THE NEW SOMALI LANGUAGE OF THE YOUNG GENERATION

First of all, they are distinctly known for ignoring the grammar rules, particularly in removing the long vowels in words, making their written expressions ineligible. They write garowe, galkacayo, bosaso, jeriban, ahmed, Ismacil, in small initial capital letters for proper names. Secondly, they are generally fond of passive voice sentences like “wa la dhameyey, cano ku weyday, calosha ku caxanuntay, xogba lo shegtay. One would wonder whether these are Somali words. This is happening, I guess, for two reasons:

1. It is the use of the smartphones for short-hand communication.
2. It is the result of poor education in Somali schools or even lack of schooling.

When I returned to Puntland from a life of diaspora, I had decided to acquire a new Puntland driving license, although not necessarily required here or strictly enforced to have one, to be on the road driving, a dangerous situation. I went to the Ministry of Public Works in Garowe, to get a replacement of my foreign driving license. Guessing that I was a new face in town, they decided to exort some extra money for “lunch” from me beyond the required fee, thus demanding to conduct a driving test. Surprisingly, one of the questions they asked me in Somali was: ” No sheg shanta walalaha e gariga” (tell us the five brothers of the car). How would you answer such a question?

I heard some noises coming from the steering wheel of my vehicle the other day. I drove to a repair autoshop nearby to sort out the noise issue. The repairman, a man in his late thirties checked it out. He reported to me in Somali, “ciladu garigu wa bada” (your car has sea problem). I never understood an iota of what he was saying. When I asked him to explain what he meant, he had made it even more confusing. I gave up understanding him. Would he be able to fix the problem? Yes, he could and he did it.

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