Somali is a Cushitic language belonging to the wider Afroasiatic language family, spoken primarily in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora as a mother tongue. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethiopia.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2019-2024 estimate. StatusWikipedia article on Somali: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27. Attested From (Year) Classification
Language Kind Official Status Connections
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Somali Language
Source Wikipedia: Somali Language
Written In
Somali is standardly written in the Latin alphabet (official since 1972).
In the Other Atlases
Cases Where Used
Also in Society and Culture Atlas: used in this subject.
Source Wikipedia: SomaliLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 3Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
Somalis or Somali people, are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation native to the Somali Peninsula.
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Somali (Glottolog languoid soma1255)
GlottologEndangerment, AES statusQuote, Endangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
2. Wikipedia: Somali Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Somali is spoken primarily in Greater Somalia, and the Somali diaspora as a mother tongue.
Infobox, ISO 639-3
som
Infobox: date
2019-2024
Infobox, Region
Horn of Africa
Official status, Somali entity page
It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethiopia.
In Family: Cushitic, Infobox, Language family
Cushitic
In Family: Macro-Somali languages, Infobox: fam5
Macro-Somali
View the Source 3. Omniglot: Somali language, alphabet and pronunciation
OmniglotLanguage at a glanceQuote, Language at a glance
First written : 13th century AD
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