Download or read book Somali written by John I. Saeed and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Somali is spoken by more than nine million people in the Horn of Africa and by expatriate communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. It is the official language of Somalia and an important regional language in Ethiopia and Kenya. As a Cushitic language Somali is part of the great Afroasiatic language family whose other branches include Semitic, Berber, Chadic and Ancient Egyptian. This book provides a comprehensive description of the grammar of the language that will be of interest to non-specialists and linguists interested in typology and language comparison. The author's accessible investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse structure allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of Somali and, through Somali, of a Cushitic language. A further important feature of the book is its use of authentic data from a range of sources, including prose, poetry and proverbs.