Somali language

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/somali-language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the linguistic classification?Afro-Asiatic phylum, Cushitic branch
2. What is the estimated speakers?Approximately 25 million native speakers
3. What is the Somali language and where is it spoken?Somali is a language spoken by millions in the Horn of Africa, especially in Somalia. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic family, in the Cushitic branch.
4. Why did Somalia adopt a Latin alphabet in 1972?In 1972, Somalia chose a Latin-based alphabet that accurately shows all sounds, making books, school lessons, and news easier to read and helping people learn to write.

Afro-Asiatic Languages: A major language family comprising languages spoken across North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Western Asia.
Cushitic Languages: A subgroup of Afro-Asiatic languages spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa.
Agglutination: A morphological process where words are formed by stringing together morphemes (meaningful units) without changing them much.
Phonology: The study of the sound system of a language.