I think the answer to this question is no. While researching the Internet for my books the range of spellings I’ve come across of different words is incredible. Even the language on the BBC Somali news website is not consistent but depends on who is writing the article.
The Somali language varies in vocabulary and pronunciation from region to region just like most languages. It is a phonetic language and is written as it sounds hence the variation. There are so many words I have come across that I’ve never heard before. It is a truly amazing language. Somalis have a rich oral history which needs to be preserved for future generations. Great as it is to have a written language – introduced over 40 years ago – the biggest problem is the lack of a standard language that unifies the regions. Take English for instance. There are regional differences in the United Kingdom at a local level varying from region to region but there is a standard English that goes across all regions with standard spellings.
I wonder how Somali is taught in the Somali/Somaliland schools today? During its introduction in the seventies there was a push on everyone learning Somali from city dwellers to those out in the ‘miyi’ or countryside. These days texting has some part to play in the deterioration of the language when you see texts like ‘sethy’ instead of ‘sidee baad tahay’. The young are not being exposed to correct Somali as much as they used to. Is it a generation thing? Somali language seems to be a free for all where everyone spells words as they pronounce them and rules are not always followed e.g. doubling of consonants. For example I have seen toddoba (seven) spelt with a single ‘d’ when the rule is it should be doubled as it the ‘d’ sound is strong. Su’aal (question) is commonly spelt suaal when it should have the hamza (‘) added or glottal stop. Google translate although improved over the years is still very inaccurate, dictionaries differ and there isn’t much on the Internet. The amount of Somali content is increasing but the difficulty we have is getting reference material that is accurate and reading material in which spellings are consistent.