SOMAU SOMALI-ENGUSH ENGLISH-SOMAU DICnONARY&PHRASEBOOK V ^ T f^. Boston. (VIA Oitii^lf SOMALI-ENGLISH INGLISH-SOMALI DICTIONARY AND PHRASEBOOK NICHOLAS AWDE, CABDULQAADIR XAAJI CALI XAAJI AXMED and MARTIN ORWIN HIPPOCRENE BOOKS New York ThankstoFredHillforhissupportandcreativeinput. © 1999 Nicholas Awde Fourth printing, 2005. Hippocrene Books, Inc 171 Madison Avenue NewYork, NY 10016 ISBN 0-7818-0621-6 (pbk.) Typesetting by Nicholas Awde/DesertrHearts Printed in the United States of America CONTENTS Introduction 5 A Very Basic Grammar 10 Pronunciation Guide 16 The Somali Alphabet 18 SOMALI-ENGLISH DICTIONARY 21 ENGLISH-SOMALI DICTIONARY 53 SOMALI PHRASEBOOK 81 Further Reading I75 Map 176 ^ ASomalipersonisaSoomaali. ^ TheadjectiveforSomalithingsisSoomaali. m TheSomaliscallthemselvesSoomaalida. TheSomali languageiscalledAfSoomaali. SomaliaisSoomaaliya. 4 • PocketSomaliDictionary& Phrasebook INTRODUCTION Somalia was known in ancient times as the fabled land of Punt, the biblical place known to the Egyptians for its incense and herbs. In a later age, the British explorer Richard Burton was to describe the people of Somalia as a "fierce and turbulent race of — republicans" and, indeed, the Somalis have always retained an ethnic and cultural distinctiveness despite centuries of Arabian influence and a long history of partition of their land, situated as it is at the strategic mouth of the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal. The nations of Britain, France, Italy Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya have all, at one time or another, administered parts of 'Greater Somalia' and the reunification of the Somali people has remained high on the national agenda since independence in1960. Somalia is one of the most ethnically homogeneous — states in Africa and all the groups there which are ethnically Somali share a common cultural background, but there are still wide differences between the pastoral groups and the sedentary peoples. In a country severely affected by drought and war as well as the long-term effects of massive foreign aid and foreign debt, it is presently difficultto estimatethetotal Somali population. Perhaps there are around five to eight million, excluding another million living abroad as migrant workers or refugees. Aside from Somalia itself, Somalis have also traditionally lived in Kenya's North-West Frontier province and Ethiopia's Ogaden Desert. This has been subject to much change in recentyears, however. — Aside from the traditional ways of herding livestock — mostly camels, sheep and goats and trading along the coast, an important source of employment for many Somalis is as migrant workers in the oil sector of the PocketSomaliDictionary& Phrasebook• 5 neighboring Arab states. It has been estimated that as many as 250,000 at any one time work there, in the process providing a significant part ofSomalia's economy It is hopedthat local sources ofnatural gas and petroleum will be located and developed in order to create new employment as well as break the present reliance on energy imports. Islam spread to the Horn of Africa in the 9th and 10th centuries as the Arabs came to settle in the ports along the coast. The 12th century saw waves of migration southwards fromthe north by Somali clans who occupied thegeneral areatheyoccupytoday andthe region bustled with their trade, mingled with the movements of pastoratiits and their herds. By the 16th century, the Somalis had already hit the history books when Ahmed Gurey one of their clan leaders, led an army of fierce warriors on ajihad or holy war against the neighboring Christian kingdom ofEthiopia. The 15th and 16th centuries saw the arrival of the Portuguese, who sought to control Somali trade, particularly in the south. After two centuries of this European presence along the coast, the Omani Sultanate then took over from the early 18th century and held onto the reins oftrade until colonialism inthe late19th century started its relentless carvingupoftheAfricancontinent. Firstthe Egyptianstookoverthecoastaltowns,thenthe British, who had made a commercial presence as early as 1827, linked Aden, on the other side ofthe Red Sea, with Somalia as a suitable base for monopolising trade in the Indian Ocean. Their desire for full political control soon followed. By the 1880s, Somali clan leaders had signed protectorate treaties with Great Britain, but many other groups fought strenuously against foreign domination, significant resistance ending only well into the second decade of the 20th century. Notable was Seyyid 6 • PocketSomaliDictionary& Phrasebook Mohamed Abdille Hassan (unfairly dubbed the 'Mad Mullah' bythe Western press), who headed ajihadagainst — the 'infidel' colonisers particularly the Ethiopians and — the British foralmost20years. By the late 19th century the French had also started to — make inroads into Somalia as had the Italians, who saw the southern region as essential to building an empirethat included the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. But the Italian incursion into the Horn of Africa backfired and their military defeat sparked a counter-expansion by Ethiopia which claimed the (then) Somali Ogaden for its own and threatened the French and British protectorates in the north. At the end of the Second World War, however, the British were given control of Italian Somaliland as well as theOgaden until 1950. Once more Somalia was divided up again, with Southern Somalia reverting to Italy and the Ogaden to Ethiopia. Under United Nations auspices, independence was eventually negotiated for the British and ItalianSomalilands. On 26th June 1960, British Somaliland became independent and on 1st July of the same year so too did Italian Somaliland. After a brief, heated debate, they were instantly re-united as a single, independent nation: the independent Republic of Somalia. French Somaliland, however, had to wait almost two decades more for its own independence(see below). But conflict was never far away. The year of 1963 saw Somali insurrection in Ethiopian-held Ogaden, fired bythe unification of the Somalilands, while a five-year guerrilla campaign began in an attempt to gain independence for Somalis livingin Northern Kenya. After a brief period of democracy under civilian rule. General Mohammed Siad Barre took control of the new nation he called the Somali Democratic Republic. He swiftly implemented his system of 'Scientific Socialism', PocketSomaliDictionary& Phrasebook • 7 backed by the USSR in the process nationalizing much ofthe economy. All land came under state ownership and was leased to farmers, while in 1973-74 the National Literacy Campaign was launched to implement the new — Somali alphabet the one used in this book. But despite its Socialist bloc links, Somalia drew closer to the Middle Eastand NorthAfricabyjoiningtheArab Leaguein1977 By the same year, however, Siad Barre's policies had reduced Somalia's economytochaos.Thedroughtof1974- 75 had already sparked a huge influx of refugees from Ethiopia and caused internal chaos, none of which was helped bythe collectivization ofagriculture and fishing. In the same year French Somaliland (later renamed French Coast ofA^rs and Issas) became the Republic ofDjibouti underthe presidencyoftheSomali HassanGuleid. In order to distract attention from his country's worsening situation, Siad Barre sent army units to help Somali-sponsored rebels to try to take over the Ogaden, taking advantage of an Ethiopia weakened by the revolution against the Emperor Haile Selassie. But the Ethiopians called inthe Cubans and thefollowingyearthe Somali troops retreated, incurring heavy losses. The war and subsequent drought forced out even more Somali refugees who lived in the Ogaden. It is estimated that almost a million of these fled to an already strained Somalia. Sections within the clan system moved to take advantage ofthe divided nation. Rioting and a failed coup led to brutal repression by the government. But this provoked the rise of a movement of rebel groups who eroded government power over the next decade. In 1991 theyfinallycapturedthecapital Mogadishu. The rebel groups failed to unite and Somalia was split oncemiore asthe north, which had previously been British Somaliland, broke away and proclaimed itself the Somaliland Republic. Meanwhile, in the south, a bitter 8 • PocketSomaliDictionary& Phrasebook