Strata in loanwords from Arabic and other Semitic languages in Northern Somali

Different strata of Semitic loanwords are successively identified in the lexicon of Northern Somali (NS): Ancient South Arabian, Arabic, Southern Ethiosemitic. The different phonological developments of Arabic loanwords are discussed in order to identify when and how they entered NS: directly at different ages, indirectly through Harari or other languages. The historical and archaeological correlates of these language contact phenomena are also discussed.