ENSH-SOMALI-DICTIONARY-1894

332 Pages·2021·7.9 MB·English

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Somall-Enallsh and EnaNsh-Somali
dictio

3
1924 026 888 820

DATE DUE

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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026888820

SOMALI-ENGLISH

AND

EKGLISH-SOMALI DICTIONARY.

SOMALI-ENGLISH

AND

ENGLISH-SOMALI

DIOTIONAEY.

BY

Rev. Fe. EVANGELIST de LARAJASSE,'

MISS.
APOST. OKD.
SS. FBANCISCI CAP. PBOTINCIjE LUGDTJNENSIS ALUMNUS.

LONDON

:

EJIGAN PAUL, TEENCH, TKUBNEE & CO.,
Ltd.,

Paternosteu House, Chaeing Caosa Eoad.

1897

-^
P

LONDON

:

PRINTED BY GILBERT AND EIVINGTON, LIMITED,

ST. John's house, olbreenwell,
e.o.

PEEFACE.

The few books
published on
the
Somali language being in-

sufficient for anyone wishing to learn
it, we, in order to have a

basis
for a further and thorough study of it, have committed

to
print
this
Somali-English and English-Somali Dictionary,

although it is not as yet perfect and complete.

For writing Somali phonetically we have employed,
firstly,

the Eoman characters with their Latin pronunciation
; secondly,

some signs used in the Syrian alphabet (S. J. Beyrouth) for the

transliteration of Arabic into Eoman characters, and letter d, as

explained in the following alphabetical table
:

—

VI
PREFACE.

diphthongs; w, however,
is
only a vowel when following
the

letters a and o, forming with them the diphthongs aw and ow.

All the other letters are consonants.

OF THE PEONUNCIATION OF THE LETTEES.

Peonunciation of the Vowels.

Simple
Vowels.

a

is either long or short

:

when long it is pronounced as in English " father."

„
short
„
„
„
"cat, mat."

e

has the sound of a in such words as
" face, space "
; but when

this vowel
stands
before a consonant
ending a syllable,
it has

nearly the sound of a in the word "care."
Ex. ader,
"paternal

uncle," pronounced ah-dare.

i

is either long or short.

When long it is pronounced as i in " ravine."

„
short
„
„
" spin."

When i is either preceded
or followed by h, or when marked

with
'
('i and 1')
it has nearly the sound of
e.

is sounded like o in the word " tone," when it is long.

„
„
,,
"Tom"
„
short.

Ex. sor, " food," pronounced sore
; kol, " time," pronounced holl.

PREFACE.
VU

has the sound of oo in the word " pool" when long, and that of
u in the word "pull" when
short.
Ex.
giir, "marriage," pro-

nounced goore;
gur, "pick up," pronounced goor.
When u
is

either preceded
or followed by hard
consonants,
as h, h,
it is

sometimes pronounced nearly ^s u in " tusk."

c
('ain)

The Arabic guttural sound of
c (the pronunciation of which

can be learnt only from a native) being
of frequent
occurrence

in the Somali language, the vowels a, e, i, o, u when having that

sound
are marked with a reversed comma
('),
either on
their

right or their left, as shown in the table.

Pronunciation q/ the Diphthongs.

ai

is pronounced by some as i in the word "Bible," and as ai in the

word " paint " by others.

In a few words these two letters must be sounded separately

;

in that case the letter 1 will be marked with two dots
(i).

ei

has the sound of ei in the English "feign."

au

is sounded as ow in the word " cow."

aw

has the same sound as au, but
is used to represent that sound

in words where other vowels follow, and also in attributive verbs.

VIU
PREFACE.

OW

This diplithong has a kind of hollow sound like that of oh-oo

pronounced in an empty cask.

Consonants.

b

is sounded as in English
" baby," but more forcibly and with a

sort of jj sound.

d

has a clear and distinct sound as in the English " did."

a

is the cerebral d of the Sanscrit.
Some Somal pronounce this

consonant nearly as rd in English
" hard," " card "

;
its proper

pronunciation
can be
attained
only by
practice.
There
is,

however,
not very much difference between the
pronunciation

of d and d at the commencement and at the end of words.
In

pronouncing d the tongue is allowed to appear between the teeth,

whereas to pronounce d the tongue must be somewhat curved

against the front of the palate.

f

as in English " for,"
" if."

S

is invariably hard, as in English "gamble,"
"give,"
"get."

h

is an
aspirate strongly breathed
out from the
chest,
like the

Arabic 9- " ha."

PKEFACE.
IX

h

as in English " hare."

h

represents
the
sounds
of
the
three Arabic
letters
?-
(3 f

•

Most Somal pronounce any one of those sounds like the German

ch
as pronounced
in
Switzerland
in
the
words
"chirurg,"

" hochzeit,"
" loch," the guttural pronunciation not being the

same everywhere.
In order
to avoid confusion and multipli-

cation of sounds we have adopted this sign, although we know

that
nearly
two-thirds
of
these
words
commence
with
the

Arabic J.

k

as in English " kite "

;
it is interchangeable with g.

as in English "jump,"
"lily."

m, n

as in English " mammon,"
" noon."

r

This
consonant
is
generally
strongly sounded,
like rr in

" parrot."
There
are
a
few exceptions where
it
is sounded

nearly
as
cerebral d.

s

is a strong sibilant resembling ss in English " hiss."

sh

as in English " shore."

X
PREFACE.

t

is sounded as in English "tattoo," and is interchangeable with d.

w

as in English " walk."

y

as in English
" yes,"
" York."
In some words
this
letter
is

pronounced like th
in the English " loathe."
Ex. maya, "no,"

pronounced matha.

The
consonants
p,
v,
and
z
do
not
exist
in
the
Somali

alphabet as separate letters, but
their sounds have a reciprocal

correspondence to those of the letters b, f b, and s^p to b, v to

f and b, z to
s.

With a view to economize
space, indefinite nouns
to which

either the
definite article or the endings of indefinite plural
is

added, will be represented by the sign
(— ).
When there is no

possibility of confusion, the word at the head of an article is also

represented by the
sign
(—) in the phrases and locutions ex-

plained, as also in compound words formed from it by the addi-

tion of a syllable, particle, or another word when they follow in

the same paragraph.

In
Somali, for a great number of nouns, the gender
is quite

arbitrary, as in French, aild can be known only by the definite

singular article
;
therefore, with each noun, except with
those

ending in o (which are mostly of feminine gender, and in taking

the article
di change final o into a), we indicate the
article, as

wil, m.n., " a boy," —ki.
gabad, f.71., " a girl," — di.

PKEFACB.
XI

Polysyllabic
or
dissyllabic nouns ending
with a con'sonant

generally form their indefinite plural by adding o
; those ending

in
i by adding yo
; those ending in a, ai, and eh by adding yal

;

feminine monosyllabic nouns by adding o
;
and
dissyllabic
or

polysyllabic feminine nouns ending in o by adding
in.
Mas-

culine monosyllabic nouns form
their plural by repeating the

final consonant preceded by the vowel a.
Ex. der,
" gazelle "

;

derar, "gazelles."

For all nouns not following the rules given
above,
the
d^f.

art. and ]jlur. will be indicated thus
:

gabad,/.w., "a girl"; —di, gabdo (plur.)

ilig, m.n., " a tooth "
; —gi, ilko (plur.)

The root or simplest form of the Somali verb being the second

person
singular of the
imperative,
all the verbs will be given

in
that form, to which we add the forms of the second person

plural of the imperative and
that of the aorist when they are

not regularly formed according to the abridged rules below ;
for

from these
three forms the other principal
tenses of the verb

may be formed by the addition of terminations
[see Gram.).

EULES.

1st. Verbs
ending
with
a
consonant
generally
form
the

second person plural of the imperative by adding
a, and the

aorist by adding
i, to the root.

Ex.
abur, " create,"
" produce (thou) "

; —a,
" create (ye

or you) "

; wan —i, " I will create."