Af Maay is a language not a dialect?

[mohamedismail]

If you say it's a dialect and its not a language , then it must be mutually intelligible with Af Maxaa. If you believe that then please translate this Maay poem.

 

[Aurelian]

is scotish accent a language or an accent? If it is an accent then why most englishmen dont understand it?

 

[Haragwaafi]

It's a dialect and a language

 

[mohamedismail]

is scotish accent a language or an accent? If it is an accent then why most englishmen dont understand it?

I understand the Scottish language perfectly.

But Scottish have their own language. They speak scots Gaelic and other languages.

 

[mohamedismail]

It's a dialect and a language

How can they be both.

 

[Haragwaafi]

How can they be both.

Af Maay and the common spoken Somali language hail from the same language as both to certain extent are mutually intelligible similar to Swedish or Danish it can be considered as a stand alone language from af soomaali

 

[Deejay]

If you say it's a dialect and its not a language , then it must be mutually intelligible with Af Maxaa. If you believe that then please translate this Maay poem.

Mandarin and cantonese are less mutually intelligible than croatian and serbian yet the former are considered a dialects of the same language while the latter are viewed as different languages. It's often a political/ideological decision, there is even a saying amongst linguists: "Many languages are just dialects with a flag", hence the catholic serbo-croats are croatian, the orthodox are serbian and the muslims are bosniaks.

I'd go on a limb here and say af maay and af maxaa are more mutually intelligible than cantonese and mandarin given the videos I've seen of chinese people talking about their differences. I can understand someone speaking af maay if they're from Banadir or Lower Shabelle but if they're from deep inside Bay or Bakool it might be harder but I'll still get the gist of the conversation.

 

[mohamedismail]

Mandarin and cantonese are less mutually intelligible than croatian and serbian yet the former are considered a dialects of the same language the latter are viewed as different languages. It's often a political/ideological decision, there is even a saying aamongst linguists: "Many languages are just dialects with a flag", hence the catholic serbo-croats are croatian, the orthodox are serbian and the muslims are bosniaks.

I'd go on a limb here and say af maay and af maxaa are more mutually intelligible than cantonese and mandarin given the videos I've seen of chinese people talking about their differences. I can understand someone speaking af maay if they're from Banadir or Lower Shabelle but if they're from deep inside Bay or Bakool it might be harder but I'll still get the gist of the conversation.

Did you understand anything from the poem I posted. That is the original af maay spoken in deep Baay Bakool and jubooyinka.

 

[Deejay]

Did you understand anything from the poem I posted. That is the original af maay spoken in deep Baay Bakool and jubooyinka.

I'll listen to it more closely later, it took me a while to get used to af maxaa poetry because they often use words not used in everyday conversations (older words and often times more advanced words).

 

[Revolutionarry]

It's kind of both. I think the original Somali language was af may, then afmaxaa tiri evolved out of af may after some earlier Somalis migrated from the south to the north.

The reason why I say this is that af rendille sounds a lot more like af may than af maxaa tiri. Also when you hear oromo speakers count from 1-10, it's a lot more similar to af may than af maxaa tiri. The letter D in af maxaa tiri "Daal" is enunciated like "Th" sound in af may, rendille and oromo.

I can only understand bits and piece of af may but it is still Somali.

 

[canjeeroiyoshah]

Most people who speak fluent Somali(maxaa tiri) cannot understand it, based off that I think it's safe to say it's a different language even though they're related.

 

[Nin123]

Somali language have two branches one is maxa language and second is af may

 

[niggaibnh]

If you say it's a dialect and its not a language , then it must be mutually intelligible with Af Maxaa. If you believe that then please translate this Maay poem.

100% language
My aabo who stayed in Somalia majority of his life and could speak the most perfect Somali only understand af maay tiny bit only cuz he lived with raywayeen (idk how to spell it) for couple of years

 

[Journey.]

Is Af-Maay mutually intelligible with other "languages" that were/are indigenously spoken in the South, like Af-Maa doonte?

 

[GaradShabeel]

If you say it's a dialect and its not a language , then it must be mutually intelligible with Af Maxaa. If you believe that then please translate this Maay poem.

That's not the correct way of determening whether af-Maay is a dialect or a language. Two linguistic variations do not have to be mutually intelligible to be regarded as the same language.

Look at some Arabic dialects; an Arabic speaker from the Levantine will struggle understanding a dialect from the Maghreb such as Darja. Meanwhile, Turkish and Azeri could be considered two dialects of the same language due to their similarities, when they in fact are recognized as two different languages.

 

[mohamedismail]

Is Af-Maay mutually intelligible with other "languages" that were/are indigenously spoken in the South, like Af-Maa doonte?

Yes Af Madoonte spoken in Marka cadey is very similar to Af Maay.

Also their are similarities in Maay and Banaadiri dialect spoken by reer xamars although they are small.

 

[mohamedismail]

That's not the correct way of determening whether af-Maay is a dialect or a language. Two linguistic variations do not have to be mutually intelligible to be regarded as a the language.

Look at some Arabic dialects; an Arabic speaker from the Levantine will struggle understanding a dialect from the Maghreb such as Darja. Meanwhile, Turkish and Azeri could be considered the dialects of the same language due to their similarities, when they infact are two different languages.

Is there any qualified linguists that have studied Af Maay and Maxaa tiri and officially said if it is a language or dialect.

All i see is people from other fields giving their personal opinion on whether they believe it to be a language or dialect. I would like to hear a qualified person take.

 

[niggaibnh]

That's not the correct way of determening whether af-Maay is a dialect or a language. Two linguistic variations do not have to be mutually intelligible to be regarded as a the language.

Look at some Arabic dialects; an Arabic speaker from the Levantine will struggle understanding a dialect from the Maghreb such as Darja. Meanwhile, Turkish and Azeri could be considered the dialects of the same language due to their similarities, when they infact are two different languages.

You know damn well darja is mix between Arabic, French and old amazigh language

Ofc it wouldn’t be 100% Arabic like the others

 

[Garaad Hirabu]

I noticed its much easier for Oromos and Admfmaay speakers to learn afmaxaa, I think this is because af maxaa are more pure Cushitic, while oromo and maay have obsorbed Niger Congo sounds, that's why it's very difficult for af maxaa to get their heads around af maay and Oromo language, if they are not aware of the grammer

 

[GaradShabeel]

Is there any qualified linguists that have studied Af Maay and Maxaa tiri and officially said if it is a language or dialect.

All i see is people from other fields giving their personal opinion on whether they believe it to be a language or dialect. I would like to hear a qualified person take.

I'm not sure how linguist view it . Since you speak both af-Maxaa and Maay, how similar do you think they are?