# Somali dialects: Northern, Benadir, Ashraf, Maay and Digil > The Somali dialect groups explained: Northern, Benadir, Ashraf, Maay and Digil, where each is spoken, how they differ, and who studied them. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/somali-dialects/ Last checked: 2026-11-13 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## The five dialect groups The Norwegian country-information centre Landinfo summarised the research on Somali dialects in a 2011 report for its immigration service ([Landinfo 2011](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). It follows the Italian linguist Marcello Lamberti, whose book Die Somali-Dialekte (1986) is described by the SOAS linguist Martin Orwin as the most relevant publication on the subject ([Landinfo 2011, p. 4](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Lamberti sorts Somali into five groups that form a chain, with fluid transitions between neighbours ([Landinfo 2011, p. 6](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)): - **[Northern Somali](/en/society/northern-somali/)**: the northwest, the northeast, the Somali Region of Ethiopia, northern Kenya and the Lower [Juba](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/). - **[Benadir](/en/society/benadiri-somali/)**: the coast and hinterland from Hobyo to south of Marka, including Mogadishu. - **[Ashraf](/en/society/ashraf-somali/)**: spoken by the [Ashraf](/en/society/asharaaf/) of Shingaani in Mogadishu and of the Marka district. - **[Maay](/en/society/maay-language/)**: the inter-river lands of Bay, [Bakool](/en/regions/bakool/), [Gedo](/en/regions/gedo/), Middle Juba and [Lower Shabelle](/en/infrastructure/k50-airstrip/). - **[Digil](/en/society/digil-languages/)**: [Tunni](/en/society/tunni/), [Dabarre](/en/society/dabarre/), [Garre](/en/society/garre-language/) and [Jiiddu](/en/society/jiiddu/). ## Earlier ways of grouping them The first scientific grouping was made by Enrico Cerulli in 1919. He named four groups after the clan families whose speech he recorded: Isaaq (with Ciise and Gadabuursi), [Daarood](/en/society/darod/), Hawiye and Sab ([Landinfo 2011, p. 5](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Martino Moreno moved the Hawiye into a Benadir group and the Sab into a [Digil](/en/society/digil/) group. B. W. Andrzejewski and John Saeed used three groups: Common Somali, Coastal or Benadir, and Central Somali ([Landinfo 2011, p. 5](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Somali speakers often use a simpler two-way split. **Maxaa-tiri** ("what did you say?") covers Northern and Benadir speech. **Maay-tiri**, also called Maxaa-rabtaa or Maxaa-jira, covers the Maay and Digil varieties ([Landinfo 2011, p. 5](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). The 2012 Provisional Constitution names "Maay and Maxaa-tiri" together as the Somali language ([Constitute Project, Somalia 2012, Article 5](https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Somalia_2012)). ## How the groups differ Lamberti found clear sound differences between the two halves. All Maxaa-tiri dialects have the throat sounds written c and x; the Maay dialects lack them but have a sound like the "gy" in Hungarian ([Landinfo 2011, p. 5](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Grammar differs too: in Maxaa-tiri a sentence without a definite article is wrong, while Maay speakers can leave the article out ([Landinfo 2011, p. 5](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Lamberti counted 67 dialect features. Benadir shares 40 of them with Northern Somali; Ashraf shares 14 with Northern Somali and 14 more with Benadir only; Maay shares few with Northern Somali and many more with Benadir and Ashraf ([Landinfo 2011, p. 16](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Some linguists treat Maay and the Digil varieties as separate languages. Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi wrote that these varieties "constitute separate Cushitic languages" ([Culture and Customs of Somalia, 2001](https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00diri)). 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)). Mauro Tosco wrote that all are "dialects" in social terms, but that no classification so far has tested mutual understanding ([Ashraf Somali, Wikipedia, quoting Tosco 2012](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashraf_Somali)). ## Lamberti's 1981 survey Lamberti did his fieldwork in 1981 in Mogadishu, [Baardheere](/en/regions/baardheere/), Luuq, Saakow, [Jilib](/en/regions/middle-juba/), Bu'aale, Marka, [Qoryooley](/en/regions/qoryooley/), Qansax Dheere, Baydhabo, Diinsoor, Bur Hakaba, [Jamaame](/en/regions/jamaame/), Kismaayo and Cadale. He studied 52 dialect variants, using about 600 words and 500 standard phrases with 78 speakers ([Landinfo 2011, p. 4](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). Orwin told Landinfo that no systematic field study of the dialects had been carried out since the 1980s ([Landinfo 2011, p. 4](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). ## What changed the map Lamberti named three forces. Nomadic movement spread dialects and made the north, where herding is strongest, more uniform than the settled south. Clan ties kept dialects distinct even when clans lived side by side. Migration moved speech south: Daarood groups from the north settled in Lower Juba and Kenya in the 1800s and 1900s, and about 300,000 nomads were resettled along the lower Shabelle and in Dujuuma after the 1973 to 1974 drought ([Landinfo 2011, p. 7](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). After 1972, school books and radio used a standard based mainly on [Mudug](/en/regions/mudug/) and Ogaden Daarood speech ([Landinfo 2011, p. 8](http://www.landinfo.no/asset/1800/1/1800_1.pdf)). ## Read more - [The Somali language](/en/society/the-somali-language/) - [Somali grammars and dictionaries](/en/society/somali-grammars-and-dictionaries/) - [Somali writing systems](/en/society/somali-writing-systems/) --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. 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