Creator of Somali Latin Alphabet: Muse Haji Ismail Galal
- Thread starter Wir
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Marshall D Abdi
Know you’re place peasant
He be rocking stalin mustach 
He worked in England to create the original Latin alphabet. It was better than the current scrip because he tended to use one letter for each phoneme
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He's not a legend and honestly it pisses me off that we don't have an actual Somali alphabet like the Ethiopians. The Latin alphabet is just a reminder that we were colonized and it makes me feel as though our language is inferior because it was never written like the Ethiopians.
The latin script is the best option. It's easier to learn other languages like English if you already use a latin script. The litteracy rate in Somalia todaywould be even worse if somalis used osmaniya or arabic
What do you mean one of my people?
I'm Marexaan. If you mean Marexaan then Shire Jama Ahmed was one of us and he contributed a lot on creating the Somali latin script. On the other hand Galaal was Isaaq.
The somali script was developed through team work by many somali scholars of different clans so it belongs to all of us as somalis.
Shire Jama also had a major contribution to the creation of the language, he was one of the factors into bringing like combination letters (kh, dh and sh)
It'll be quite easy to debunk this twitter user, I'll make a separate thread. He seems to be propagating misinformation by conflating a few different things.
The creator of the Somali Latin script that was chosen by a wide ranging committee in 1972 that Galal was a part of is Shire Jama Ahmed. They also worked alongside Andrzejewski in different capacities. Galal was his student and Shire was a contemporary of his.
Here is just a sneak peak of the contents in that thread. This is from a book written by Galal's own teacher Andrzejewski in which he asserts that the final version developed by Shire Jama Ahmed is the Somali latin script used today.
A SURVEY OF CUSHITIC LITERATURES, 1940-1975
B. W. Andrzejewski
Galal used an apostrophe for ain and a slash through an H for an aspirated h. Shire used "c" and "x".
For years only Shire got credit, I have always thought because of the Mareexaan connection to Barre.
I don't support tht man since he didn't want somali ppl to have their own script he only wanted European script
This is why more and more I am starting to
Distance myself being somali and not associatinate with somali culturetelly and languagelly and as ppl
This is why more and more I am starting to
Distance myself being somali and not associatinate with somali culturetelly and languagelly and as ppl
Kacaan daroodization of history is nothing new. The alphabet, the Somalia flag( italian colonial concept), the dervish, the Ahmed gurey and Habesha wars. The Information age is doing the real history justice
What is your explanation for why only Shire was credited for so long?
Well when it comes to giving out credit it's important to distinguish what the praise is directed at. There must an understanding that other contributions are important and necessary however misinformation should never be accepted. Also among scholars Shire was mainly given the credit for having his version of the script used officially, however other scholars received their dues as well.
Shire was also the first President of the Somali National Academy of Culture and also founded the first Somali literary magazine.
Your passive aggressive assertion that his clan connection is the reason why only he gets credit is nefarious in my view. It's a dubious claim, and might even be motivated by your mentor 'MAH' not receiving as much praise, but it's quite clear why that is.
Nonetheless I'll prove your suspicions wrong here and add the rest of this to the final thread I'll create.
This was a report from the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, Cultural Organization) recommendation to the Somali linguistic commission in 1966 well before any Mareexaan connection. Lo and Behold, they recommended Shire's latin script in 1966
And the main distinction (most important) in this report is that Galaal's version is mentioned as "Orthography 4" while Shire's version is mentioned as "Orthography 7"
It comes at no surprise that in the mid 60's Galaal himself was a proponent of using Shire's script and in 1972 was apart of the same committee that went on to accept it. This came from Hussein Tanzania, a renowned scholar in his own right.
This is a succinct outline detailing the standardization process of the Somali script.
And what this shows is that Shire wrote a book and issued six journals in 65-67. You were in the country around this time if I'm not mistaken under the mentorship of another scholar.
(Corpus driven lexicography opens new horizons for Somali Morgan Nilsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
This all came about several years after independence and it is important to note that Shire Jama Ahmed headed the language commission in 1960 which proves that he was definitely one of the pioneers of language in Somalia and has many other Somali scholars that have been inspired by his work.
Well when it comes to giving out credit it's important to distinguish what the praise is directed at. There must an understanding that other contributions are important and necessary however misinformation should never be accepted. Also among scholars Shire was mainly given the credit for having his version of the script used officially, however other scholars received their dues as well.
Shire was also the first President of the Somali National Academy of Culture and also founded the first Somali literary magazine.
Your passive aggressive assertion that his clan connection is the reason why only he gets credit is nefarious in my view. It's a dubious claim, and might even be motivated by your mentor 'MAH' not receiving as much praise, but it's quite clear why that is.
Nonetheless I'll prove your suspicions wrong here and add the rest of this to the final thread I'll create.
This was a report from the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, Cultural Organization) recommendation to the Somali linguistic commission in 1966 well before any Mareexaan connection. Lo and Behold, they recommended Shire's latin script in 1966
And the main distinction (most important) in this report is that Galaal's version is mentioned as "Orthography 4" while Shire's version is mentioned as "Orthography 7"
View attachment 163012
It comes at no surprise that in the mid 60's Galaal himself was a proponent of using Shire's script and in 1972 was apart of the same committee that went on to accept it. This came from Hussein Tanzania, a renowned scholar in his own right.
View attachment 163017
This is a succinct outline detailing the standardization process of the Somali script.
And what this shows is that Shire wrote a book and issued six journals in 65-67. You were in the country around this time if I'm not mistaken under the mentorship of another scholar.
View attachment 163009
(Corpus driven lexicography opens new horizons for Somali Morgan Nilsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
This all came about several years after independence and it is important to note that Shire Jama Ahmed headed the language commission in 1960 which proves that he was definitely one of the pioneers of language in Somalia and has many other Somali scholars that have been inspired by his work.
View attachment 163019
Shire Jama Ahmed published his magazines in 66-67.
Shire did not bring anything new. He simply copied What Galaal created. The development of Galaal's script is clearly documented in the Twitter thread:
Galaal script 1953 (The Somaliland Journal):
Galaal introduced the double-vowel system.
Galaal Script 1956 (Hikmad Smaali):
Galaal script 1963 (A Somali Poetic Combat)
Galaal introduced the "C" and "Dh" letters.
There is a single letter "X" that is not found in the Galaal script. Everything else is identical to Galaal's script, and published YEARS before Shire.
No Somali scholar comes close to Muse Galaal in terms of contribution to the Somali script we use today. There are certain things you should not FKD over, just be grateful a great scholar like Galaal poured +20 years of his life to create something all Somalis benefit from today.
