If you ask Somali speakers this question you will get a variety of answers. Some will give a name adopted from another language e.g. ‘barbal’ from English. Others will give names associated with other colours e.g, guduud (red) or buluug (blue). Some might give one of two words used for purple I recently came across, carwaajis or soosani and others might say that they don’t know.
A basic colour term (BCT) is one that is agreed upon and frequently used by speakers of that language. According to The World Colour Survey (Berlin & Kay, 1969) world wide languages have around 2-11 BCTs. Technically advanced countries have more BCTs than those that are not so advanced. English has 11 BCTs (black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple, and grey), Somali has 4 BCTs (black, white, red and green) and Jalé (a New Guinea language) has only 2 BCTs (black and white).
Somali only started to be written in Roman script in 1972. There was a push on literacy in the Somali language by the government of that time for everyone, young or old. The language steadily developed for about 19 years until the civil war. Somali words were invented for a range of topics and subjects. Dictionaries were produced for the sciences, maths and other subjects and school books were written in Somali. Since the civil war there has been a decline in the use of Somali as a national language. English appears to be the language of choice in education with Somalis who can afford it increasingly sending their children to private schools and universities. There is also a large diaspora since the civil war with Somalis moving to countries all over the globe and children growing up with Somali as a second language.
Lexicon used for colours may originate from items in the cultural or natural environment (Levinson, 2000). Somalis have names for the colour of animals, plants and items in the environment which then translate into a colour e.g. doog which means grass has come to be used for the colour green. In the old days naming children usually there was a reason behind the name chosen . Sometimes the name would be associated with a colour e.g. Ashkir, Cawlo, Dhuxul, Kaaha, Guduudo.
A comparison of language in Somali dictionaries that have been written over 100 years ago with more recent ones provides us with clues as to how Somali naming of colours has changed since the turn of the 20th century. Evangeliste De Larajasse’s dictionary from 1897 mentions few colours (Table 1). There are also references to some animal colours e.g. ashkar (red horse), caynab (whitish grey horse).
| Owlaleed,doog,magool – green | Guduud – scarlet |
| Cawlaan – brownish red | Cirro – grey |
| Casaan – red | Madow – black |
| Madow caddaan – blue | Caddaan – white |
The 2012 dictionary by Puglielli & Mansuur on the other hand contains a variety of colours (Tables 2 and 3).
| Oranjaato – orange | Boor – grey colour | Dambas – grey |
| Caddaan– white | Cadaan buluug – pale blue | Bey – grey |
| Madow – black | Cadaansadaf – white colour with a shine | Dhiin – deep red |
| Buluug – blue | Cagaar khafiif ah – light green | Kaaki – close to casuur, soldiers uniform colour |
| Cagaar -green | Doog – green | Majeen – close to guduud boor xigeen |
| Bunni – brown | Calas – reddish colour | Maar – reddish brown (money) |
| Casuur – leaf colour | Cardiif– whitish colour | Maariin – brown |
| Bayl – brilliant white | Carwaajis – light red colour (purple) | Qaaje – white colour (horse) |
| Hurdi – yellow | Casaanboor – red with black and white mixed | Xareedi – light red |
| Cawl – reddish colour (gazelle colour) | Casuus – red mixed with white (pale red – pink?) | |
| Bood – white colour mixed with cawl | Dahabi – gold |
| Ashkir – red and white (horse) | Boos – white colour (horses) |
| Caynab – black colour (horses) | Gaaf – blackish colour (camels) |
| Bacad -white mixed with another colour (camels) | Camaajiir – red/black or white/black colour (goats and cows) |
| Bullo – dambar colour (horses) | Fiil – white colour (horses and camels) |
| Daruur – white spots on some animals | Bey – white colour mixed with a little black (horses, cows and goats) |
| Dayrcad – white colour (camels) | Bey cad – whitish colour (horses, cows and goats) |
| Dhiinmedeg – red colour with black in it (cows) | Bey cas/Bey guduud – bey with a little red (horses, cows and goats) |
| Baroor – whitish colour (horses) | Beymmadow – bey with more black (horses, cows and goats) |
The other issue with Somali language is that there is regional variation so someone in one region may know red as guduud but in another it would be casaan. Basali, originating from basal(onion), would mean pink to one person but purple to another. Yellow translates as hurdi, huruud or jaalle depending on the region and green could be cagaar, doogo or akhtar.
Somali speakers frequently adopt words borrowed from English, French, Italian, Arabic etc., as and when required, not just for colours but for other things as use of technology and social media in Somalia/Somaliland increases. Languages constantly change and develop. New words are coined and words are borrowed from other languages. Both of these are true for Somali language. As Somalis catch up with the technological age and with the help of the Internet have access to more knowledge, words are invented and added to the language. Somalis are ubiquitous and live in many different countries around the world. Words that are not found in Somali are frequently borrowed from the languages spoken around them. However, these words are used locally and not generally across the diaspora. As Somalis return to the mother land they no doubt bring some of that language back with them.
Maffi (1990) published a paper on Somali colour terms. She concluded that the Somali language had terms for six colours (white, black, red, green, yellow, and blue), with two words for yellow and regional variation in the term for red. She concluded that white, black, and red were basic and had been in the Somali language for a long time, whereas terms for other colours were added more recently. A study in Canada by Brown et al (2012) on a group of 32 Somali speakers found that there were within language differences and people’s perception of colour differed. The Somali-speaking informants were asked to name colour samples. It was found that colours thought to be basic were actually diverse. Cagaar was used for green, light green, or green-or-blue; buluug meant blue, green, purple, or gray.
In a subsequent study was carried out on 41 Somali speakers (Brown et al (2016). Several of the informants commented that classic Somali had terms only for black, white, and red. Eight terms for yellow were recorded in this study. Cawl is a species of gazelle in De Larajasse’s dictionary (1987) but in a more recent one Puglielli & Mansuur (2012) it means yellow. Dambar is colostrum that mammals feed their young and ubax is a flower from a fruit tree. Huruud is turmeric and sacfarraan is saffron. Dahabi is from dahab which means gold in Somali/Arabic and jaalle and yalow are loan words from Italian and English respectively.
The main words used for green were; cagaar, doog, naq and akhtar. Doog appears in De Larajasse (1897) as a word for green grass. Akhtar is a loan word from Arabic. All four words appear in the Puglielli & Mansuur (2012) dictionary. All participants used madow to name the black sample, but two informants also used madow to name some of the blue samples, including some light blue samples, and one informant called the black sample dhuxuli (charcoal in English). Everyone used guduud to name red samples, but guduud was also applied to a set of reddish, purplish, or brownish samples. There was little agreement with blue and green colours. Most informants used cagaar, which is a native Somali term generally translated into English as green. Buluug, which is a loanword from English (from ‘bluing’ clothes) is now generally translated as blue. However, the actual usage of cagaar and buluug varied with an overlapping between the terms.
Nearly all informants named black, white, and red. Madow, caddaan, and casaan were identified as basic colour terms by researchers. Most informants named yellow, green, blue, brown, and grey which means these colour meanings are being used and understood in the same way by most people. Somali terms for black (madow) and white (cad, caddaan, and cadays) are quite old. They are basic colour terms, and they are listed as colour terms in De Larajasse and more modern dictionaries. There has always been a term for red, although the older sources list red as cas or casaan, in the Brown et al (2016) study all informants used guduud. These results all suggest that the Somali language had a smaller colour lexicon as recently as 117 years ago. It has expanded over the years but there is a great deal of variation in terms and meanings. Older terms like black, white and red are almost 100% agreed on. Yellow, green, blue, brown, and grey are almost all agreed on by Somali speakers. The rest of the colours are a work in progress in a language that is constantly changing and developing as people from the Somali diaspora return to their homeland, bringing with them new terms. How do you say purple in Somali? I would be interested to know so do get in touch if you know any words that haven’t been mentioned!
References:
- Berlin B., Kay P. (1969). Basic color terms: Their universality and evolution. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- Brown et al, (2016). The color lexicon of the Somali Language, https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2505116#119228361 (accessed 11-5-2023)
- De Larajasse, E. (1897). Somali-English and English-Somali dictionary. London, United Kingdom: Trubner.
- Levinson S. C. (2000). Yélî Dnye and the theory of basic color terms. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10, 3–55.
- Lindsey, D., Brown A. Somali color vision and naming. https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2140751
(accessed 11-5-2023) - Maffi, L. (1990). Somali color term evolution: Grammatical and semantic evidence. Anthropological Linguistics, 32, 316–334.
- Puglielli, A., Mansuur, C., (2012). Qaamuuska Af-Soomaaliga (The Somali Dictionary), (Università degli Studi Roma Tre: Roma Tre Press)