Colloquial Somali (Colloquial Series) [Paperback]

Martin Orwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0415100097 | ISBN-13: 978-0415100090 | Edition: 1

Colloquial Somali Is specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Somali. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
What makes ColloquialSomali your best choice in personal language learning?
* interactive - lots of exercises for regular practice
* clear - concise grammar notes
* practical - useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide
* complete - including answer key and special reference section.

Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on CD/MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquial pack. Recorded by native speakers, these will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

 

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 306 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (June 30, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415100097
• ISBN-13: 978-0415100090
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > African > Instruction

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small. But good, considerings its size., August 21, 2000

By 

Lee V. Douglas (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colloquial Somali (Colloquial Series) (Audio Cassette)

To paraphrase the publisher's commentary, what makes this the student's best choice for Somali is that it is almost the only choice. It is not a bad book, but to call it a "complete" language course is a stretch.

It is, however, a good introduction for the rank beginner, such as myself. It emphasizes the aspects of pronunciation that are difficult for English-speakers, such as tone differences that signal grammatical change. It shows methodically how words and sentences are constructed and it presents dialogues for speaking. Having mastered this course, the student may want further study, perhaps by searching the offerings of American universities that have programs in African area or language studies.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, May 21, 2009

By 

perekladach (Carbondale, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colloquial Somali (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

Somali is a language with many features that will seem exotic to most English speaking learners. Accents are based on pitch (rather than stress) and the placement of the pitch accent often determines the gender of the noun. In addition, nouns can flip genders when they are put into the plural. We're definitely not in Kansas any more.

That being said, this is an extremely user-friendly approach to a formidably difficult language. The explanations of the most unfamiliar grammar are very clear and easy to follow. The exercises, which in the beginning lessons are not too difficult, get more challenging as the course goes on, but always remain close to the material already presented.The dialogues start out pretty formlaically- there's a lot of "How are you?" "Come in!" "How's the family?", but they gradually get more interesting, as they follow an English teacher's journey to the Horn of Africa, where he eventually takes up his duties in a Somali town. Do get the CDs, though- a student who knows Arabic would probably find the sounds of Somali pretty familiar, but the stress-tone patterns are likely to be very different and unfamiliar and without a lot of practice it would be difficult to reproduce them acceptably. The author is, incidentally, a scholar of Somali poetry; his website is also worth checking out.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, but get 2007 edition, November 12, 2008

By 

Alain MARIE "Grumpy Bear" (Malaysia, Taiwan, etc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colloquial Somali (Colloquial Series) (Paperback)

Great book to start with in Somali, which is a complex language.
There is a new edition (2007), get that one instead of the 1995 edition. In 2007, it has been packaged with CDs instead of tapes.
if you want to go on in Somali or learn in parallel with a more detailed book, get those great Somali books from Dunwoody Press.