# Af-Maay (Maay Maay): the language of the inter-river lands

> Af-Maay explained: where it is spoken, its five dialects, how it differs from Maxaa-tiri, its legal status, and its oral poetry.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/maay-language/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Where it is spoken

Maay is spoken mainly by the [Digil](/en/society/digil/) and [Mirifle](/en/society/mirifle/), together called the [Rahanweyn](/en/society/rahanweyn/), in southern Somalia. Its area runs from the Ethiopian border in the southwest to near the coast between Mogadishu and Kismaayo, and includes Baydhabo ([Maay Maay, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maay_Maay)). Glottolog lists it as a language of the Somali branch of East Cushitic ([Glottolog, Maay](https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/maay1238)).

The Italian linguist Marcello Lamberti, who surveyed southern Somali speech in 1981, places Maay in the whole of Bay, [Bakool](/en/regions/bakool/), [Gedo](/en/regions/gedo/), Middle [Juba](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/) and [Lower Shabelle](/en/infrastructure/k50-airstrip/), southwest [Hiiraan](/en/regions/hiiraan/), the Jowhar district and eastern Lower Juba ([Landinfo 2011, p. 13](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). In Gedo it shares the land with [Ogaadeen](/en/society/ogaadeen/), Degodiya and [Mareexaan](/en/society/mareexaan/) dialects. Lamberti also found that Maay is not only spoken by Rahanweyn: in [Jilib](/en/regions/middle-juba/), for example, the Jareer (Oojji) used the local Maay dialect.

## Five dialects

Lamberti found the Maay dialects fairly uniform, with small, gradual differences, and named five ([Landinfo 2011, p. 14](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)):

1. **Northern Maay**, in northern Gedo and Bakool, with some Northern Somali influence.
2. **Western Maay**, in [Baardheere](/en/regions/baardheere/) and Diinsoor.
3. **Eastern Maay**, made up of Af-Eelay and Af-[Begedi](/en/society/begedi/).
4. **The Maay of [Qoryooley](/en/regions/qoryooley/) to Jilib**.
5. **Southern or Lower Juba Maay**, in [Jamaame](/en/regions/jamaame/) and [Afmadow](/en/regions/lower-juba/).

## How it differs from Maxaa-tiri

Lamberti lists these Maay features ([Landinfo 2011, p. 14](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)):

- no throat sounds **c** and **x**;
- a central vowel, like the "e" in English "the", that Somali spelling has no letter for;
- sounds that merge: "you went" is batti in Maay, against baxday in Northern Somali; "we went" is banni;
- plurals that are grammatically masculine;
- many possessives built with **haan-**, as in haankey ("my").

Vowel length changes meaning, as in bur ("flour") and buur ("mountain"), and both subject-verb-object and subject-object-verb word orders are used ([Maay Maay, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maay_Maay)). I. M. Lewis compared the gap between Maay and Northern Somali to that between Spanish and Portuguese ([Saints and Somalis, 1998, p. 74](https://books.google.com/books?id=P5AZyEhMtbkC)). Martin Orwin of SOAS told Landinfo that most people in Maay areas also understand Maxaa-tiri, and that in [Afgooye](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/), close to Mogadishu, most speak both fully ([Landinfo 2011, p. 14](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)).

## Legal status

Article 5 of the 2012 Provisional Constitution reads that the official language of the Somali Republic is "Somali (Maay and Maxaa-tiri)", with Arabic as the second language ([Constitute Project, Somalia 2012](https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Somalia_2012)). Maay is not generally used in schools or the media, and Maay speakers often use Standard Somali, learnt through radio, migration and town life, as a common language ([Maay Maay, Wikipedia, citing Ethnologue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maay_Maay)).

## Maay poetry

Maay has its own oral poetry. The anthropologist Virginia Luling recorded extempore verse at a festival in Afgooye in 1989. There the poet and the reciter, called **laashin**, were the same person, making the poem as they sang ([Luling 1996, "The Law Then Was Not This Law"](https://www.jstor.org/stable/586663)). The laashins Hiraabey, Muuse Cusmaan and Abukar Cali Goitow addressed Suldaan Subuge of the [Geledi](/en/history/geledi-sultanate/), recalling his Gobroon forebears.

## Read more

- [Somali dialects](/en/society/somali-dialects/)
- [Digil languages](/en/society/digil-languages/)
- [Bay region](/en/regions/bay/)

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