The Modebnis Ation of Somali Vocabulary. with Particular Reference
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- 1 - (d O THE MODEBNIS ATION OF SOMALI VOCABULARY. WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE PERIOD FROM 1972 TO THE PRESENT JOHN CHARLES CARET THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ProQuest Number: 11010423 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010423 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 h ~ J ti ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to examine the lexical modernisation of the Somali language, a subject which provides an excellent opportunity to study at first hand the process of accelerated vocabulary expansion. While vocabulary expansion in languages with a long-established written tradition has evolved gradually, allowing time and preference to deter mine ultimately the acceptance of additions to vocabulary, Somalia has been denied this luxury. Although some vocabulary expansion took place on a limited and informal scale with the introduction in 19^ 3 of radio broadcasts in the Somali language, it was not until 1972 that an official orthography was established - prior to which date no generally accepted written form had existed - and a co-ordinated government pro gramme of vocabulary expansion initiated. It is this new Somali vocabulary which forms the basis of the present study. This thesis seeks to show how the universal, principles of vocabulary expansion relate to the specific manifestation in Somali by considering a) the limited number of methods available, with examples taken from a variety of languages b) the speed with which such an expansion can be achieved, since only vocabulary needs to be substantially expanded given that the logical framework of all languages is essentially identical and capable of coping with modem thought c) the freedom of choice within the limitation of methods, and the way in which it has been exercised in Somali. To this end, an examination has been made of the specific methods of vocabulary expansion adopted by the Somali language planners in the - 3 - creation of a modem vocabulary and incorporated within this examination is a detailed analysis of selected modem Somali vocabulary drawn from available sources, including the Somali press, school text-books and selected extracts from Somali radio broadcasts. - 4 - I wish to express ay sincere thanks to Jaalle Maxaraed Cabdillaahi Riiraash of the Curriculum Office of the Somali Ministry of Education, latterly engaged upon post-graduate studies at the University of London, who kindly read through and checked the examples of modem Somali vocabulary contained in this work. - 5 - "Pour saisir le monde, aujourd’hui, nous usons d*un langage qui fut etabli pour le monde d'hier. Et la vie du passe nous seable mieux repondre a notre nature, pour la seule raison qu'elle repond mieux a notre langage." Antoine de St. Exupery "Terre des Hoiames" - 6 - CONTENTS p a r t I - a g e n e r a l v i e w o f v o c a b u l a r y e x p a n s i o n 1. INTRODUCTION 14 2. METHODS OF VOCABULARY EXPANSION 18 a) SEMANTIC SHIFT 18 b) BORROWING 23 c) DERIVATION 2 5 d) COMPOUNDING 25 e) PHRASE GROUPING 26 PART II - THE LEXICAL MODERNISATION OF SOMALI 1. LANGUAGE REFORM IN SOMALIA 28 2. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS 35 3. DETAILED ANALYSIS OF SELECTED SOMALI VOCABULARY (BY FIELD OF DISCOURSE) 40 1. AGRICULTURE * 45 2. ARMED FORCES 48 3. BANKING AND FINANCE 69 4. CHEMISTRY 80 5. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 86 6 . COMMUNICATIONS 10 7 7. EDUCATION 113 8 . GEOGRAPHY 122 9. LANGUAGE 128 10. LAW I3Q 11. MATHEMATICS 144 * 7 - 1 2. MEDICINE 152 13. OFFICE EQUIPMENT 1 65 14. PHYSICS 169 15. POLITICS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS 177 1 6 . PRINTING AND PUBLISHING 214 17. SPORT 218 1 8 . TOWN AND FACILITIES 223 19. VEHICLES AND VEHICLE PARTS 226 2 0. WORK 233 PART Ill - EXAMPLES OF VOCABULARY EXPANSION IN SELECTED EXTRACTS FROM NEWS BULLETINS BROADCAST BY RADIO HARGEISA. AUGUST-OCTOBER 1954 240 PART IV - THE ROLE OF THE SOMALI DAILY NEWSPAPER •XIDDIGTA OKTOOBAR* IN THE MODERNISATION OF SOMALI VOCABULARY 247 PART V - THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL TEXT-BOOK IN THE MODERNISATION OF SOMALI VOCABULARY 258 PART VI - CONCLUSIONS 265 APPENDIX I - Brief Notes on Somali Orthography 271 1. Consonants 2. Vowels 3. Table of Correspondence 4. Phonological Altemances 5. Tone - 8 - APPENDIX II - The Definite Article 281 1. The masculine suffix 2. The feminine suffix APPENDIX III - A Summary of Somali Noun Glasses 285 APPENDIX IV - A Summary of Somali Verbal glasses 289 1. Verbal Roots 1.1. Root without extension 1.2. Root + one extension 1.3. Root + two extensions 2. Substantival Roots 2.1. Root + one extension 2.2. Root + two extensions 2.3. Root + three extensions 3. Adjectival Roots 3.1. Root without extension 3.2. Root + one extension 3.3. Root + two extensions k. Attributive Roots Jf.l. Root + one extension ^.2. Root + two extensions APPENDIX V - Derivational. Noun-derived and Verb-derived Affixes 303 APPENDIX VI - "Indicators" and Relative Glauses 309 APPENDIX VII - The Co-ordinates * 00 * and *ee' 311 APPENDIX VIII - The Genitive 312 - 9. - APPENDIX IX - Prepositional Particles 3 NOTES 316 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 327 WORD INDEX 3^3 - 10 - LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS adj. adjective adv. adverb Alb. Albanian Am.Eng. American English Am.Sp. American Spanish Amh. Amharic App. Appendix Ar. Arabic attr. attributive attr.v. attributive verb coll. collective conj. conjunction co-ord. co-ordinate d.a.f. definite article feminine d. a. m. definite article masculine der.aff. derivational affix Eng. English Fr. French gen.aff. genitival affix Ger. German Gr. Greek Hun. Hungarian imp. imperative Ind. Indonesian It. Italian Lat. Latin lit. literally Malt. Maltese n.aff. noun-derived affix n.f. noun feminine n.m. noun masculine o • in • original meaning Per. Persian pers.pr. personal pronoun ph . alt. phonological altemance pi. plural Port. Portuguese pos.aff. possessive affix pr.part. prepositional particle r.adj. radical adjective ref.pr. reflexive pronoun rel.cls. relative clause Rom. Romanian rtv. reiterative Rus. Russian s.adj. substantival adjective sing. singular Som. Somali Sp. Spanish st. standard Swa. Swahili Tur. Turkish v.adj. verbal adjective v. aff. verbal affix v. ext. verbal extension v.r. verbal root v.ter. verbal termination - 12 - Transliteration The following systems of transliteration are employed in this work* Arabic/Greek/Persian/Russian - Romanization Guide. United States Department of State, Office of Research in Economics and Science, and United States Department of the Interior, Office of Geography, July 196^. N.B. Where Arabic feminine singu lar nouns - from which many Somali nouns ending in -ad are derived - occur in this work, their trans literation will indicate the pre- junctive state Amharic System developed by Wolf Leslau and contained in his Amharic Text book. Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1967. Chinese Piny in syllabary, as contained in Chinese-English Dictionary, Beijing Foreign Language College, English Faculty, Beijing, 1978* - 13 - Symbols Hie following symbols are employed in this works > placed after a word means that the word after this symbol is an evolution of that preceding it. < placed after a word means that the word before the symbol is derived from that following it. [ ] include transliteration ( ) include abbreviation * hypothetical fora - I M PART I A GENERAL VIEW OF VOCABULARY EXPANSION 1. INTRODUCTION The number of languages spoken throughout the world runs to several thousands - many with established orthographies, others unwritten - whose speakers may range from merely hundreds to hundreds of millions. Yet despite this diversity of languages, it is possible, in certain areas, to discern features which axe clearly common to all of them. Language is, after all, an inherent feature of human communication and is used to describe or explain human experience, which is fundamentally the same no matter which language is spoken. All languages employ the same method of transmission, via the speech organs, and the physical actions involved in producing speech sounds are all very similar in nature; but more important still are the universal grammatical relationships and semantic features which are shared by all languages(l). Naturally, differences occur but where they do they are merely surface ones. The grammatical aspects shared by all languages are basically: - a noun system (it is almost certain that a noun in one language has an equivalent in another) - a verbal system - the use of modifiers i.e. adjectives and adverbs However, the area in which the most obvious differences between languages exist is that of vocabulary, the natural result of the arbitrariness in producing a codified system of sounds to express a whole range of meanings. In spite of the restricting factor of the speech organs, shared by all speakers regardless of language, the combination of sounds within a language is almost limitless (subject, - 15 - of course, to certain phonological constraints) and so consequently are the possibilities of forming new words. The methods employed to prod uce new words may appear haphazard to the casual observer whose language has enjoyed a long-established written tradition in which time and preference have determined ultimately the acceptance of additions to vocabulary. This is not so, however, in the case of languages whose vocabulary is subjected to rapid expansion over a short period.