Mai-Mai, commonly spelled Maay Maay (also known as Af-Maay, Af-Maymay, or simply Maay; the Mai-Mai spelling is rarely used but it is most often spoken), is a dialect of the Somali language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.[2] It is mainly spoken in Somalia and adjacent parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. In Somalia, it is spoken in South West state, Jubaland state, and Banadir. It is one of the dialects of the Somali language.[3]
Somali linguistic varieties are divided into three main groups: Northern, Benadir, and Maay. Northern Somali (or Northern-Central Somali) forms the basis for Standard Somali.[4]
Maay is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle (Rahanweyn) clans in the southern regions of Somalia, particularly in South West.[4] Its speech area extends from the southwestern border with Ethiopia to a region close to the coastal strip between Mogadishu and Kismayo, including the city of Baidoa.[5] Maay is not mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali or Benadir, and it differs considerably in sentence structure and phonology.[6] It is also not generally used in education or media. However, Maay speakers often use Standard Somali as a lingua franca.[5] It is learned via mass communications, internal migration, and urbanisation.[6]
Although past scholars have maintained the assumption that Maay is not mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali it was done so without it being tested for. A more recent study by Deqa Hassan tested the mutual intelligibility between Af-Maay and Af-Maxaa speakers (Northern Somali).
The study found that Af-Maay is partially mutually intelligible to Af-Maxaa (Northern Speakers) and that intelligibility increases with increased understanding of Standard Somali. Which implies understanding of standard Somali (Northern Somali) increases the chance of understanding Af-Maay. This accounts for the most significant linguistic factor that ties both language variations together. Therefore Af-Maay is categorized as a Type 5 dialect for the overlapping common cultural history it shares with Af Maxaa speakers which explains its somewhat mutual intelligibility.[7]
British ethnologist Virginia Luling who wrote extensively on Maay language and poetry
Maay Maay exhibits significant amounts of epenthesis, inserting central or high-central vowels to break up consonant clusters. Vowel length is contrastive; minimal pairs such as bur 'flour' and buur 'mountain' are attested.
Words
Maay Maay is fairly agglutinative. It has complex verb forms, inflecting at least for tense/aspect and person/number of both subject and object. There is also a prefix indicating negation. In addition, verbs exhibit derivational morphology, including a causative and an applicative. Nominal morphology includes a definiteness suffix, whose form depends on the gender of the head noun, and possessive suffixes.
Sentences
Maay Maay exhibits SVO and SOV word orders, apparently in fairly free variation. When the object is postverbal, the prefix maay appears on the verb. Within the noun phrase, the head noun is generally initial. Possessors, adjectives and some strong quantifiers follow the head noun. Numerals and the indefinite quantifier precede the head noun.
Poetry
Maay has retained a rich oral tradition and evocative poetry that differed from the more well known northern style. In southern Somalia the poet and reciter would be one and the same. British ethnologist Virginia Luling noted during her visit to Afgooye that poetry was to be conceived and recited simultaneously with no prior preparation. The poets or Laashin relied on their wit and memory to construct beautiful poems and entertain the audience.[9]
GelediLaashins during Luling's 1989 stay in Afgooye sang about the ever present issue of land theft by the Somali government. The Sultan in these poems was asked to help the community and reminded of his legendary Gobroon forefathers of the centuries prior.[10]
The poem The law then was not this law was performed by the leading Laashins of Afgooye, Hiraabey, Muuse Cusmaan and Abukar Cali Goitow alongside a few others, addressed to the current leader Sultan Subuge. It evoked the memories of the mighty Geledi Sultanate of years prior and was a sharp contrast to their current situation.[11]
Here the richest selection of the poem
Ganaane gubow gaala guuriow Gooble maahinoo Geelidle ma goynin Gembi iyo waran guraantiis aa loogu soo gayooday, Gooble Gacalkiisa guri curad aa looga soo guuray Haddana nin walba aa Soo gamgamohaayo, goofka beereed waa la goostay, gelgeshii Gaashada daaqeysana waa la goostay, gunta intee la geyn doonaa? Gobroontii soo gaartay Gobroontaan ma ahayn, gargooye Ibraahim Cumar Xaaji goodaalka adunyada markii joogeen, Awow Gaduud Cali - Mahinoo - Awow Gaduud Cali Abukar, Yusuf Maxamuud iyo goodaalka Addunka markii joogeen, ganuunka ganuunkan ma ahayn, Awow Gudgudoome Cumar Adeerow goodaalka aduunka markii joogeen Ganuunka ganuunkan ma ahayn. Beereed waa la goostay, gelgeshii Gaasha la la goostay, gaasha intee loola guuraa ?
Ganaane gubowow, gaala guuriow-aa Gelgeshii la goostay go'aan maad ka gaart-aa (gaartay) ?
You who burnt Ganaane and chased away the infidels Did you not separate from the Geelidle and come to Gooble (Afgooye)? We endured war and the point of the spear For the love of Gooble we left our first home And now everyone crowds in here, they have taken our cleared farmland They have taken the pasture where the herds grazed - where will the people be led ? The Gobroon who first arrived here are not these Gobroon When the giver of judgment Ibraahim Cumar Xaaji the pillar of the world was alive and Aw Gaduud Cali Is it not so ? - Aw Gaduud Cali Abukar, and Yusuf Maxamuud the pillar of the world While they were alive the law was not this law When the giver of decisions Aw Cumar Adeerow was in the world the law was not this law Now everyone crowds in, they have taken the cleared farmland, They have taken the pasture of the herds where will we move the herds?
You who burnt Ganaane and chased away the infidels Have you reached a decision about the stolen pastures?
—Abubakr Cali Goitow The law then was not this law[12]
^Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery - Page 67
^The Shaping of Somali Society Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900 Page 23
^ abDalby (1998:571) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFDalby1998 (help)
^ abSaeed, John (1999). Somali. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. p. 4. ISBN1-55619-224-X.
^ ab"Maay - A language of Somalia". Ethnologue. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
^Somali Dialects in the United States: How intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa? by Deqa Hassan (Minnesota State University - Mankato)
^Paster, Mary (2006). Aspects of Maay phonology and morphology. Pomona College.
^Luling, Virginia (1996). "'The Law Then Was Not This Law': Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival". African Languages and Cultures. Supplement. No. 3: 213–228.
^Luling, Virginia (1996). "'The Law Then Was Not This Law': Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival". African Languages and Cultures. Supplement. No. 3: 213–228.
^Luling, Virginia (1996). "'The Law Then Was Not This Law': Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival". African Languages and Cultures. Supplement. No. 3: 213–228.
^Luling, Virginia (1996). "'The Law Then Was Not This Law': Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival". African Languages and Cultures. Supplement. No. 3: 213–228.
External links
January 14, 2023
maay, maay, commonly, spelled, also, known, maay, maymay, simply, maay, spelling, rarely, used, most, often, spoken, dialect, somali, language, cushitic, branch, afro, asiatic, family, mainly, spoken, somalia, adjacent, parts, ethiopia, kenya, somalia, spoken,. Mai Mai commonly spelled Maay Maay also known as Af Maay Af Maymay or simply Maay the Mai Mai spelling is rarely used but it is most often spoken is a dialect of the Somali language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro Asiatic family 2 It is mainly spoken in Somalia and adjacent parts of Ethiopia and Kenya In Somalia it is spoken in South West state Jubaland state and Banadir It is one of the dialects of the Somali language 3 Mai MaiAf Mai MaiNative toSomalia significant communities in Ethiopia Kenya North America and Yemen Native speakers2 million 2019 1 Language familyAfro Asiatic CushiticLowland EastSomaliMai MaiWriting systemMaay alphabet Latin script Official statusOfficial language inSomaliaLanguage codesISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code ymm class extiw title iso639 3 ymm ymm a Glottologmaay1238 Contents 1 Overview 2 Grammar 2 1 Phonology 2 1 1 Consonants 2 1 2 Vowels 2 2 Words 2 3 Sentences 2 4 Poetry 3 References 4 External linksOverview EditSomali linguistic varieties are divided into three main groups Northern Benadir and Maay Northern Somali or Northern Central Somali forms the basis for Standard Somali 4 Maay is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle Rahanweyn clans in the southern regions of Somalia particularly in South West 4 Its speech area extends from the southwestern border with Ethiopia to a region close to the coastal strip between Mogadishu and Kismayo including the city of Baidoa 5 Maay is not mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali or Benadir and it differs considerably in sentence structure and phonology 6 It is also not generally used in education or media However Maay speakers often use Standard Somali as a lingua franca 5 It is learned via mass communications internal migration and urbanisation 6 Although past scholars have maintained the assumption that Maay is not mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali it was done so without it being tested for A more recent study by Deqa Hassan tested the mutual intelligibility between Af Maay and Af Maxaa speakers Northern Somali The study found that Af Maay is partially mutually intelligible to Af Maxaa Northern Speakers and that intelligibility increases with increased understanding of Standard Somali Which implies understanding of standard Somali Northern Somali increases the chance of understanding Af Maay This accounts for the most significant linguistic factor that ties both language variations together Therefore Af Maay is categorized as a Type 5 dialect for the overlapping common cultural history it shares with Af Maxaa speakers which explains its somewhat mutual intelligibility 7 Grammar EditPhonology Edit Consonants Edit Bilabial Labio dental Dental Alveolar Palato alveolar Palatal Velar GlottalStop voiceless p t k ʔvoiced b d ɡimplosive ɗ ʼj ɠAffricate dʒFricative b f d s ʃ ɣ hNasal m n ɲ ŋ Rhotic rLateral lApproximant w jA nasal consonant preceding a n sound will always be realized as a ŋ sound A ɣ sound is an intervocalic allophone of ɡ 8 Vowels Edit Front Central BackClose i iː u uːMid e eː o oːOpen a aː British ethnologist Virginia Luling who wrote extensively on Maay language and poetry Maay Maay exhibits significant amounts of epenthesis inserting central or high central vowels to break up consonant clusters Vowel length is contrastive minimal pairs such as bur flour and buur mountain are attested Words Edit Maay Maay is fairly agglutinative It has complex verb forms inflecting at least for tense aspect and person number of both subject and object There is also a prefix indicating negation In addition verbs exhibit derivational morphology including a causative and an applicative Nominal morphology includes a definiteness suffix whose form depends on the gender of the head noun and possessive suffixes Sentences Edit Maay Maay exhibits SVO and SOV word orders apparently in fairly free variation When the object is postverbal the prefix maay appears on the verb Within the noun phrase the head noun is generally initial Possessors adjectives and some strong quantifiers follow the head noun Numerals and the indefinite quantifier precede the head noun Poetry Edit Maay has retained a rich oral tradition and evocative poetry that differed from the more well known northern style In southern Somalia the poet and reciter would be one and the same British ethnologist Virginia Luling noted during her visit to Afgooye that poetry was to be conceived and recited simultaneously with no prior preparation The poets or Laashin relied on their wit and memory to construct beautiful poems and entertain the audience 9 Geledi Laashins during Luling s 1989 stay in Afgooye sang about the ever present issue of land theft by the Somali government The Sultan in these poems was asked to help the community and reminded of his legendary Gobroon forefathers of the centuries prior 10 The poem The law then was not this law was performed by the leading Laashins of Afgooye Hiraabey Muuse Cusmaan and Abukar Cali Goitow alongside a few others addressed to the current leader Sultan Subuge It evoked the memories of the mighty Geledi Sultanate of years prior and was a sharp contrast to their current situation 11 Here the richest selection of the poem Ganaane gubow gaala guuriow Gooble maahinoo Geelidle ma goynin Gembi iyo waran guraantiis aa loogu soo gayooday Gooble Gacalkiisa guri curad aa looga soo guuray Haddana nin walba aa Soo gamgamohaayo goofka beereed waa la goostay gelgeshii Gaashada daaqeysana waa la goostay gunta intee la geyn doonaa Gobroontii soo gaartay Gobroontaan ma ahayn gargooye Ibraahim Cumar Xaaji goodaalka adunyada markii joogeen Awow Gaduud Cali Mahinoo Awow Gaduud Cali Abukar Yusuf Maxamuud iyo goodaalka Addunka markii joogeen ganuunka ganuunkan ma ahayn Awow Gudgudoome Cumar Adeerow goodaalka aduunka markii joogeen Ganuunka ganuunkan ma ahayn Beereed waa la goostay gelgeshii Gaasha la la goostay gaasha intee loola guuraa Ganaane gubowow gaala guuriow aa Gelgeshii la goostay go aan maad ka gaart aa gaartay You who burnt Ganaane and chased away the infidels Did you not separate from the Geelidle and come to Gooble Afgooye We endured war and the point of the spear For the love of Gooble we left our first home And now everyone crowds in here they have taken our cleared farmland They have taken the pasture where the herds grazed where will the people be led The Gobroon who first arrived here are not these Gobroon When the giver of judgment Ibraahim Cumar Xaaji the pillar of the world was alive and Aw Gaduud Cali Is it not so Aw Gaduud Cali Abukar and Yusuf Maxamuud the pillar of the world While they were alive the law was not this law When the giver of decisions Aw Cumar Adeerow was in the world the law was not this law Now everyone crowds in they have taken the cleared farmland They have taken the pasture of the herds where will we move the herds You who burnt Ganaane and chased away the infidels Have you reached a decision about the stolen pastures Abubakr Cali Goitow The law then was not this law 12 References Edit Mai Mai at Ethnologue 25th ed 2022 Unraveling Somalia Race Class and the Legacy of Slavery Page 67 The Shaping of Somali Society Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People 1600 1900 Page 23 a b Dalby 1998 571 harvcoltxt error no target CITEREFDalby1998 help a b Saeed John 1999 Somali Amsterdam John Benjamins p 4 ISBN 1 55619 224 X a b Maay A language of Somalia Ethnologue Retrieved 7 May 2013 Somali Dialects in the United States How intelligible is Af Maay to Speakers of Af Maxaa by Deqa Hassan Minnesota State University Mankato Paster Mary 2006 Aspects of Maay phonology and morphology Pomona College Luling Virginia 1996 The Law Then Was Not This Law Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival African Languages and Cultures Supplement No 3 213 228 Luling Virginia 1996 The Law Then Was Not This Law Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival African Languages and Cultures Supplement No 3 213 228 Luling Virginia 1996 The Law Then Was Not This Law Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival African Languages and Cultures Supplement No 3 213 228 Luling Virginia 1996 The Law Then Was Not This Law Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival African Languages and Cultures Supplement No 3 213 228 External links EditCultural Orientation Resource Center Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Maay Maay amp oldid 1129607543, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
