A quick disclaimer first. This is a checklist for product teams, not a language guide. Good Soomaali comes from native speakers, and nothing here replaces them. What follows is how to make sure their work survives contact with your product.
Get the script right
Soomaali is written in the Latin alphabet, with a standard spelling that has been official since 1972. Doubled vowels like aa and ee change meaning, letter pairs like dh, kh and sh stand for single sounds, and some words use an apostrophe. Make sure your fonts, content system, search and database keep all of it intact. Keep apostrophes consistent too, or the same word ends up spelled two ways.
Name the language the way its speakers do
Show the name in the language itself: Soomaali. A language picker works best with native names, not flags, because a flag stands for a country, and a language isn't a country.
Remember it's one language with many audiences
Soomaali is spoken in Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Ethiopia's Somali Region, Kenya and across the diaspora. Vocabulary, borrowed words and tone can differ from place to place. Decide who you're writing for, find reviewers from that community, and ask them to flag anything that would sound odd or leave someone out.
Don't machine-translate the interface
Raw machine translation of buttons and error messages tends to come out stiff or simply wrong, and a payment or health screen is a bad place to find that out. Have native speakers read the text in context, on the real screens. For technical terms, ask your reviewers which ones people actually use. Familiar words like "email" or "WhatsApp" are often clearer than a freshly invented replacement.
Leave room for longer text
Translated text is often longer than the English it replaces. Avoid fixed-width buttons, one-line labels and cramped tabs, and test with the real strings rather than placeholders. A layout that only works in English will break in your first review.
Be explicit about money, dates and numbers
Don't assume a currency. In some places prices are quoted in US dollars, in others in Somali shillings or Somaliland shillings, so check with local partners and show the currency code next to every amount. Pick one date format and use it everywhere. Avoid ambiguous ones like 03/04.
Think about where people will read it
A lot of people reach services through a phone-first channel like WhatsApp, so check how your content looks in a chat preview, including the title and image. Where reading is a barrier, consider icons, short sentences and audio as extras, and ask local partners what people really use.
Turn review into a routine
- Give reviewers a glossary and a short style guide, so terms stay consistent.
- Show strings with context, a screenshot or the sentence around them, not a bare spreadsheet.
- Review again when the product changes, and keep a note of what was approved and when.
- Tell users how to report a wording problem, and act on what they say.
Don't forget the technical bits
Set the page language to so, publish a separate page for each language with hreflang links, and keep titles and descriptions short enough to read well in search results. Test sorting and search with real words, and make sure social previews carry the Soomaali text.
If you're building for Soomaali-speaking users, you can see these ideas in practice on the Soomaali version of this site, which is still going through native review. For the wider approach, see our standard.