October is Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month, providing a unique opportunity to recognize and celebrate the wonderful aspects of bilingualism and multiculturalism. We are offering fun activities, handouts and more to celebrate this special month!
Continue reading October is Celebrating the Bilingual Child Month!
Language Lizard is excited to announce its newest offering, Squirrel Monkey, a thoughtful tale about acceptance and the power of mindfulness.
Continue reading Bilingual Book Supports Mindfulness And Stress Reduction
Check out our new bilingual offering for older language learners, perfect for the new school year!
Continue reading Bilingual Book Sets for Older Language Learners
Language Lizard is excited to announce its newest book, Amazing Sports from Around the World, which explores unusual and fascinating sports from diverse cultures and locations, you guessed it, from around the world!
Continue reading New Multicultural Book Celebrates Amazing Sports from Around the World!
Language Lizard is excited to announce that our Living in Harmony books are now available in Ukrainian. We are raising funds for refugees with book set purchases of this series in any language!
Today we feature the Tagalog language! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about the language. We also have information on our newest children’s books available in Tagalog. Continue reading Tagalog Language: Interesting Facts & Resources
Today the spotlight is on Tirgrinya! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about the language. You can also check out our newest children’s books available in Tigrinya. Continue reading Tigrinya Language: Interesting Facts & Resources
Today’s spotlight language is on Dari and Pashto! We’ve gathered background information and interesting facts about these two languages. You can also find information on our newest bilingual Dari and Pashto children’s books.
Continue reading Dari and Pashto: Afghan Languages Fun Facts & Books
Language Lizard is proud to announce our new bilingual book,
Happy After All, which supports social and emotional learning in diverse classrooms! Continue reading Social & Emotional Learning for Diverse Classrooms: “Happy After All”
Today’s spotlight language is Somali! We offer some background information and interesting facts about the language, as well as help finding children’s books in Somali. Interested in learning about other languages as well? Check out our series of posts on world languages, including Spanish, Nepali, Hindi, Russian and Japanese!
Somali is a part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Somali is spoken by an estimated 16 million people around the world. It’s the official language of Somalia, with several regional dialects, and is also spoken in nearby countries, like Kenya and Ethiopia.
According to the most recent 2010 US Census data, there are about 100,000 Somali immigrants in the US. There are large Somali speaking populations in Minnesota, Ohio, Washington, California, and Washington, DC.
There are multiple writing systems used to express the Somali language, including Arabic, Wadaad and Osmanya.
The Somali language has 20 distinct vowel sounds. It is spoken with three different tones (high, low and falling) that indicate things like gender and number.
Somali has been influenced linguistically by other languages, like English, Italian and Arabic.
If you interact with children who speak Somali, or are learning the language, you may want suggestions on some of the best bilingual Somali kids books and audio books. Many engaging and popular stories with text in both English and the Somali language are available, including Handa’s Surprise, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Hansel and Gretel and Pandora’s Box. There are also Somali book sets that allow for interactive learning via a special Recorder Pen, audio books and an interactive Somali picture dictionary.
Do you speak Somali, or are you learning the language? Comment below and share your interesting language facts!
“Aerial views of Kismayo 07” by AMISOM Public Information via Flickr is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal https://flic.kr/p/dieWvg