Somali Animal Vocabulary

Today, I’m going to focus on learning some basic animals and insects in Somali. I don’t usually bring up animals in conversations, but when you’re learning a language in a rural area, people often like to point to animals and quiz you on them. It’s already happened to me twice, so I figure it’s time I knuckle down and learn these.

1. faras = horse
2. ri = goat
3. dameer = donkey
4. libaax = lion
5. ido = sheep
6. ey = dog
7. yey = wild dog
8. jiir = mouse
9. geel = camel
10. qorrato = lizard
11. shimbir = bird
12. bisad = cat
13. qudhaanjo = ant
14. shinni = bee
15. kalluun = fish
16. mas = snake
17. kaneeco = mosquito
18. caaro = spider
19. maroodi = elephant
20. balanbaalis = butterfly
21. baranbaro = cockroach
22. aboor = termite

Once I went through all these words with a Somali speaker (what a gift!), I drew little pictures for each one to review. My artistic standards have fallen since Day 1, where I was creating these colorful home decor items, but these sketches worked just fine for today’s purposes (and I’m not planning on hanging them on the walls). In any case, sketches are still a great way to stop translating, and start associating a word with what it means directly.