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THREAD: How true is it that Somalis share one language, culture and/or ethnicity background?
1/1: The anecdote which says “Somalis share one language, one culture, one ethnicity and one religion” is bogus for the most part.
1/1: The anecdote which says “Somalis share one language, one culture, one ethnicity and one religion” is bogus for the most part.
2/2: Apart from the religion part, the rest of it is either totally fake or highly doubtable. This anecdote was engineered by the extreme nationalists who often fancy placing everything (even though they might vary) in one box.
3/3: Let me shed some light on the “Shared language” aspect. For example, an extreme nationalist believes (or makes you believe) that the Maay language is an accent which branches from the Maxaad-tiri aka Somali language; and that is utterly untrue.
4/4: Let’s say an Arabian with an egyptian accent meets up with another Arabian from the gulf. Each one of them has his own Arabic accent, but they’ll surely understand each other for the most part.
5/5: Put two Somalis, one who knows nothing but Maay and one who knows nothing but Maxaad-tiri in that very same spot, will they understand each other “for the most part”?! No, they won’t. In fact, they’ll hardly communicate with each other for one full minute.
6/6: This venomous notion eliminates the diversity in our society, and prevents some parts of the society the liberty to use their own language(s). There are about five or more languages that exist in the Somali peninsula;
7/7: and yes, each one of them is a LANGUAGE with it’s own grammatical set up, and it’s speaker can only fully and successfully communicate with another fellow speaker. Maxaad-tiri, Maay, Chimwini and a couple more languages are spoken in the country.
8/8: The one ethnicity anecdote too is highly doubtable. Some Somalis claim that they’re form Arabia, some are touted to be from west Africa, some originate from Europe whilst some are said to be from Ethiopia.
9/9: Now if true, that seems like very different ethnicities residing in the same country but luckily share one religion.
10/10: If wisely utilized, diversity in terms of language, ethnicity or culture can be very useful and might create a peaceful, civic and respect-filled ambience. We should embrace our diversity and background differences, not smother them.
