Somali
(Latin script: ;
Wadaad: ;
Osmanya
The Osmanya script ( so, Farta Cismaanya 𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖), also known as Far Soomaali (𐒍𐒖𐒇 𐒘𐒝𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒘, "Somali writing") and, in Arabic, as ''al-kitābah al-ʿuthmānīyah'' (الكتا ...
: 𐒖𐒍 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘 )
is an
Afroasiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
language belonging to the
Cushitic
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As o ...
branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by
Somalis
The Somalis ( so, Soomaalida 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒆𐒖, ar, صوماليون) are an ethnic group native to the Horn of Africa who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic Somali language is the shared ...
in
Greater Somalia and the
Somali diaspora
The Somali diaspora or Qurbajoogta refers to Somalis who were born in Greater Somalia and reside in areas of the world that they were not born in. The civil war in Somalia greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many Somalis moved fr ...
. Somali is an official language in
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
and
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, and a national language in
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
as well as in northeastern
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
. The Somali language is written officially with the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
although the
Arabic alphabet and several Somali scripts like
Osmanya
The Osmanya script ( so, Farta Cismaanya 𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖), also known as Far Soomaali (𐒍𐒖𐒇 𐒘𐒝𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒘, "Somali writing") and, in Arabic, as ''al-kitābah al-ʿuthmānīyah'' (الكتا ...
,
Kaddare and the
Borama script
The Gadabuursi script also known as the Borama alphabet (Borama: ), is a writing script for the Somali language. It was devised around 1933 by Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur of the Gadabuursi clan.
History
Though not as widely known as Osmanya, ...
are informally used.
[Lewis, I.M. (1958)]
The Gadabuursi Somali Script
''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
, Vol. 21, pp. 134–156.
Classification
Somali is classified within the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, specifically,
Lowland East Cushitic in addition to
Afar and
Saho. Somali is the best-documented of the Cushitic languages,
with academic studies of the language dating back to the late 19th century.
Geographic distribution of Somali
The Somali language is spoken in Somali inhabited areas of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
,
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
,
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
and by members of the
Somali diaspora
The Somali diaspora or Qurbajoogta refers to Somalis who were born in Greater Somalia and reside in areas of the world that they were not born in. The civil war in Somalia greatly increased the size of the Somali diaspora, as many Somalis moved fr ...
. It is also spoken as an adoptive language by a few ethnic minority groups and individuals in Somali majority regions.
Somali is the most widely spoken Cushitic language in the region followed by
Oromo and
Afar.
As of 2019, there were approximately 21.8 million speakers of Somali, spread in
Greater Somalia of which around 7.8 million resided in Somalia.
The language is spoken by an estimated 95% of the country's inhabitants,
and also by a majority of the population in Djibouti.
Following the start of the
Somali Civil War
The Somali Civil War ( so, Dagaalkii Sokeeye ee Soomaaliya; ar, الحرب الأهلية الصومالية ) is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Bar ...
in the early 1990s, the Somali-speaking diaspora increased in size, with newer Somali speech communities forming in parts of the Middle East, North America and Europe.
Official status
Constitutionally, Somali and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
are the two
official languages
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
.
Somali has been an official national language since January 1973, when the
Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) declared it the
Somali Democratic Republic
The Somali Democratic Republic ( so, Jamhuuriyadda Dimuqraadiya Soomaaliyeed; ar, الجمهورية الديمقراطية الصومالية, ; it, Repubblica Democratica Somala) was the name that the socialist military government gave to Som ...
's primary language of administration and education. Somali was thereafter established as the main language of academic instruction in
forms 1 through 4, following preparatory work by the government-appointed Somali Language Committee. It later expanded to include all 12 forms in 1979. In 1972, the SRC adopted a
Latin orthography as the official national alphabet over several other writing scripts that were then in use. Concurrently, the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
-language daily newspaper ''Stella d'Ottobre'' ("The October Star") was nationalized, renamed to ''Xiddigta Oktoobar'', and began publishing in Somali.
The state-run
Radio Mogadishu
Radio Mogadishu ( so, Radio Muqdisho, ar, راديو مقديشو) is the federal government-run radio station of Somalia. has also broadcast in Somali since 1943.
Additionally, other state-run public networks like
Somaliland National TV
Somaliland National Television (SLNTV) is a Somali television channel. It is the official public service station of the government of Somaliland. Founded in 2005, it broadcasts from the country's capital of Hargeisa via terrestrial transmission ...
, regional public networks such as
Puntland TV and Radio
Puntland TV and Radio is the public broadcasting network of the autonomous Puntland region of Somalia. Its headquarters are at the regional capital of Garowe. The service also maintains an office in London. Founded in April 2013, Puntland TV and R ...
and, as well as
Eastern Television Network
Eastern Television Network (ETN TV) is a Somali private television channel.
Overview
ETN was founded in 2005. Along with the Somali Broadcasting Corporation, it is one of two stations with headquarters in Bosaso, the commercial capital of the nort ...
and
Horn Cable Television
Horn Cable TV (HCTV) is a Somali news-based private television channel.
Overview
Founded in 2003, Horn Cable TV broadcasts in Somali from its headquarters in Hargeisa,
the capital of Somaliland. The station also has studios in Mogadishu and Lon ...
, among other private broadcasters, air programs in Somali.
Somali is recognized as an official working language in the
Somali Region
The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional stat ...
of Ethiopia.
Although it is not an official language of
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
, it constitutes a major national language there. Somali is used in television and radio broadcasts,
with the government-operated
Radio Djibouti transmitting programs in the language from 1943 onwards.
The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation also broadcasts in the Somali language in its Iftin FM Programmes. The language is spoken in the Somali territories within North Eastern
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
, namely
Wajir County
Wajir County is a county in the former North Eastern Province of Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Wajir. The county has a population of 720,000 and an area of . The county is bordered to the north by Ethiopia, to the northeast by Mandera ...
,
Garissa County
Garissa County is an administrative county in Kenya. Its capital and largest urban area is Garissa. The county had a population of 841,353 at the 2019 Census, and a land area of about .2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, Volume 2.
Demogra ...
and
Mandera County
Mandera County is the northeasternmost county in Kenya. Its capital and largest town is Mandera. The county is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east and Wajir County to the southwest. According to the 2019 census, the county ha ...
.
The Somali language is regulated by the
Regional Somali Language Academy, an intergovernmental institution established in June 2013 in
Djibouti City
Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and in many early English texts and on many early maps, Jibuti; so, Magaalada Jabuuti, french: link=no, Ville de Djibouti, ar, مدينة جيبوتي, aa, Gabuutî Magaala) is the eponymous capital of Dji ...
by the governments of Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is officially mandated with preserving the Somali language.
As of October 2022, Somali and
Oromo are the only Cushitic languages available on
Google Translate
Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS, and an API ...
.
Varieties
Somali linguistic varieties are broadly divided into three main groups:
Northern,
Benadir and
Maay
Mai-Mai, commonly spelled Maay Maay (also known as ''Af-Maay'', ''Af-Maymay'', or simply ''Maay''; the ''Mai-Mai'' spelling is rarely used but it is most often spoken), is a dialect of the Somali language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiat ...
.
Northern Somali (or Nsom
) forms the basis for Standard Somali.
It is spoken by more than 85% of the entire Somali population, with its speech area stretching from
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
,
Somali Region
The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional stat ...
of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
,
Northern Frontier District
The North Eastern Province ( so, Gobolka Woqooyi Bari, 𐒌𐒙𐒁𐒙𐒐𐒏𐒖 𐒓𐒙𐒎𐒝𐒕𐒘 𐒁𐒖𐒇𐒘) is one of the former provinces in Kenya. It has a land area of 127,358.5 km2, with its capital at Garissa. Previ ...
to most parts of
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
This widespread modern distribution is a result of a long series of southward population movements over the past ten centuries from the
Gulf of Aden littoral.
Lamberti subdivides Northern Somali into three dialects: Northern Somali proper (spoken in the northwest; he describes this dialect as Northern Somali in the proper sense), the Darod group (spoken in the northeast and along the eastern Ethiopia frontier; greatest number of speakers overall), and the Lower Juba group (spoken by northern Somali settlers in the southern riverine areas).
Benadir (also known as Coastal Somali) is spoken on the central
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t ...
seaboard, including
Mogadishu
Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Oc ...
. It forms a relatively smaller group. The dialect is fairly
mutually intelligible with Northern Somali.
There are other languages that are spoken in Somalia which are not necessarily Afsoomali. They may be a mixture of the Somali languages and other indigenous languages. Such a language is Maay which is principally spoken by the Digil and Mirifle (
Rahanweyn
The Rahanweyn ( Maay: ''Reewin or Roowing'', Northern Somali: ''Raxanweyn'', ar, رحنوين), also known as the Digil and Mirifle () are a Somali clan. It is one of the major Somali clans in the Horn of Africa, with a large territory and dense ...
or Sab) clans in the southern regions of Somalia.
Its speech area extends from the southwestern border with Ethiopia to a region close to the coastal strip between Mogadishu and
Kismayo
Kismayo ( so, Kismaayo, Maay: ''Kismanyy'', ar, كيسمايو, ; it, Chisimaio) is a port city in the southern Lower Juba (Jubbada Hoose) province of Somalia. It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.
The city is situa ...
, including the city of
Baidoa.
Maay is not mutually comprehensible with Northern Somali, and it differs in sentence structure and phonology.
It is also not generally used in education or media. However, Maay speakers often use Standard Somali as a lingua franca,
which is learned via mass communications, internal migration and urbanization.
Maay is not closely related with the Somali language in sentence structure and phonology is spoken by
Jiddu,
Dabarre,
Garre
The Garre (also Gurreh, Karre, "Binukaaf") ( Somali: ''Reer Garre'', Arabic: بنو كاف, romanized: ''Banī kāf'' ) is a major Somali clan whose origins trace back to Samaale who traces the lineage from the Arabian Peninsula through Aqiil ...
and
Tunni
The Tunni (Somali: Tunni) are a Somali clan that make up part of the wider Digil-Rahanweyn branch. It is one of the major clans that inhabit in the South West State of Somalia and can also be found in Jubbaland.
Overview
The Tunni clan are spl ...
varieties that are also spoken by smaller Rahanweyn communities. Collectively, these languages present similarities with Oromo that are not found in mainstream Somali. Chief among these is the lack of pharyngeal sounds in the Rahanweyn/Digil and Mirifle languages, features which by contrast typify Somali but are not Somali. Although in the past frequently classified as dialects of Somali, more recent research by the linguist
Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi
Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi ( so, Maxamed Diriye Abdullahi, ar, محمد ديري عبد الله; born 1958) is a Somali-Canadian scholar, linguist, writer, translator and professor.
Biography
Formerly a journalist in his native Somalia, Abdulla ...
has shown that these varieties, including Maay, constitute separate Cushitic languages.
The degree of divergence is comparable to that between Spanish and Portuguese. Of the Digil varieties, Jiddu is the most incomprehensible to Benadir and Northern speakers.
Despite these linguistic differences, Somali speakers collectively view themselves as speaking a common language.
These assumptions however has been contested by a more recent study by Deqa Hassan that tested the mutual intelligibility between Af-Maay and Af-Maxaa speakers (Northern Somali).
The study found that Af-Maay is partially mutually intelligible to Af-Maxaa (Northern Speakers) and that intelligibility increases with increased understanding of Standard Somali, which implies understanding of standard Somali (Northern Somali) increases the chance of understanding Af-Maay. This accounts for the most significant linguistic factor that ties both language variations together. Furthermore, Af-Maay is categorized as a Type 5 dialect for the overlapping common cultural history it shares with Af Maxaa speakers which explains its somewhat mutual intelligibility.
Phonology
Vowels
Somali has five vowel articulations that all contrast
murmured and
harsh voice
Harsh voice, also called ventricular voice or (in some high-tone registers) pressed voice, is the production of speech sounds (typically vowels) with a constricted laryngeal cavity, which generally involves epiglottal co-articulation. Harsh voic ...
as well as
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
. There is little change in vowel quality when the vowel is lengthened. Each vowel has a harmonic counterpart, and every vowel within a harmonic group (which notably can be larger than a word in Somali) must harmonize with the other vowels. The Somali orthography, however, does not distinguish between the two harmonic variants of each vowel.
Consonants
Somali has 22 consonant
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
s.
The consonants often weaken to intervocalically.
The retroflex plosive may have an implosive quality for some speakers, and intervocalically it can be realized as the flap .
Some speakers produce with
epiglottal trill
A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper pharyngeal consonants, or "high" pharyngeals, pronounced by retracting the root of the tongue in the mid to upper pharynx, ...
ing.
is often
epiglottalized.
The language has five basic
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s. Each has a front and back variation as well as long or short versions. This gives a distinct 20 pure vowel sounds. It also exhibits three tones: high, low and falling. Vowels harmonize within a harmonic group, so all vowels within the group must either be front or back. The Somali orthography does not distinguish between the front and back variants of vowels, however, as there are few minimal pairs.
The syllable structure of Somali is (C)V(C). Root
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
s usually have a mono- or di-syllabic structure.
Pitch is phonemic in Somali, but it is debated whether Somali is a
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
or
tonal language
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...
.
Andrzejewski (1954) posits that Somali is a tonal language, whereas Banti (1988) suggests that it is a pitch accent language.
Tone
Lexical prominence in Somali can be classified under a
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
system, in which there is one
high-tone mora per word.
The tone system distinguishes both grammatical and lexical differences. Differences include numbers singular and plural (a grammatical distinction), and masculine and feminine genders (a grammatical and sometimes also lexical distinction). One example is ''inán'' ('girl') versus ''ínan'' ('boy'). This reflects a tonal pattern that codes grammatical gender, such as ''dameér'' ('female donkey') versus ''daméer'' ('male donkey').
The question of the tone system in Somali has been debated for decades. The modern consensus is as follows.
In Somali, the tone-bearing unit is the
mora rather than the vowel of the syllable. A long vowel or a diphthong consists of two morae and can bear two tones. Each mora is defined as being of high or low tone. Only one high tone occurs per word and this must be on the final or penultimate mora. Particles do not have a high tone. (These include prepositions, clitic pronouns for subject and object, impersonal subject pronouns and focus markers.) There are therefore three possible "accentual patterns" in word roots.
Phonetically there are three tones on long vowels: high, low and falling:
# On a long vowel or diphthong, a sequence of high-low is realised as a falling tone.
# On a long vowel or diphthong, a sequence of low-high is realised as high-high. (Occasionally, it is a rising tone.)
This use of tone may be characterized as
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
. It is similar to that in
Oromo.
Stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
is connected with tone. The high tone has strong stress; the falling tone has less stress and the low tone has no stress.
When needed, the conventions for marking tone on written Somali are as follows:
*
acute accent - high tone
*
grave accent - low tone
*
circumflex - falling tone
Tones on long vowels are marked on the first vowel symbol.
dubious_
Doubt_is_a_mental_state_in_which_the_mind_remains_suspended_between_two_or_more_contradictory_propositions,_unable_to_be_certain_of_any_of_them.
_Doubt_on_an_emotional_level_is_indecision_between_belief_and__disbelief._It_may_involve_uncertainty_...
_–_Talk:Somali_phonology#Dubious.html" "title="Wikipedia:Accuracy_dispute#Disputed_statement.html" "title="'Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute#Disputed statement">dubious
Doubt is a mental state in which the mind remains suspended between two or more contradictory propositions, unable to be certain of any of them.
Doubt on an emotional level is indecision between belief and disbelief. It may involve uncertainty ...