Maay vs Maxaa?

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af-Maay is pretty different from af-Maxaa, I'd say it's a different language.

As the saying goes though a language is a dialect with an army and a navy
 
Most Somalis I have seen write on the subject say Maay and Maxaa are mutually unintelligible. The languages use different grammars and even do not share some spoken sounds. I know the Maxaa I was taught did not fit local usage when I was in Jilib, the vocabularies being very different..

This first dictionary of Maay was only produced in 2003.

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://www.amazon.com/English-Maay-Dictionary-Mohamed-Haji-Mukhtar/dp/1905068891
 
It's far more extensive than that. Even diaspora kids who barely speak Somali can understand Af-Maay. It's full of Standard Somali words and phrases.

I don't know about you, maybe your Somali is better than mine, but Maay sounds like familiar, but unintelligible gibberish to me. Sort of like how Dutch sounds like to a native English speaker.
 

Apollo

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I don't know about you, maybe your Somali is better than mine, but Maay sounds like familiar, but unintelligible gibberish to me. Sort of like how Dutch sounds like to a native English speaker.

My Somali is a bit rusty due to living in the diaspora for such a long time, but I can understand Maay most of the time. Especially the more formal Maay kind used on TV.
 
I don't know about you, maybe your Somali is better than mine, but Maay sounds like familiar, but unintelligible gibberish to me. Sort of like how Dutch sounds like to a native English speaker.


https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topics-communication-sciences-disorders/maay-maay-somali-bantu

"Both languages served as official languages until 1972 when the government determined that Af Maxaa would be the official written language in Somalia. This decision further isolated and hindered southerners, including the Bantu, from participating in mainstream Somali politics, government services, and education. Af Maay and Af Maxaa share some similarities in their written form but are different enough in their spoken forms as to be mutually unintelligible."

"The letters p, jh, gh, ng and yc are used to represent sounds common in Af Maay are considered. They are also not found in the Af Maxaa alphabet.

P always occurs in the middle of the word and it sounds similar to the 'p' in the English alphabet (e.g., apaal, 'gratitude'; hopoog, 'scarf').

Jh is guttural and sounds like j (e.g., jheer, 'shyness'; jhab, 'fracture').

Th is pronounced as in 'the' in English (e.g., mathal, 'appointment'; etheb, 'politeness').

Gh sounds like the letter 'gain' of the Arabic alphabet (e.g., dhaghar, 'deceive'; shughul, job').

Ng is similar to the sound of 'ing' in English (e.g., angkaar, 'curse'; oong, 'thirst').

Ieh is a common ending on nouns and verbs. However, the letter 'y' is commonly used among Af Maay writers to represent this sound.

  • Maghy 'Noun'Misgy 'Sorghum'
  • Maaycy 'Ocean'
  • Jyny 'Heaven'
  • Shyny 'Bee'
  • Myfathaaw 'I do not want it'
Yc, a sound found in the word signore, bsogno, and agnello in the Italian language, is also a source of controversy. This sound is universally found in many Asian and African languages and in some Af Maay scripts this sound is represented as either ny or gn.

  • Ycaaycuur 'cat'Maaycy 'ocean'
  • Ycuuycy 'name of a person'
  • Ycisaang 'the youngest'
  • Myyceeg 'feeble'"
------------------------------------------------------

The Somali languages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_languages
 

Apollo

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@Grant

Do you speak Somali? If no, I can assure you that most Maxaa Somalis can understand Maay. Only silly diaspora kids with weak Somali skills exaggerate it as being completely incomprehensible.
 

Apollo

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Silly diaspora kids and language scholars. See the Somali languages article on Wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_languages

As I said above, originally it was a separate language, but due to modernization and heavy borrowing from Maxaa now it's more of a dialect instead. I never studied Af-Maay and if I go to youtube right now and look for Maay news I can completely understand what they are saying.

Today, it's more of a dialect than a separate language.
 

Factz

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It's common sense why Somali dialects exist in the first place since Somalis migrated from each other in the 1st century. Every ethnicity has dialects. Oromo has about 4 dialects and Amhara 3 so what makes Somalis so different from other ethnic groups?

Here are four Oromo dialects.

Afaan Maccaa, Afaan Arsi, Afaan Tulama and finally, Afaan Borana.

Somalis only have two dialects and with that stretch of land. It's shouldn't be a surprise and we have foreigners on this thread telling us they are different languages when they don't even speak Somali themselves.
 

Apollo

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It's common sense why Somali dialects exist in the first place since Somalis migrated from each other in the 1st century. Every ethnicity has dialects. Oromo has about 4 dialects and Amhara 3 so what makes Somalis so different from other ethnic groups?

Here are four Oromo dialects.

Afaan Maccaa, Afaan Arsi, Afaan Tulama and finally, Afaan Borana.

Somalis only have two dialects and with that stretch of land. It's shouldn't be a surprise and we have foreigners on this thread telling us they are different languages when they don't speak Somali themselves.

To be frank, the difference between language and dialect is completely political.

In the Balkans you got many fake languages like Croat, Serbian, Montenegrin, Bosnian.. lol, these are all the same language: Yugoslav.
 
As I said above, originally it was a separate language, but due to modernization and heavy borrowing from Maxaa now it's more of a dialect instead. I never studied Af-Maay and if I go to youtube right now and look for Maay news I can completely understand what they are saying.

Today, it's more of a dialect than a separate language.
War waad saxsantahay. Nin maxa ku hadla wax waa ka fahma af maay.
Diaspora ha xissabinin
 
It's common sense why Somali dialects exist in the first place since Somalis migrated from each other in the 1st century. Every ethnicity has dialects. Oromo has about 4 dialects and Amhara 3 so what makes Somalis so different from other ethnic groups?

Here are four Oromo dialects.

Afaan Maccaa, Afaan Arsi, Afaan Tulama and finally, Afaan Borana.

Somalis only have two dialects and with that stretch of land. It's shouldn't be a surprise and we have foreigners on this thread telling us they are different languages when they don't even speak Somali themselves.

From my research each is a stand alone tribe, Oromo is a relatively modern identity
 

Factz

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From my research each is a stand alone tribe, Oromo is a relatively modern identity

Oromo isn't a new identity. They're an ancient group just like the Somalis and I can show you, linguist scholars and historians, to debunk your claims.

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My point is you don't know the Somali language so you have no right to call our dialects a different language.
 
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Yes however I am talking about the modern identity of Oromo as a nationality. The first Oromo rights group was called the Macca and Tulama organization, they all have different age sets, dialects and historical leadership.

As has been mentioned earlier the language vs dialect issue is mostly political
 
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