Samaalic Era
QurboExit
Was Af Maay a dialect or a seperate language from Af Somali?
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
Well sure though under that definition everyone on earth speaks a dialect of EnglishHowever, they use too many words from Maxaa these days.
Well sure though under that definition everyone on earth speaks a dialect of English
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.
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.
@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.
Silly diaspora kids and language scholars. See the Somali languages article on Wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_languages
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.
War waad saxsantahay. Nin maxa ku hadla wax waa ka fahma af maay.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.
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
My Somali is good and so are @Ferrari and @Fiidmeer fluent in Somali@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.