Somali
Afro-Asiatic family · Lowland East Cushitic branch · Africa
Somali is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Position of Polar Question Particles, WALS codes Somali as “Question particle with other position”, a value held by 8 of the 884 languages coded, Basque and Hmong Njua among them.
On Order of Demonstrative and Noun, WALS codes Somali as “Demonstrative suffix on noun”, a value held by 28 of the 1,225 languages coded, Tashlhiyt and Nandi among them.
The closest grammar profile to Somali in the atlas belongs to Yaqui, a Uto-Aztecan language: the two agree on 41 of the 68 features both have coded.
Contrast Somali with Yaqui or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Somali, rarest first.
- Number of Cases3 case categories9 of 261
- Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsPharyngeals21 of 567
- Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesFour-way contrast9 of 234
- Order of Adposition and Noun PhraseMore than one adposition type with none dominant58 of 1,184
- Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
- Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops only38 of 567
- Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
- Order of Genitive and NounBoth orders occur with neither order dominant96 of 1,249
Inside the Afro-Asiatic family
Somali matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 40 of the 72 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (56%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 20th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Somali; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Somali for 72 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 61 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Somali shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | 101 of 564 |
| Tone | Simple tone system | 132 of 527 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Different inflectional features | 21 of 201 |
| Ordinal Numerals | One-th, two-th, three-th | 41 of 321 |
| Definite Articles | Definite affix on noun | 92 of 620 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 of 902 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 136 of 207 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are different | 125 of 301 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Subject pronouns in different position | 67 of 711 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy | 53 of 297 |
| Predicative Possession | Conjunctional Possessive | 59 of 240 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced | 38 of 170 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is expressed overtly | 72 of 283 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no') | 47 of 143 |