Northern Somali (Somali: Af Waqooyi) is a dialect of the Somali language and forms the basis for Standard Somali. It is spoken by more than 60% of the entire Somali population, with its speech area stretching from Djibouti, Puntland, Somaliland, Somali Region of Ethiopia, Northern Frontier District to most parts of Somalia 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.