Somali leid
The Somali leid (Somali: Afsoomaali, Arabic: الصومالية) is a member o the East Cushitic branch o the Afro-Asiatic leid faimily. Its nearest relatives are Afar an Oromo. Somali is the best documentit o the Cushitic leids,[3] wi academic studies beginnin afore 1900.
| Somali | |
|---|---|
| [Af-Soomaali] error: {{lang}}: text has italic markup (help) اللغة الصومالية | |
| Native tae | Somalie, Somaliland,[1] Djibouti, Ethiopie, Yemen, Kenyae |
| Region | Horn o Africae |
Native speakers | 16.6 million (2006)[2] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| |
| Offeecial status | |
Offeecial leid in |  Somalie |
| Leid codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | so |
| ISO 639-2 | som |
| ISO 639-3 | som |
 Somali-speakin region | |
Number o speakers
The exact number o speakers o Somali is unkent. Ane source estimates that there are 7.78 million speakers o Somali in Somalie itself (includin Somaliland) an 12.65 million speakers globally.[4] A population estimate made bi the Dutch Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht puts the Somali population somewhaur atween 10 an 15 million.[5] Combined wi a lairge internaitional expatriate community, it is difficult tae get a specific number o Somali speakers, but somewhaur atween 10 an 16 million warldwide seems a reasonable estimate. Accordin tae Gordon (2005), approximately 13 million fowk speak Somali, but upwards o 25 million individuals are commonly estimatit tae speak the leid.[1] Archived 2010-12-30 at the Wayback Machine
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