Languages of the Horn

[adaharari]

Kheber sounds like the Arabic word for news, that's probably a loanword

Yeah most likely. Wer is used too, just saying I'be heard both

 

[Prince Abubu]

Colours
Green- areyarey - Cagaar
Yellow- xurdi - Huruud
Red- qex - Casaan
Blue- samawi - Midabka cirka
Brown- doni - Bunni
Black- t'ey - Madow
White- nech'ix - Cadaan
Gold- ziqexqex - Dahab

Out of those only Yellow is similar. Most likely a proto-Cushitic word.

 

[Prince Abubu]

Absolutely no similarity between Somali and other horn of African languages save afari. Imho

Even Oromo sounds like a less harsh version of Amharic to me.

But I'm not a linguist.

Ironically, even though I would say Afar/Saho sounds and looks closer to Somali than Oromo, it's actually the opposite.

 

[ሕጊ።።]

Out of those only Yellow is similar. Most likely a proto-Cushitic word.

Yeah probably is proto-cushitic, it's not in Tigrinya and Amharic that's for sure

 

[ሕጊ።።]

Ironically, even though I would say Afar/Saho sounds and looks closer to Somali than Oromo, it's actually the opposite.

Do you not understand a lot of Afar?

 

[Prince Abubu]

Do you not understand a lot of Afar?

Nope, don't recognise anything. Looks more like Amharic or something to me.

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Oromo has words I can understand, even though they pronounce it like a Habeshi.

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[ሕጊ።።]

Nope, don't recognise anything. Looks more like Amharic or something to me.

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Oromo has words I can understand, even though they pronounce it like a Habeshi.

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And I see, to my untrained ear, Afar sounds like Somali

 

[ሕጊ።።]

Derho/doro is borrowed from Cushitic

 

[DuctTape]

Nope, don't recognise anything. Looks more like Amharic or something to me.

Maybe it's the way it's written here but I'm not seeing many similarities to Somali. One or two words sound like they could possibly have a common root with Somali but overall nothing is jumping out at me.

It looks more like a Semitic language rather than a Cushitic one

 

[Prince Abubu]

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And I see, to my untrained ear, Afar sounds like Somali

I'm willing to bet Amhara and other Ethiopian languages are closer to eachother than Oromo and Somali are.

 

[Prince Abubu]

Maybe it's the way it's written here but I'm not seeing many similarities to Somali. One or two words sound like they could possibly have a common root with Somali but overall nothing is jumping out at me.

It looks more like a Semitic language rather than a Cushitic one

Yeah, it looks completely foreign. Like a Semitic or Berber language or something.

 

[ሕጊ።።]

Maybe it's the way it's written here but I'm not seeing many similarities to Somali. One or two words sound like they could possibly have a common root with Somali but overall nothing is jumping out at me.

It looks more like a Semitic language rather than a Cushitic one

Do you understand any words from this:

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[ሕጊ።።]

I'm willing to bet Amhara and other Ethiopian languages are closer to eachother than Oromo and Somali are.

Oh what did you mean about pronunciation then? And I don't know how close Oromo and Somali are, maybe a text comparison would be good, but I think it won't be as similar you're right

 

[maestro]

Ironically, even though I would say Afar/Saho sounds and looks closer to Somali than Oromo, it's actually the opposite.

True. Afar and Saho do sound very Somali since they respect the letters C and X as us unlike Oromo who can't pronounce the names Maxamed and Ciise but Oromo is like a weird long lost dialect of Somali if you pay close attention to it. It kinda sounds like Maay dialect

 

[DuctTape]

Do you understand any words from this:

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Not a single word
Not sure what the "mango" in there means
Is the phonetic alphabet the same as that of Somali? I'm seeing "gexihabo", could the 'x' represent the hard 'h' sound? Interesting.

 

[SOMALI GENERAL]

Maybe it's the way it's written here but I'm not seeing many similarities to Somali. One or two words sound like they could possibly have a common root with Somali but overall nothing is jumping out at me.

It looks more like a Semitic language rather than a Cushitic one

The word "Qangara" looks similar to Qaran, it may have a different meaning though. Apart from that its unintelligible.

 

[Prince Abubu]

Oh what did you mean about pronunciation then? And I don't know how close Oromo and Somali are, maybe a text comparison would be good, but I think it won't be as similar you're right

I meant that the words we have in common like the number two for example, which is 'laba' in Somali and 'lama' in oromo, they pronounce it softly like an Ethiopian or reer Xamar Somalis.

 

[ሕጊ።።]

Not a single word
Not sure what the "mango" in there means
Is the phonetic alphabet the same as that of Somali? I'm seeing "gexihabo", could the 'x' represent the hard 'h' sound? Interesting.

I have no idea, I just wrote it out off of an Afar news broadcast.

And I'm not entirely sure, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_language says that the 'x' in Afar is the 'dh' sound in Somali and the 'q' in Afar is the 'c' sound in Somali. Also the 'c' in Afar happens to be the 'x' in Somali, confusing, could have stuck with the same alphabet.

 

[ሕጊ።።]

I meant that the words we have in common like the number two for example, which is 'laba' in Somali and 'lama' in oromo, they pronounce it softly like an Ethiopian or reer Xamar Somalis.

Oh right, I didn't know what you meant by softly

 

[DuctTape]

I have no idea, I just wrote it out off of an Afar news broadcast.

And I'm not entirely sure, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_language says that the 'x' in Afar is the 'dh' sound in Somali and the 'q' in Afar is the 'c' sound in Somali. Also the 'c' in Afar happens to be the 'x' in Somali, confusing, could have stuck with the same alphabet.

That's definitely confusing
I wonder how easy the languages in the Horn would be to learn for inhabitants of that area, like for an Afar to learn Amharic or a Tigray to learn Somali
If there's one thing we can be proud of as Afro-asiatic speakers it's that we likely had complex language before anyone else, since it's the earliest recorded language family