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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Corpora colleague, are there any corpora
in Somali? Are there any poetry available in Somali? May I ask you to be so kind
as to tell me the rules of reading of the Somali language? Somali is spoken in
Somali in Africa. I guess that in Somali two vowels like "aa" or "oo" mean
long vowels, e.g. as in "Laanta Soomaaliga". Thus, "Soomaaliga" is read with a
long "o" like in the English word "sort" or "born". Is that true? I guess that
"x" in "Xirir" is read as "h" in the English word "head" but with more
fricative sound? How is "h" is read in "Warsidaha"? Is that true that
it sound more like English "h"? What other letter combinations are there in
Somali? How is "kh" in "Taarikhda" read? Is it one sound or two sound? how is
"W" read in "Warsidaha" ? How is "ng" read in "Ingiriisika"? How is "g" read in
"Nagala"? Is it fricative like in Greek or occlusive like in English? I
think that Somali is a Semitic or Hamitic language. Does it belong to the
Semito-Hamitic language family which is now called Afroasiatic? In this case its
sound should be similar to the Hebrew or Arabic? For example "X"? In 1964 I met
a man from Somali who studied agriculture in Krasnodar Agricultural university.
I learnt some words in Somali from him. At that time "X" in Somali sounded to me
like "X" in Russian or Hebrew to me. I wonder if it is correct. Looking
forward to hearing from you to my e-mail address <A
href="mailto:yutamb@hotmail.com">yutamb@hotmail.com</A> Yours sincerely Yuri
Tambovtsev</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>