Reforming the Somali language

[dawwa9]

Actually Mawjad is Wave,

What is Micro in Somali? and when we put the two words together will it make any sense or it will be like;

Caano fadhi = Sitting milk

There are several ways to translate micro

maykara as in maykarafoon
yar as in small
or qurub

lets go for

Maykaramawjad first Somali word made up by somalinet people

[kambuli]

A Somalised English word is what we are trying to avoid...

Maykara is Somalised Micro..Like Koonaha = Corner...

[dawwa9]

Micro is originally an Ancient Greek ( and they probably stole it from the Egytpians ) word copied by thousands of languages, not something you could easily translate into pure Somali as our not so inquisitive ancestors never thought of a word smaller than small

micro-
comb. form of Gk. mikros "small" (see mica).
http://www.etymonline.com/

[kambuli]

OK...Then in that case the name will be either Maykaramowjad...Or
Maykarahir...

OO tolow Mowhaddu miyanay ahayn Carabi?

[dawwa9]

OK...Then in that case the name will be either Maykaramowjad...Or
Maykarahir...

Maykaramawjad according to the Ogiisvoord Somali Diktionary

[James Dahl]

Well technically when they say "microwave" they don't necessarily mean small waves of energy but rather a very compressed and high energy beam of radio waves, which is a form of light that is outside the spectrum your eye can see.

A better translation would probably be light-beam or light-ray rather than small-wave. The micro or small they are referring to is the width of the radio waves that are beamed at the food.

You could use the same principle to come up with native Somali versions of all the forms of electromagnetic radiation

Gamma rays = shortest-light-ray/beam
X-rays = shorter-light-ray/beam
ultraviolet = short-light-ray/beam
Visible light = light-ray/beam
infrared = long-light-ray/beam
high frequency radio waves (including microwaves) = longer-light-ray/beam
radio waves = longest-light-ray/beam

[dawwa9]

That is way too technical for the average layman

[James Dahl]

dhalaalugudheere = radio waves
dhalaalkadheere = microwaves
dhalaaldheere = infrared
dhalaalgaab = ultraviolet
dhalaalkagaab = X-rays
dhalaalugugaab = Gamma rays

[dawwa9]

That just sounds stupid

English also just copied these technical words from Latin/Greek/Ancient Egyptian etc

Other than rays and waves theres no point in translating (perhaps phonetically only)

[James Dahl]

That just sounds stupid

English also just copied these technical words from Latin/Greek/Ancient Egyptian etc

Arabic as well:

algebra = al-jabr
sash = shash
alcohol = al-kuḥl
cheque = ṣakk
cotton = al-qutn

[dawwa9]

* admiral
* adobe
* alchemy – via Greek
* alcohol – the quintessence of earthly substances, originally from alchemy
* alcove
* algebra – restoration of missing parts, later used in a 9th century mathematical book written by a Persian scientist whose name gave us algorithm
* almanac
* amber
* apricot
* arsenal – factory
* assassin – hashish user
* artichoke
* aubergine
* burnoose – via Latin
* caliber
* carat – via Greek
* checkmate
* coffee – possibly from the name Kefa, where the coffee plant originates
* cotton
* divan
* elixir – medicinal potion, via Greek
* gauze – from the Persian for raw silk
* gazelle
* genie
* giraffe
* harem
* hashish
* henna
* jasmine – from Arabic via French
* kohl
* lilac, from Persian for indigo
* lime
* loofah
* lute
* magazine – storehouse
* mocha – named after a city in Yemen
* monsoon
* mummy – via Persian
* muslin
* nadir
* orange
* safari – from Arabic via Swahili
* saffron
* sequin
* sugar
* tamarind
* tariff
* typhoon
* zenith
* zero


The English are pure copycats, nearly 75% of their language is foreign, no wonder their language is the current lingua franca

Underlined words are loanwords, just to give you an idea how much is borrowed

[Ganjaweed]

Why don't we just borrow arabic words for them? It saves all the hassle of inventing words, and no oother language goes better with somali than arabic. Heck, half the words I originally thought were somali turned out to be arabic, and I never would have known if I didn't start learning the language. Another alternative would be looking into borrowing Oromo or Afar words, I bet they both have a far bigger vocabulary than arabic. Like Hindi borrowed from sanskrit, japanese borrowed from chinese etc.

[James Dahl]

Why don't we just borrow arabic words for them? It saves all the hassle of inventing words, and no oother language goes better with somali than arabic. Heck, half the words I originally thought were somali turned out to be arabic, and I never would have known if I didn't start learning the language. Another alternative would be looking into borrowing Oromo or Afar words, I bet they both have a far bigger vocabulary than arabic. Like Hindi borrowed from sanskrit, japanese borrowed from chinese etc.

Everybody borrows from everybody, that's the great thing about language.
Language is constantly evolving and changing.