Somali Dialectology and Sociolinguistics

The purpose of the course is to give an increased understanding of the geographic and social variation of the Somali language in view of the modern development of Somali into a standard language with clear differences between formal and informal language. Variables such as geography, situation and identity, e.g. professional role, social class, age, gender and ethnicity are discussed. Linguistic power relations, language attitudes and language choices are also covered. Throughout the course, key concepts, principles and aims of sociolinguistic and dialectological studies are presented. The course covers in more detail the existing research into Somali dialects, their subdivisions and present-day status. Morphosyntactic, phonetic and lexicosemantic differences between the different dialect areas are studied. The importance of dialects in different socio-cultural contexts are discussed as well as the use of regional spoken language and slang.