Language and writing
The Borama (Gadabuursi) script: Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur's alphabet of 1933
The Borama or Gadabuursi script is an alphabet for Somali devised about 1933 by Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur, the qaadi of Borama. It was written left to right and used by his circle in Borama for poems and letters. I. M. Lewis published its letters and texts in 1958, including two gabay, a geeraar and a qasida.
Who made it
The Borama script, also called the Gadabuursi script, was devised in about 1933 by Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur of the Gadabuursi (Tosco 2010, Somali writings, citing Lewis 1958). He was the qaadi (Islamic judge) at Borama, near the Ethiopian border. David Laitin also dates it to about 1933 (Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought, 1977, p. 98).
Almost everything known about it comes from one article by I. M. Lewis, "The Gadabuursi Somali Script", in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1958 (Lewis 1958, via Scribd; Tosco 2010).
Who used it
Lewis found the script used only in Borama, among "a small circle of the Sheikh's associates". The Sheikh did not "regard his invention as a contribution to the problem of finding a national orthography for Somali" (Tosco 2010, quoting Lewis 1958, p. 142). Wikipedia adds that some merchants trading through Zeylac and Borama and students of the Sheikh learned it (Gadabuursi script, Wikipedia).
How the letters work
The script is written from left to right (Tosco 2010). Tosco describes it as elegant, with some letters easy to confuse, such as the sign for a or aa and the sign for d. He compares its look to Georgian, while Osmanya reminds him of Armenian.
Its rules differ from Osmanya in several ways (Tosco 2010):
- there is no sign for the glottal stop, as in later Osmanya;
- ii and uu have their own signs, separate from y and w;
- short o and u share one sign;
- vowel length is not marked for a/aa or e/ee.
The letter order roughly follows the Arabic alphabet, with many exceptions.
Texts written in it
Lewis published, with transcription, translation and notes, several texts in the script: two gabay, a geeraar, a qasida in praise of the Prophet, and two private letters (Tosco 2010, citing Lewis 1958). Wikipedia notes that the script produced a body of literature mainly of qasidas (Gadabuursi script, Wikipedia).
In the script debate
The script was among the 11 Somali-invented writing systems that, according to Thomas Labahn, were put before the 1961 language commission. Labahn's comparative table lists it as number 8, with Osmanya as number 2 and Kaddare as number 9 (Tosco 2010, citing Labahn 1982). The Latin alphabet was chosen in 1972.
Read more
Sources
- Tosco 2010, Somali writings, citing Lewis 1958 · doi.org
- Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought, 1977, p. 98 · books.google.com
- Lewis 1958, via Scribd · scribd.com
- Gadabuursi script, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
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