The Somali Language Program: Italian Technical Co-Operation in Somalia

In 1977 a group of Italian linguists set up a research program on the Somali language, in the context of the technical co-operation between Italy and Somalia. The program was sponsored by the Italian Ministry of External Affairs and the Somali Ministry of Higher Education. The scientific bodies involved were the University of Rome and the National Research Council (CNR) on the Italian side, and the Somali National University and the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Literature on the Somali side. The program was divided into two separate but obviously related projects: 1) the elaboration of a comprehensive reference grammar of Somali, at the phonological, morphological and syntactic levels; 2) the compilation of a bilingual (Somali-Italian) dictionary and of various glossaries of specific terminologies.