Somali Consonant Sounds

Level 1

c is voiced pharyngeal; x is voiceless pharyngeal; q is a uvular stop; dh is a retroflex consonant.

How It Works

For c and x, the tongue root retracts to narrow the pharyngeal passage. c is voiced; x produces voiceless friction and differs from ordinary h. q closes the passage farther back than k. Voiced realizations are more common between vowels, and voiceless realizations initially and finally. dh is d-like, with the tongue tip contacting a point farther back above the alveolar ridge.

Northwestern postvocalic dh often corresponds to r elsewhere. Both pronunciation and spelling patterns have standard status. Initial dh and dh following another consonant occur across regions. Intense dh pronunciation is never written by doubling the digraph.

These cards are ordinary noun-phrase fragments, not phonetic transcriptions. The final pair illustrates regional alternatives with the same meaning; neither is corrected to the other.

Examples (4)

  1. cunto fiican

    good food

    Reading fragment illustrating c.

  2. qalin cusub

    a new pen

    Reading fragment illustrating q.

  3. xaraf weyn oo cad

    a large white letter

    Reading fragment illustrating x; oo connects the additional adjective.

  4. gabadh wanaagsan / gabar wanaagsan

    a good girl

    Reading fragments with accepted regional dh/r alternatives.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Somali Consonant SoundsLevel 1

Learn This First

Recognize the alphabet before learning the special consonant values and the digraph dh.