Somali

Somali is the official language of Somalia and is spoken by the vast majority of the seven million inhabitants of Somalia, but also by over one million people in Ethiopia and about 300,000 in Kenya.

Hello: Heye (Hi yey)
How are you? Sidee tahay (ta hi!)
I’m fine, Fee ana hi,
thanks: waa mahad santa hay (wah maha santa hi!)
What is your name? Magacaa? (maga ah!)
My name is.. Magaceyga waa… (maga eh! ge waa)
Nice to meet you: Kulan wanaagsan
Welcome to… Adigaa mudan…

The words in brackets give more of an idea for an English speaker of how these Somali words should be pronounced, for example (hi!) is a representation of our greeting “Hi!”, (eh!) of the exclamation "eh! (come back etc)".