Somali Language - Number of Speakers

Number of Speakers

The exact number of speakers of Somali is unknown. One source estimates that there are 7.78 million speakers of Somali in Somalia itself and 12.65 million speakers globally. Combined with a large international expatriate community, it is difficult to get a specific number of Somali speakers, but somewhere between 16 and 20 million worldwide seems a reasonable estimate. According to Gordon (2005), approximately 13 million people speak Somali, but upwards of 25 million individuals are commonly estimated to speak the language.

Read more about this topic:  Somali Language

Famous quotes containing the words number of, number and/or speakers:

    In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge.
    Victor Hugo (1802–1885)

    Cole’s Hill was the scene of the secret night burials of those who died during the first year of the settlement. Corn was planted over their graves so that the Indians should not know how many of their number had perished.
    —For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    What’s this, Aurora Leigh,
    You write so of the poets and not laugh?
    Those virtuous liars, dreamers after dark,
    Exaggerators of the sun and moon,
    And soothsayers in a tea-cup? I write so
    Of the only truth-tellers, now left to God,—
    The only speakers of essential truth,
    Opposed to relative, comparative,
    And temporal truths;...
    The only teachers who instruct mankind,
    From just a shadow on a charnel-wall.
    Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)