×

Somali
Somali

Arabic
Arabic



ADD
Compare
X
Somali
X
Arabic

Somali vs Arabic

Add ⊕

Countries

Countries

Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia
Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Total No. Of Countries

323
0 46
👆🏻

National Language

Somalia
Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries
Not spoken in any of the countries

Speaking Continents

Africa, Middle East
Africa, Asia

Minority Language

Yemen
Not spoken in any of the countries

Regulated By

National Languages Committee, Regional Somali Language Academy
Academy of the Arabic Language, Arabic Language International Council

Interesting Facts

  • Somali language is one of the best documented Afro-Asiatic languages.
  • One of the most widely spoken of the Cushitic languages is the Somali Language.
  • Arabic is 5th common language in world.
  • Classical Arabic is the language of Quran and also it is official language. Classical Arabic is the only way to learn Arabic language in academic way and it does not change.

Similar To

Afar and Oromo Language
Amharic and Hebrew

Derived From

Arabic Language
-

Alphabets

Alphabets in

Alphabets

2628
18 247
👆🏻

Phonology

How Many Vowels

58
0 32
👆🏻

How Many Consonants

2128
9 60
👆🏻

Scripts

Arabic, Latin, Osmanya
Arabic

Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal
Right-To-Left, Horizontal

Hard to Learn

Language Levels

54
2 12
👆🏻

Time Taken to Learn

52 weeks88 weeks
3 88
👆🏻

Greetings

Hello

Hello
مرحبا

Thank You

Waad ku mahadsan tahay
شكرا

How Are You?

Sidee tahay ?
كيف حالك؟

Good Night

Habeenka Good
تصبح على خير

Good Evening

Evening Good
مساء الخير

Good Afternoon

galab wanaagsan
مساء الخير

Good Morning

Subax wanaagsan
صباح الخير

Please

Fadlan
من فضلك

Sorry

sorry
آسف

Bye

caraysiiyo
وداعا

I Love You

Waan ku jeclahay
أحبك

Excuse Me

iga raali ahow
اعذرني

Dialects

Dialect 1

Northern Somali
Maghrebi

Where They Speak

Gabon, Standard Somali
Algeria, Libya, Maghreb, Morocco, Tunisia

How Many People Speak

16,000,000.00310,000,000.00
1.5 960000000
👆🏻

Dialect 2

Benaadir
Sudanese

Where They Speak

Georgia, The capital of Mogadishu
Sudan

How Many People Speak

16,000,000.0017,000,000.00
700 274000000
👆🏻

Dialect 3

Af-Ashraaf
Levantine

Where They Speak

Standard Somali
Cyprus, Levant

How Many People Speak

21.0021,000,000.00
2 230000000
👆🏻

Total No. Of Dialects

326
0 188
👆🏻

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?

13.00 million452.00 million
0 1200
👆🏻

Speaking Population

0.07 %4.43 %
0 89
👆🏻

Native Speakers

8.00 million206.00 million
0 873
👆🏻

Second Language Speakers

21.00 million246.00 million
0.01 400
👆🏻

Native Name

af Soomaali
(al arabiya) العربية

Alternative Names

Af-Maxaad Tiri, Af-Soomaali, Common Somali, Soomaaliga
Al-’Arabiyya, Al-Fusha, Literary Arabic

French Name

somali
arabe

German Name

Somali
Arabisch

Pronunciation

[afsoomaali]
/al ʕarabijja/, /ʕarabi/

Ethnicity

Somalis
Arabs

History

Origin

19th century
512 CE

Language Family

Afro-Asiatic Family
Afro-Asiatic Family, Semitic Family

Subgroup

Cushitic
Semitic

Branch

-
North Arabic

Language Forms

Early Forms

No early forms
No early forms

Standard Forms

Somali
Modern Standard Arabic

Language Position

8325
1 120
👆🏻

Signed Forms

Somali Sign Language
Signed Arabic

Scope

Individual
Macrolanguage

Code

ISO 639 1

so
ar

ISO 639 2

ISO 639 2/T

som
ara

ISO 639 2/B

som
ara

ISO 639 3

som
ara

ISO 639 6

som
ara

Glottocode

soma1255
arab1395

Linguasphere

No data available
12-AAC

Types of Language

Language Type

Living
Living

Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb
Subject-Verb-Object

Language Morphological Typology

-
Fusional, Synthetic

Somali vs Arabic Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Somali vs Arabic speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Somali or Arabic language.

  • Somali is spoken as a national language in: Somalia.
  • Arabic is spoken as a national language in: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

You will also get to know the continents where Somali and Arabic speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Somali language is 83 and position of Arabic language is 25. Find all the information about these languages on Somali and Arabic.

Somali and Arabic Language History

Comparison of Somali vs Arabic language history gives us differences between origin of Somali and Arabic language. History of Somali language states that this language originated in 19th century whereas history of Arabic language states that this language originated in 512 CE. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Somali and Arabic Language History.

Somali and Arabic Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Somali and Arabic greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Somali and Arabic language. Somali word for "Hello" is Hello or Arabic word for "Thank You" is شكرا. Find more of such common Somali Greetings and Arabic Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Somali vs Arabic Difficulty

The Somali vs Arabic difficulty level basically depends on the number of Somali Alphabets and Arabic Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Somali and Arabic are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Somali and Arabic, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Somali is 52 weeks while to learn Arabic time required is 88 weeks.