World Language Map

Languages spoken in Somalia

14 living languages are mapped in Somalia. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Somali (78% of the population). They belong to 2 language families, the largest being Afro-Asiatic (12 languages).

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Somalia at a glance

  • 14living languages
  • 2language families
  • 13 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 4with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Somalia. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Somalia

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
SomaliAfro-Asiatic78%10,153,494Not endangered
Standard ArabicAfro-Asiatic34%4,425,882Not endangered
SwahiliAtlantic-Congo2%260,346Not endangered
West Central OromoAfro-Asiatic0.4%54,673Not endangered
AweerAfro-AsiaticShifting
BoonAfro-AsiaticMoribund
Borana-Arsi-Guji OromoAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
ChimwiiniAtlantic-CongoShifting
DabarreAfro-AsiaticThreatened
GarreAfro-AsiaticThreatened
JiidduAfro-AsiaticThreatened
MaayAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
OrmaAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
TunniAfro-AsiaticThreatened

Read more: where is Somali spoken?

Language families in Somalia

About these numbers

The list of languages in Somalia comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Somalia

How many languages are spoken in Somalia?

14 living languages are mapped in Somalia, from 2 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Somalia?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Somali is spoken by 78% of the population, about 10,153,494 people, followed by Standard Arabic (34%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Somalia?

Afro-Asiatic (12 languages) and Atlantic-Congo (2 languages).

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.