Northern Somalis stereotyped southerners as speaking broken Somali, not fluent Somali.

Evidence

His meetings with traditional elders and other civic leaders, in an atmosphere of mutual esteem, were more constructive. He stressed to them that the referendum was the first significant act of the nation’s independence and a test of the nation’s allegiance to democracy. He was amused by the reaction of many Northerners to his words. They were surprised to witness his extraordinary, to them, capacity for public speaking. Apparently, some Northerners had the stereotype that Southern Somalis spoke poor or broken Somali and were perhaps better in Kiswahili. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 711