Reviving Somali Grammar (Prefix Conjugations)

[Northern Swordsman]

Reviving Somali Grammar: Prefix-Verbs & M-Nominalization

Somali has some unique grammar features that have faded from everyday use. Two of them are:
• Prefix-conjugated verbs (verbs that use prefixes instead of suffixes)
• The M-prefix (which turns verbs into nouns)

These features still exist, but they aren’t widely used anymore. Let’s bring them back.


1. Prefix-Conjugated Verbs

Somali verbs used to conjugate with prefixes, like “ah” (to be)

Ahay - I am
Tahay - You (sg.) are
Yahay - He/She is
Nahay - We are
Tihiin/Yihiin - You (pl.) / They are

Other verbs followed this pattern too:

aal - to stand, lay

Aalay - I stood / laid
Taalay - You stood / laid
Yaalay - He/She stood / laid
Naalnay - We stood / laid
Taaliin / Yaaliin - You (pl.) / They stood / laid

imaad - to come

Imi / Imaaday - I came
Timi / Timaaday - You came
Yimi / Yimaaday - He/She came
Nimi / Nimaadnay - We came
Timaadeen / Yimaadeen - You (pl.) / They came

This system makes Somali more expressive, but it’s rarely used now.

Why not revive it?

Instead of just cunay (I ate), why not ahmay?

You might wonder why I said ahmay instead of something similar to cun?

Well *aham > *ahan “to eat” is the predecessor of cun which went through a phonological change where archaic aham became ahan and then cun

*aham/*ahan has been preserved in these following words:

Aftahan - eloquence, well spoken person

Aftahmo - same as Aftahan (this words presents the typical Somali shift from m > n taham > tahan)

Geestahan - disease that causes itching

In Somali there is also a common pattern that h > Ø as in *aham/ahan > ohom/ohon > aam/aan > oom/oon words indicating this are as follows:

Geestahan has another variation geestaan (clearly depicting the h > Ø)

Ohon - grain, food
Oon - thirst, also food and drink
Oomati - food

Now that we cleared and understood that this prefix conjugation was / is pretty common in certain verbs we could revive them with this example (that already exist but aren’t really use)

ahan - I eat
Tahan - you eat
Yahan - he eats
Tahan - she eats
Nahan - we eat
Tahanaan - (2p.) you eat
Yahanaan - (3p.) they eat


The same is also with *cab “to drink” we already have evidence of it’s prefix conjugation

As in Dhiigyacab - blood drinker

Yacab - he drinks

If we use the same structure we can reconstruct the following forms

Acab - I drink (Im leaning towards cab > cabay sticking to the ah > ahay form)
Tacab - you drink
Yacab - he drinks
Tacab - she drinks
Nacab - we drink
Tacabaan - you drink
Yacabaan - they drink

With the *cabay form ( made up reconstruction by me)

Cabay- I drink
Tacabay - you drink
Yacabay - he drinks
Tacabay - she drinks
Nacabay - we drink
Tacibiin - you drink (from tihiin>tacibiin or ticibiin)
Yacibiin - they drink



Instead of wuu dhintay (he died), why not yamuuday? You might ask why yamuuday?

This an attested (in some regions still used) form of using the verb to die, we often use dhintay.

There are two forms attest for this word. It’s noun is Umaad meaning Geeri ie death

This form *umaad and *amuud are both present in words derived from them examples:

Tummaati - weapon
Tammooti - deadly wound

Both these forms derive from from *amuud and *umaad

Umaad > tummaad > tummaati
Amuud > tammood > tamooti

The -ti suffixes in these words are pretty common in Somali (I’m not sure for the southern dialects but they’re very common in the north)

Essentially this -ti suffix forms a verb into an agent noun, example:

Qax to “flee or evacuate” > Qaxooti “refugees, evacuees”

Gashaan “lover” > Gashaanti “marriageable girl”

Arag “to see” > Aragti “view point, opinion etc”

You get the point.

Now back to *umaad and *amuud, they become:

*umaad

Umaad - I die
Tumaad - you die
Yumaad - he dies
Tumaad - she dies
Numaad - We die
Tamuudaan - you die (also Tumaadiin)
Yumaadaan - they die (Yumaadiin)


*amuud

Amuud - I die
Tamuud - you die
Yamuud - he dies
Tamuud - she dies
Namuud - We die
Tamuudaan - you die (also Tamuudiin)
Yamudaan - they die (Yamuudiin)

This verb *amuud / *umaad is considerably very easy to reconstruct since we’ve already a similar verb that we use daily, namely *imaad

Imaadaa - I come
Timaadaa - you come
Yimaadaa - he comes
Timaadaa - she comes
Nimaadnaa - we come
Timaadaan - you come
Yimaadaan - they come

The last one I’d like to present is *awood and *uwaad meaning “to be able, can”. There are attested forms of the later usage of this verb than the first one. This verb in its form *awood is common in the north while *uwaad is common in central and southern regions.

Uwaad - I can,
Tuwaad - you can
Yuwaad - he can
Tuwaad - she can
Nuwaad - we can
Tuwaadaan - you can (Tuwaadiin)
Yuwaadaan - they can (Yuwaadiin)

Northern variant would be *awood

Awoodaa - I can
Tawoodaa - you can
Yawoodaa - he can
Tawoodaa - she can
Nawoodnaa - we can
Tawoodaan - you can
Yawoodaan - they can

One instance I personally stumbled upon is from a religious paper I was reading, it mentions:

It’s pretty wild and sad at the same time that we are letting such beautiful grammatical features vanish in vain. I hope I could inspire a spark of interest in this topic and if needed I’ve made a word document listing the prefix derived verbs I could find and some I “reconstructed” myself.

Well let’s continue with another topic which is also of interest here.


2. The M-Prefix: Turning Verbs into Nouns

Another Somali feature is the M-prefix, which turns verbs into nouns—especially for tools, places, or people.


Attested words (I did not reconstruct)

arag (to see) → marag (witness, evidence)
geli (to enter, put in) → magli (dagger)
quus (to dive, submerge) → maquus (diver)

Many of these words still exist, but some have been lost. We could revive more (I reconstructed the last word shiid) :


rog (to turn, twist) → maroog (crookedness, deformity)
kab (to restore, repair) → makaab (well frame)
shiid (to grind) → mashiid (grinding tool)

This is a native Somali feature, just like how Arabic has masjid (mosque) from sajada (to prostrate). Not only Arabic also other Cushitic languages such as Saho which has Oocobe (to drink) related to Somali cab has the m-prefix Macaba (beverage or drink). These features have always been part of our language, we should reclaim them and revive them.

Why Does This Matter?

Somali has unique grammar that makes it different from other languages. If we don’t use these forms, they’ll disappear completely.

We can bring them back by:
• Using them in speech & writing
• Teaching them in schools
• Encouraging poets & writers to use them

Languages change, but we don’t have to lose what makes Somali special.

Would anyone like to see these forms return?
Let me know!