Af Soomaali

Somali
af Soomaali   /   ˜اَف صَومالي‎
Region	Horn of Africa
Native speakers	15 million (2015)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Lowland East Cushitic Somali languages Somali
Writing system	Somali Latin alphabet (Latin script; official) Wadaad writing (Arabic script) Osmanya alphabet Borama alphabet Kaddare alphabet
Official status
Official language in	Somalia  Somaliland
Recognised minority language in	Djibouti  Ethiopia  Kenya
Regulated by	Regional Somali Language Academy
Language codes
ISO 639-1	so
ISO 639-2	som
ISO 639-3
Glottolog	soma1255
Linguasphere	14-GAG-a
Primary Somali speech area
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Somali /səˈmɑːli, soʊ-/ (Af-Soomaali [æ̀f sɔ̀ːmɑ́ːlì]) is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora. Somali is an official language of Somalia, Somaliland, a national language in Djibouti, and a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It is used as an adoptive language by a few neighboring ethnic minority groups and individuals. The Somali language is written officially with the Latin alphabet.

Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family; specifically, as Lowland East Cushitic along with Afar and Saho. Somali is the best-documented Cushitic language, with academic studies of the language dating back to the late 19th century.

Somali is spoken by Somalis in Somalia, the self-declared state of Somaliland, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya, and by the Somali diaspora. It is also spoken as an adoptive language by a few ethnic minority groups and individuals in these areas.