Somali writing systems: Arabic script, Osmanya, Borama, Kaddare and Latin

Five ways of writing one language

Somali has been written in several scripts, and the choice between them was argued over for most of the 20th century. The Turin linguist Mauro Tosco gives the fullest short history in his 2010 paper "Somali writings" (Tosco 2010).

Arabic script

Arabic was known and respected across the Somali lands, and most Somali writing before the 20th century was in the Arabic language itself (Tosco 2010). Tosco found no evidence of Somali written consistently in Arabic letters before Sheekh Aweys of Baraawe at the end of the 19th century. Later proposals came from Sheekh Maxamed Cabdi Makaahiil, who published a book on Somali correspondence in Arabic script in Bombay in 1935 to 1936, and from Muuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal in 1954. See wadaad's writing.

Scripts invented by Somalis

Osmanya was devised between 1920 and 1922 by Cusmaan Yuusuf Keenadiid of the Hobyo ruling family. The Somali Youth League backed it in its statute and taught it from 1945 (Tosco 2010).

The Borama or Gadabuursi script was devised about 1933 by Sheekh Cabdiraxmaan Sheekh Nuur, the qaadi of Borama, and used by a small circle around him (Tosco 2010, citing Lewis 1958).

Kaddare was devised in 1952 by Sheekh Xuseen Axmed Kaddare. A 1966 UNESCO report by B. W. Andrzejewski, Stefan Strelcyn and Joseph Tubiana noted that it was "less widespread than Osmania and its history is even shorter" (Tosco 2010). Tosco notes that it had separate signs for every vowel, unlike Osmanya and Borama, and a cursive form for handwriting. David Laitin reports that the technical commissions judged it a very accurate way to write Somali (Laitin, Politics, Language, and Thought, 1977, p. 87). No books written in Kaddare are known (Kaddare script, Wikipedia, citing Tosco 2010).

Eighteen proposals and one decision

A Somali Language Committee was set up soon after independence, headed by Muuse Galaal (Somali alphabets, Wikipedia); Tosco dates the commission to 1961. The German scholar Thomas Labahn counted 18 writing systems put to it, Arabic-based, Latin-based and Somali-invented; 11 were Somali inventions (Tosco 2010, citing Labahn 1982, p. 137). Tosco notes that only three of the 11 are known today. In 1966 the UNESCO commission recommended a Latin script (Tosco 2010).

The military government that took power on 21 October 1969 announced the Latin alphabet on 21 October 1972, and it took effect on 1 January 1973 (Tosco 2010). In the speech quoted by Labahn, Maxamed Siyaad Barre said a modified Latin script had been chosen "for economic reasons as well as convenience". The Latin alphabet's use of x and c for the two throat sounds was not yet in the 1966 UNESCO proposal (Tosco 2010). The story of the decision and the literacy campaign is on How Somali came to be written.

The Latin alphabet today

The Somali Latin alphabet uses all English letters except p, v and z, with three double letters, dh, kh and sh, and the apostrophe for the glottal stop. Tone is not written (Somali alphabets, Wikipedia).

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• Shire Jama Ahmed
• The Somali language
• Somali dialects