Somali
It is one of the major languages of the continent of Africa and is spoken widely in Somalia/Somali land, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and many communities in Europe, North America and Middle East. Estimated number of speakers of this language is 10-16 million. It is classified as Cushitic branch of Afrosasiatic family. Though it is the official language of Somalia but Arabic is still a common language among Somali people. Somali is a written language and is based on four different scripts: Arabic-based, Latin-based and two native alphabets. Academic publishing in Somali started around 1900 and in 1972 it became school language with all scientific and technical words present in it to teach different modern subjects.
Somali is somewhat considered a well-documented language with Abraham, Andrzejewski and Saeed among prominent scholars. It has some similarities to Oromo and Afar languages and contains words from Arabic, English and Italian. It is a popular language in air as well and many local, regional and overseas services are broadcast in Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia. BBC Somali Service, Radio Moscow and Radio Cairo etc. also use Somali as broadcast language. Classical Somali Poetry is well known among Somali written literature. Some common alternate names of Somali language are Af-Soomaali, Af-Maxaad Tiri, Common Somali, Standard Somali.
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