongue root) variant, based on the existence ofminimal pairs such as:
| Front series | Back series | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| Close front unrounded / Near-close near-front unrounded | i | iː | ɪ | ɪː |
| Close-mid front unrounded / Open-mid front unrounded | e | eː | ɛ | ɛː |
| Near-open front unrounded / Open back unrounded | æ | æː | ɑ | ɑː |
| Open-mid central rounded / Open-mid back rounded | ɞ | ɞː | ɔ | ɔː |
| Close central rounded / Close back rounded | ʉ | ʉː | u | uː |
| First element is front | First element is back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long |
| æi | æːi | ɑɪ | ɑːɪ |
| æʉ | æːʉ | ɑu | ɑːu |
| ei | eːi | ɛɪ | ɛːɪ |
| ɞi | ɞːi | ɔɪ | ɔːɪ |
| ɞʉ | ɞːʉ | ɔu | ɔːu |
Gabbard claims that only the front vowels (/i/ and/e/) have advanced variants, though his system includes a sixth vowel,/ɑ/. Both Orwin and Gabbard agree that the precise phonetic and phonological difference between the advanced and retracted tongue root vowels are unclear.[7]: 61 [8]
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Lexical prominence in Somali can be classified under apitch accent system, in which there is onehigh-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 isinán ('girl') versusínan ('boy'). This reflects a tonal pattern that codes grammatical gender, such asdameér ('female donkey') versusdaméer ('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 themora 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 aspitch accent. It is similar to that inOromo.
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:
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The syllable structure of Somali is (C)V(C).
Root morphemes usually have a mono- or disyllabic 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:/b/,/d/,/ɖ/,/ɡ/,/ɢ/,/m/,/n/,/r/ and/l/. The following cannot be geminate:/t/,/k/ and the fricatives.
Two vowels cannot occur together at syllable boundaries. Epenthetic consonants, e.g.[j] and[ʔ], are therefore inserted.
Phonological changes occur at morpheme boundaries (sandhi) for specific grammatical morphemes. There may be assimilation or elision. One unusual change which can occur is/lt/ to[ʃ] (compareSpanishmucho fromLatinmultus).
Coalescence also occurs. This is a kind of externalsandhi in which words join, undergoing phonological processes such as elision.[citation needed]
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Roots have front-backvowel harmony. There is also a process of vowel harmony in strings longer than a word, known as "harmonic groups".[citation needed]
Intonation (as opposed totone, see above) does not carry grammatical information, although it may convey the speaker's attitude or emotion.[citation needed]