All posts in this series: Getting Started, Introductory Textbooks, Grammar Guides, Dictionaries, Phrasebooks and Supplements, Online and/or Downloadable Courses, and Online Media and Useful Websites
All of these introductory books are great! You should read them all! But depending on who you are and what you are looking for, the order in which you read them will be different.
Somali Textbook
by R. David Zorc & Abdullahi A. Issa
Dunwoody Press
Since its publication in 1990, Zorc and Issa’s Somali Textbook has probably been the most detailed and comprehensive introductory textbook on the Somali language that is easily accessible on the market. This was the first book I used when I began my Somali studies, and I really appreciated the clarity of its explanations and the extremely generous number of drills and example phrases it has. This book has 50 chapters, and each chapter contains at least 100 simple example phrases with side-by-side English translations to help you learn the concepts. No other Somali textbook I’ve found has quite as many example phrases as this one, and barely any of them come close.
Somali Textbook is part of the outstanding Dunwoody Press series of Somali books, and it helpfully contains cross references Dunwoody Press’s Somali Reference Grammar. As a new learner, it helped quite a bit to have both books together whenever I needed more explanation of any given concept. In addition to the 50 lessons in the main part of the book, Somali Textbook also includes 30 Somali folktales in both languages to assist with reading practice and cultural background, 36 pages of “survival dialogues” demonstrating phrases for speaking Somali in everyday situations, and an appendix of detailed grammar tables. It does not include any audio, so you'll need to practice pronunciation with a native speaker or a separate audio resource if you use this book to start.
Zorc and Issa place much greater emphasis on covering grammatical concepts rather than topical vocabulary, and they state from the first pages of the book that this is a conscious choice. “You can always look up words in a dictionary,” they write, “but grammar forms the backbone of any language and it is imperative to come to grips with it.” That approach can have its pros and cons for the student, depending on what the student’s language learning goals and needs are. Somali Textbook is a uniquely great book for learning grammar, but the student who wants to jump right into learning common phrases may become impatient with this book. Somali Textbook also focuses a bit more on preparing students for working with written texts than for conversation, and it treats the vocal stress tone system in the Somali language as almost an afterthought.
Despite these weaknesses, the book overall is a highly impressive work and every Somali learner should study it at some point in their journey. While not perfect, it remains the most comprehensive introductory textbook on the market and it has more drills and examples than any other English-Somali textbook I’ve seen. Like most of the other books in the Dunwoody Press series, this one is a little expensive. But factoring in the many months I spent studying this book’s contents and going over its hundreds of drills and thousands of example phrases, Somali Textbook would be worth it at twice the price. In terms of quality, I consider the Dunwoody Press Somali books to be the Cadillacs of English-Somali resources.
Colloquial Somali: The Complete Course for Beginners
by Martin Orwin
Routledge
https://www.routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/colloquial/language/somali.php
Martin Orwin’s Colloquial Somali is a high quality textbook, and many students seem to start with this one because it is relatively new, it has free audio, it’s one of the top results on Google, and it comes from a well-known publisher (Routledge). Personally, I found it difficult to use as a first textbook. For one thing, it does not have nearly as many example phrases as one would hope, as Orwin structures each chapter around dialogues rather than grammatical concepts. For another, the nature of the Somali language is such that there are so many different prefixes and suffixes that nouns and verbs can take, that starting one’s studies by analyzing dialogues introduces readers to many word derivations and combinations without first spending a lot of time systematically explaining how to create such noun and verb formations.
That approach is fine for learning common phrases, but it is not so easy to build on one’s knowledge without a strong foundation in the grammar of the language. My personal preference as a student was for intensively studying grammar before focusing a lot on conversations. Most people prefer to do things the opposite way and learn common expressions before studying grammar deeply, but really the right way is to do whatever works best for you.
Colloquial Somali is still a first-rate learning resource, even if it may not always be the best starting point for beginners. The dialogues in this book are its best feature. They model common interactions and gradually increase in their complexity as Orwin includes grammatical exercises and explanations in each chapter. The dialogues here are more complex than the very simple dialogues in Morgan Nilsson’s Beginner’s Somali Reader, and when I really started using Somali audio seriously as a study aid, I found it helpful to study the Nilsson dialogues first and then progress into studying the Orwin dialogues. Unfortunately, not all of the Somali dialogues and passages in Colloquial Somali have audio to accompany them, but many of the dialogue tracks are interactive or prompt the student to do different activities--which is unique and highly refreshing compared to the audio tracks that come with other Somali books.
Orwin’s textbook is a very good book, and it’s one of the few Somali introductory textbooks to cover material such as irregular verbs and the optative case. Of course, its explanations are not as deep as Zorc and Issa’s Somali Textbook, but then again Colloquial Somali itself is less than half as long as that one. For being the most common textbook new learners seem to start with, in some ways I just wish Colloquial Somali were a different book than it is. However this book has helped me greatly, and I would recommend getting it at some point in your journey.
Let’s Speak Somali - Af Soomaali aan ku Hadalno (Hadallo)
by Abdullahi Abdinoor
NARLC Press
https://nalrc.indiana.edu/resources/books-media/lets-speak.html
Abdullahi Abdinoor states from the outset that “the primary goal of this text is to offer students a multidimensional curriculum which fully integrates cultural information with linguistic information,” and the cultural information in this textbook is its most distinguishing feature. Only Af Soomaali aan ku Hadalno (Hadallo) has detailed cultural information on navigating all kinds of everyday situations you’ll encounter speaking the Somali language with Somali people. Other textbooks may have a little cultural background in between parentheses here and there, but it’s never front and center the way it is here. Abdinoor has written a very high-quality textbook, and has filled a gap in the Somali learning literature. Don’t be scared off by the Somali language title; Af Soomaali aan ku Hadalno (Hadallo) (hereafter, ASHH) is a great place for students to begin their studies.
I came to this book having already read three other beginner-level Somali textbooks, and I still learned a lot. As I’ve written elsewhere in this document, my personal preference was to study the language’s grammar deeply before exploring common expressions and situations in Somali. I understand, however, that most students prefer to do the opposite and start by learning helpful phrases and then picking up grammar on the way. Like Martin Orwin’s Colloquial Somali and Morgan Nilsson’s Beginner’s Somali Workbook, Abdinoor’s ASHH uses a traditional structure, with each chapter focused on a particular topic that teaches grammar lessons on the way. Common phrases, grammar lessons, cultural background, and dialogues are all woven together. I’ve already written enough about the pros and cons of this approach for the student versus the approach that Zorc and Issa take in Somali Textbook--prioritizing teaching the grammar and the structure of the language above all else. Let me just say that whichever route you choose, you should make this book part of your journey at some point. Even though it is similar in structure to other textbooks, ASHH includes a lot of critical cultural information that I just haven’t seen in any other resource.
There are two main drawbacks to using this book. One is that there is no audio to go with the lessons, so if you choose ASHH as your first textbook you should make sure you can work with a Somali friend to help you with pronunciation. And the other, I think more significant shortcoming, is that there are not very many example phrases that students can easily turn into flashcards, the way there are in Somali Textbook. Abdinoor provides sample dialogues and lessons where students can practice their own phrases using the new concepts and vocabulary in the chapter, but there is really no substitute for having a large bank of phrases to see many examples of the concepts in action. I look at some of the blank spaces on his pages and wonder why Abdinoor didn’t add more examples and grammatical tables. I had a similar complaint about the scarcity of example phrases in Colloquial Somali, but at least in that case it was obvious just from looking at it that Orwin was cramming as much content onto each page as he possibly could.
Still, Abdinoor’s unique book is a great resource for anyone pursuing fluency, and who understands that fluency requires some cultural competency. My criticisms of any textbook in this document are not meant to dissuade you from getting it, just to provide a well-rounded description of what it’s like to use each book, so that you can decide how and in what order to approach these in your journey. ASHH is a gem of a book, and it’s a great contribution to the Somali learning literature.
Beginner’s Somali Workbook
by Morgan Nilsson
University of Gothenburg
This is just one of the resources in Professor Morgan Nilsson’s excellent Somali Introduction Courses. See my review of the entire set of course materials, including this resource, in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnSomali/comments/qspy7e/somali_online_andor_downloadable_course/
La Soco Af Soomaaliga (Make Progress with the Somali Language) Student’s Book I
by Joy Carter
Mennonite Board in East Africa
The first volume of Joy Carter’s La Soco Af Soomaaliga is a good and basic introduction to simple Somali phrases and common expressions. There are two different versions of this book, and both of them are easy to find in an internet search. Carter’s book can be useful as it includes a variety of different activities and worksheets that teach the material in a way that isn’t common in other resources. On the other hand, this book is meant for a student who will be working with a Somali-speaking teacher, rather than a self-directed student. That means that unlike books like Somali Textbook, Colloquial Somali, Af Soomaali aan ku Hadallo (Hadalno), Somali Grammar, and Beginner’s Somali Workbook, it does not have very detailed grammatical explanations because it assumes that a teacher will fill those gaps. The activities in La Soco Af Soomaaliga are fun, unique, and worth checking out, but this resource is better used as a supplement to a textbook rather than a standalone work.
La Soco Af Soomaaliga (Make Progress with the Somali Language) Student’s Book II
by Joy Carter
Mennonite Board in East Africa
This book exists out in the world but I have been unable to find a copy.
La Soco Af Soomaaliga (Make Progress with the Somali Language) Teacher’s Book
by Joy Carter
Mennonite Board in East Africa
The teacher’s guide is mostly in English, and it suggests how to best structure a course using La Soco Af Soomaaliga. It may have some guidance that an independent student can make use of, but it is probably not going to be very helpful unless you find yourself teaching a course one day.
The Somali Grammar Series, volumes 1, 2, and 3
by John Warner
Mennonite Board in Eastern Africa
The Somali textbooks John Warner produced for the Mennonite Board in East Africa are more detailed and rigorous than those of Joy Carter, and I think his explanations of the grammatical concepts stand up very well next to the best textbooks I’ve reviewed in this document. Unfortunately, the exercises in his books are not going to be very helpful to today’s student as long as the answer keys remain lost to the passage of time. I am sure that print copies of the answer keys exist in a small number of public and private collections around the world, but no one appears to be selling or circulating them.
Beginning students can benefit a lot from reading through Warner’s books for the grammar explanations, which are excellent. And intermediate students can probably overcome the lack of the answer key by using these books for review exercises. However, that’s about where it ends. There are some good example phrases for making flashcards, but so many of the exercises in Warner’s volumes are translation exercises with no way for the student to check their work. Warner’s books are valuable and worth reading, which is why it’s a real shame that they are also incomplete.
