Somali Resources

You need the right tools for the job.

Soo dhawow! Welcome!

Somali does not have many easy-to-use resources, so here I’ll present the collection of tools that I use.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, and if you run into dead links, kindly notify me.

Phrases:

If you’re just getting started, here are your survival phrases.

Omniglot: Somali

Books:

Liban Ahmad:

Somali Grammar Revision
A Dictionary of Somali Verbs in Everyday Contexts
300 Arabic Loan Words in Somali 

Joy Carter:

La soco af Soomaaliga (Make Progress in the Somali Language) – Free to download

Martin Orwin:

Colloquial Somali – Excellent, but expensive and hard to find

Podcasts:

SBS Somali (Australia)

Reading help:

“War Soomaali” – Somali news articles with headlines in English

Dictionary:

Somali English Dictionary (app for iOS and Android)

Somali music:

Listening to music can help you learn how Somali sounds, and plug you into Somali cultural life.

English translation of Somali song (video link at bottom)
Somali song with audio, and Somali & English text
Adorable Somali children singing
Clearing house of Somali music
Wikipedia, “Music of Somalia”

General Somali learning tips

This site includes short articles about various aspects of Somali grammar

LearnSomali

Famous Youtube videos of non-Somalis:

Be inspired by the following videos! Learning Somali can be done! Plus, Somalis love to see foreigners speak their language and sing their songs.

Stacy in Ohio
Gabriel in Minnesota
White woman sings in Somali

Photo credit: zzpza / Foter / CC BY