Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 som · so
Somali Language Soomaali
Somali is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 16 million people in 6 countries. It is an official language of Somalia. It is written in the Latin, Osmanya and Perso-Arabic scripts.
Where Somali is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Somali
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Cushitic
- East Cushitic
- Lowland East Cushitic
- Southern Lowland East Cushitic
- Mainstream Lowland East Cushitic
- Omo-Tana
- Eastern Omo-Tana
- Somali
Writing system
Latin, Osmanya and Perso-Arabic scripts
Related languages
About the Somali language
Somali (Soomaali) is spoken by about 16 million people, which makes it the 81st most spoken language in the world — just behind Chhattisgarhi (16 million) and ahead of Haryanvi (16 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Eastern Omo-Tana group within the East Cushitic branch.
Where is Somali spoken?
Somali is used in 6 countries. The largest communities live in Somalia (10 million), Ethiopia (7.1 million), Kenya (757,203), Djibouti (407,939) and United Kingdom (136,918). More than half of the population speaks it in Somalia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Somali: Somalia 78% (10 million), Ethiopia 6% (7.1 million), Kenya 1.3% (757,203), Djibouti 41% (407,939), United Kingdom 0.2% (136,918) and Canada 0.2% (62,071).
Somali is an official language in 1 country: Somalia.
Writing system and status
Somali is written in the Latin, Osmanya and Perso-Arabic scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Maay, Eastern Oromo, Borana-Arsi-Guji Oromo, Afar, Oromo and Sidamo.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 so, ISO 639-3 som.
Frequently asked questions about Somali
How many people speak Somali?
Where is Somali spoken?
In which countries is Somali an official language?
What language family does Somali belong to?
What is Somali called in Somali?
Is Somali an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.