Somali language

Somali
Af-Soomaali
اللغة الصومالية
Native toSomalia (and Somaliland), Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya
RegionHorn of Africa
Native speakers
16.6 million (2006)
Official status
Official language in
 Somalia
Regulated byMinistry of Education, Culture and Higher Education
Language codes
ISO 639-1so
ISO 639-2som
ISO 639-3som
Somali-speaking region
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Somali (Arabic: الصوماليه) is a Cushitic language. It is spoken by ethnic Somalis in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya, as well as by the Somali diaspora around the world -- an estimated total population of between 10 and 16 million speakers.

The writing system of the Somali language has been Latin alphabet since 1960.

During the colonial years under Italy, in the capital Mogadishu was developed a pidgin from the Italian used by many Somalians: the Pidgin Italian of Somalia