One look at my friend’s two year-old niece and she’ll melt your heart. She’s an absolute doll and incredibly smart. While the little one is far from having mastered the English language her vocabulary is already being peppered with the Somali language as well. It is during these times when baby geniuses are constructed. I know. They start with bi-lingual basics like grandma and grandpa, gaining the “ooh’s and aah’s” of family and the affection of an occasional visitor to the house. Later they work their way up to advanced words like cauliflower, sartorial, nepotism, tundra, vespertine, alchemy and gadling. After becoming fluent in both languages they look for a third, fourth, and fifth and eventually try to take over the world. And if world take-over isn’t on their list of things to do then they’ll just get higher wages at their place of employment.
Today’s word is a Somali word used in Somalia:
maxaad shektay – how are you
Without letting my friend know I was suspicious of the young child taking my spot in the work place when my bones are old and fragile and my memory starts to fail I asked her to teach me some Somali. And seeing Somali isn’t spoken by a large population learning the language online for free will be a difficult task to accomplish. You maybe able to find an exchange partner online at My Language Exchange, provided there are Somali speakers registered with the site. Your best bet would be travel within the country, finding a local tutor or purchasing language software from African Language dot com. Their CD-ROM is priced at $99 USD, so may wish to shop around before buying.