Why German can convey more ideas than other languages

[Deactivated]

The Somali language is an emotional language with a simple minimalist dictionary.

The German language on the other hand is a beast on its own. I hear German people can cut right to the case in speaking their minds where it takes Caalacaal for other languages.

There's nothing wrong with having a language that is limited in range and compounds. But for economic development and global integration, what do you think the official languages of the Somali peninsula should be?

My picks are:

English

Somali

Standard Mandarin

Arabic

 

[McLovin]

English, somali and that's it


Maybe I'm biased

 

[Deactivated]

English, somali and that's it

Somalia faces Asia! That's my slogan and mantra.

Standard Mandarin before Arabic.

 

[SOMALI GENERAL]

Somali should be the sole official language. English can be used when dealing with foreigners.

 

[MARAQ DIGAAG]

Af maay
Zwahili
Oromo

 

[McLovin]

Studies in China have shown that functional literacy in written Chinese requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters

f*ck THAT. It would he easier if the Chinese learned our language

 

[Deactivated]

Somali should be the sole offical language. English can be used when dealing with foreigners.

English first.

In Somalia nothing is spelled correctly, especially on billboards and ads. There's two "AA" when there should be one, one "I" when there should be two.

Not to mention 65% of population can't read in Somali, that's why there's paintings of a syringe and pill to show it's a pharmacy.

 

[Deactivated]

Af maay
Zwahili
Oromo

We will remain in the stone ages.

 

[SOMALI GENERAL]

English first.

In Somalia nothing is spelled correctly, especially on billboards and ads. There's two "AA" when there should be one, one "I" when there should be two.

Not to mention 65% of population can't read in Somali, that's why there's paintings of a syringe and pill to show it's a pharmacy.

I'm sure those problems can be rectified when there is a language board that standardises the spelling of Af-Somali. We can keep the latin script, but there should be a massive literacy campaign, since a literate population is key to economic development. We shouldn't give up on our language sxb.

 

[Deactivated]

I'm sure those problems can be rectified when there is a language board that standardises the spelling of Af-Somali. We can keep the latin script, but there should be a massive literacy campaign, since a literate population is key to economic development. We shouldn't give up on our language sxb.

Keep the language. I love our language.

But many people think it's blasphemy to write legal documents in English. In a developed Somalia, I believe Somali, English and Standard Mandarin should be our official languages. If Somalis becomes Africa's first country to make mandarin and official language I think it will turn the tide on development. It will also attract thousands of Muslim Chinese to visit and do business with Somalis.

 

[SOMALI GENERAL]

Keep the language. I love our language.

But many people think it's blasphemy to write legal documents in English. In a developed Somalia, I believe Somali, English and Standard Mandarin should be our official languages. If Somalis becomes Africa's first country to make mandarin and official language I think it will turn the tide on development. It will also attract thousands of Muslim Chinese to visit and do business with Somalis.

Sxb lets not get ahead of ourselves. There's no practical reason for making mandarin or english official, nobody speaks it as their first language in Somalia. Our diplomats should learn foreign languages though. Japan's sole official language is Japanese & they've done fine when it came to economic development. We shouldn't sell ourselves out. Same goes for Arabic.

 

[Deactivated]

Sxb lets not get ahead of ourselves. There's no practical reason for making mandarin or english official, nobody speaks it as their first language in Somalia. Our diplomats should learn foreign languages though. Japan's sole official language is Japanese & they've done fine when it came to economic development. We shouldn't sell ourselves out. Same goes for Arabic.

The Japanese language is a compound language. But Somali isn't. Global integration requires English, but standard Mandarin is going to outpace English.

It won't happen tomorrow. But our language even cover the whole anatomy of the body. Do you know what the Somali word for Spleen is? Or pancreas?

 

[SOMALI GENERAL]

The Japanese language is a compound language. But Somali isn't. Global integration requires English, but standard Mandarin is going to outpace English.

It won't happen tomorrow. But our language even cover the whole anatomy of the body. Do you know what the Somali word for Spleen is? Or pancreas?

Okay, but for the sake of our honor we need to keep Somali as the sole official language...

But we can also recognise the usefulness of foreign languages in an increasingly interconnected world. We definitely need a language board to also create new words for body parts etc. Instead of borrwing so many loan words, it may take a lot of effort, but its definitely worth the fight to keep Af-Somali alive in a world were its economic practicality is waning. If we give official status to mandarin, english or arabic then that will be a direct threat to our language because it will decrease the incentive to learn Somali if there are other options.

 

[Deactivated]

Okay, but for the sake of our honor we need to keep Somali as the sole official lamguage...

But we can also recognise the usefulness of foreign languages in an increasingly interconnected world. We definitely need a language board to also create new words for body parts etc. Instead of borrwing so many loan words, it may take a lot of effort, but its definitely worth the fight to keep Af-Somali alive in a world were its economic practicality is waning. If we give official status to mandarin, english or arabic then that will be a direct threat to our language because it will decrease the incentive to learn Somali if there are other options.

Somalis will always speak Somali. But since we face Asia, that market is an English and Mandarin market.

Somali is oral and we will never lose it. The board you are talking about is why so many words are misspelled from blog posts, newspapers to ads. Two "ii" here two "aa" there; it's a shitshow. There's so much work to be done in Somalia.

 

[The_Cosmos]

I don't think the Somali language will die out any time soon, people will always speak their mother tongue but I agree with OP that the Somali language is highly simplistic and lacks the sophistication required to establish it as the language of Somalia's affairs. I mean, how difficult would it be for a science student to study science in the Somali language when the language itself lacks much of the terminology required in that particular field? This counts for other fields as well. Fact of the matter is, another language, most likely English, will have to take a seat with Somali as the official language of the nation. I'm not going to claim I know everything about Djibouti but I know that the language of governance, schooling and so on, is French and the reasons, I would assume, is due to the lack of sophistication of our mother tongue. Nonetheless, if anybody has a proper and feasible solution to the proble, I would very much be open to it.

 

[Deactivated]

I don't think the Somali language will die out any time soon, people will always speak their mother tongue but I agree with OP that the Somali language is highly simplistic and lacks the sophistication required to establish it as the language of Somalia's affairs. I mean, how difficult would it be for a science student to study science in the Somali language when the language itself lacks much of the terminology required in that particular field? This counts for other fields as well. Fact of the matter is, another language, most likely English, will have to take a seat with Somali as the official language of the nation. I'm not going to claim I know everything about Djibouti but I know that the language of governance, schooling and so on, is French and the reasons, I would assume, is due to the lack of sophistication of our mother tongue. Nonetheless, if anybody has a proper and feasible solution to the proble, I would very much be open to it.

English and Standard Mandarin would be epic addition to official languages.

 

[GeKo]

All 3 should be spoken
Somali: Home, among people, etc
English: for education, science
Arabic: Islamic education, Quran, trade.
fluent english and arabic by the time students finish high school. If not possible than higher level language courses in high school and uni. Most kenyans for example speak 3 languages english, swahili and mother tongue, but I have to admit I always felt they're not fluent in any of the 3. They tend to mix their swahili with english and shit ton of slang, I was a better swahili writer and speaker within 2 years than some native born as I was learning the pure one. They're english sentence structure doesn't sound correct as they get influenced by their other languages. Sometimes mother tongue may not even be perfect especially if you live in the capital Nairobi but it may be the most fluent language of the 3.

 

[Jubba_Man]

This is true. It's even more sophisticated than English. Check out the word "Ansatz" in mathematics. The best translation is "initial placement of a tool at a work piece", which is still a shitty translation that still doesn't fully capture the essence of the term.

 

[Inquisitive_]

As someone that speaks German and Arabic fluently, including English, Dutch and Somali.

The best language for expression is Somali, this is natural as it's the oldest language dating back further then Arabic itself.

The Arabic language has pretty much been destroyed by the new age modernity and the different absurdities it has morphed to.

The reason for this bias on our language is that most are not even basically well versed in it forget fluency, go to any Somali village even my own father raised there but spending 20 years here exclusively speaking Somali, is laughed at when we went to the villages and he has the best Somali I hear in Europe.

I thought I was very fluent (European standards) until I started struggling to understand the heavy use of idioms, proverbs, slick short gabeys and expressions in almost every sentence of their talks, even when they joke with each other in the villages etc.

The Arabs during the time for the Prophet in order to become proficient in the language, would send their sons to villages with Bedouins, the whole classical Arabic lexicons are built on this very principles, big cities are useless, I was considered fluent in Xamar.

It was a marvellous thing to watch, ancient languages are all about expressions, rich descriptions, poetries etc, a contemporary language will never compete with an ancient, and out of those languages the cushitic branches are the oldest and hence it makes sense they carry more weight.

Being fluent in all I would rank them like this in richness, 1) Somali 2) Arabic 3) German 4) Dutch 5) English

This argument about scientific words is the most useless I have seen, these are just terms made up like it is with any knowledge, you can argue the Somali language hasn't 'evolved' to include this new terminologies, well that's because we didn't invent them, if we did we would have a name for it.

 

[Khalid Hussein]

Mastered a german word
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

Somali is a kind of poetic language like Arabic, but not as complex as Arabic but we don't have any proper literature but our language is not a literacy language but it is good for speaking.

If we had Arabic script we can use 3ain and Haa.