Evidence of Ancient Somali Writing Systems

[Erythrean]

Lions still existed in Northern somaaliweyn in the mid 2000's. My sister knew a girl who got her face ripped off clean by a lioness in Awdal.

Too much info

 

[Erythrean]

I say we use Sabean writing script should we choose to change our Roman script. We’ve used it in the past and they’re are a lot of inscriptions all over Somalia that we used it.
All found in Sanaag, Somalia

 

[Som]

We have some hints of possible Somali writing systems but this is different from hard evidence. Unfortunately Somalia hasn't been studied enough so we can't know for sure if the symbols found in caves were actually used to convey complex messages. As others have pointed we have summad symbols used by pastoralists but that's very rudimental and i doubt it was used to convey complex messages. Our people were mainly nomads and traders, we have very scarce information on pre Islamic somali city states so we don't know in which language they conducted trade. It's entirely possible they used Greek or sabean and we have evidence of sabean inscription in Somalia found even in the interior which may suggest they were written by locals who learned the script
The only hardcore evidence of the somali language written in any form of script dates back to the late 1800s early 1900s written in wadaad Arabic script. We can assume that Arabic script was used even a bit earlier but evidence is scars because of lack of research. We know that Somali elites used classical Arabic for official documents

 

[Som]

I say we use Sabean writing script should we choose to change our Roman script. We’ve used it in the past and they’re are a lot of inscriptions all over Somalia that we used it.
All found in Sanaag, Somalia
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Used ? Bro we have few fragments of inscription that are barely phrases. You can't really say we used sabean when the evidence is so scarce. Yeah we used it , but with no continuity. It wouldn't make any sense to change our script to a dead language alphabet that even yemenis have stopped using centuries ahi. We don't even know if these inscriptions were written by Yemeni traders, Ethiopians or Somalis who used the script. As far as I know scientific papers don't even say what's written in those stones.

 

[Som]

That’s goes without question. The Kingdom of Punt, Macrobia, Barbaroi City states, Ifat, Adal, Ajuuran. You can’t set up Kingdoms without something as simple as a writing script.

Ifat, Adal, Ajuuraan probably used to write official stuff classical Arabic as it was the language of the elites of the Muslim world. For punt and barbaroi cities it's entirely possible they had a script but there's no evidence. It's perfectly possible for a complex civilization to have no written language. The Inca empire was huge and civilized but they had no writing system. Writing was invented a few times in history and the majority of those who have a script simply copied or modified existing script. Almost all modern alphabets come from Phoenician

 

[Garaad diinle]

Ifat, Adal, Ajuuraan probably used to write official stuff classical Arabic as it was the language of the elites of the Muslim world. For punt and barbaroi cities it's entirely possible they had a script but there's no evidence. It's perfectly possible for a complex civilization to have no written language. The Inca empire was huge and civilized but they had no writing system. Writing was invented a few times in history and the majority of those who have a script simply copied or modified existing script. Almost all modern alphabets come from Phoenician

I actually read that some greek geographers said that there were an egyption stelae in northern somalia. My suspicion is that the stelae would be found on the sa'ad ad-din Islands if it were excavated.

 

[Erythrean]

Ifat, Adal, Ajuuraan probably used to write official stuff classical Arabic as it was the language of the elites of the Muslim world. For punt and barbaroi cities it's entirely possible they had a script but there's no evidence. It's perfectly possible for a complex civilization to have no written language. The Inca empire was huge and civilized but they had no writing system. Writing was invented a few times in history and the majority of those who have a script simply copied or modified existing script. Almost all modern alphabets come from Phoenician

Everyone else around them had a script. So I thinks it’s almost impossible for them not to. There hasn’t been enough research done yet in Somalia about this.

 

[Erythrean]

Writing was only created 4 times in human history

Where’d you get that from?

 

[killerxsmoke]

Where’d you get that from?

The internet, the other writings were just inspired from these four

 

[Erythrean]

Used ? Bro we have few fragments of inscription that are barely phrases. You can't really say we used sabean when the evidence is so scarce. Yeah we used it , but with no continuity. It wouldn't make any sense to change our script to a dead language alphabet that even yemenis have stopped using centuries ahi. We don't even know if these inscriptions were written by Yemeni traders, Ethiopians or Somalis who used the script. As far as I know scientific papers don't even say what's written in those stones.

I’m saying if we decide to ditch the Roman system we should use Sabean. What’s wrong with using a dead language script? The Jews revived Hebrew after hundreds of years later in the 1900s. I’m just saying out of possibility.

 

[Som]

I actually read that some greek geographers said that there were an egyption stelae in northern somalia. My suspicion is that the stelae would be found on the sa'ad ad-din Islands if it were excavated.

Interesting. Could you find the source?

 

[Som]

I’m saying if we decide to ditch the Roman system we should use Sabean. What’s wrong with using a dead language script? The Jews revived Hebrew after hundreds of years later in the 1900s. I’m just saying out of possibility.

Yes but Hebrew was the language of their ancestors and their used it as a liturgical language for praying for thousands of years. They had an actual relationship with Hebrew. We as Somali have zero relationship with that script. The only script that makes sense to adopt besides latin is the wadaad Arabic script because it has some kind of documented history in Somalia. If by any chance we found hard evidence of our ancient script (at least a full text written in somali / something close to Somali) then we should maybe consider adopting it for strengthening national identity and pride. Tbh though I'm fine with latin script

 

[Som]

Everyone else around them had a script. So I thinks it’s almost impossible for them not to. There hasn’t been enough research done yet in Somalia about this.

If they had a script and they used it we would know. Somalia has been under researched obviously but if these civilizations had a script that was commonly used we would have found it ages ago. Even the Beja people who are also nomadic or traders like somalis have a tiny bit of evidence like the Beja ostracon which is a passage of the bible in Beja written in the Coptic script but other than that they have nothing else. This means Beja didn't use that script too often and switched to Arabic for written communication after the Muslim conquest of Sudan.
My idea is that it's entirely possible that we will find something like the Beja ostracon for somali but that in itself is just a small evidence of occasional usage of a script.

 

[Som]

Everyone else around them had a script. So I thinks it’s almost impossible for them not to. There hasn’t been enough research done yet in Somalia about this.

Think about Swahili states, they had no native script they used Arabic and they were fairly developed trade centers.

 

[Erythrean]

If they had a script and they used it we would know. Somalia has been under researched obviously but if these civilizations had a script that was commonly used we would have found it ages ago. Even the Beja people who are also nomadic or traders like somalis have a tiny bit of evidence like the Beja ostracon which is a passage of the bible in Beja written in the Coptic script but other than that they have nothing else. This means Beja didn't use that script too often and switched to Arabic for written communication after the Muslim conquest of Sudan.
My idea is that it's entirely possible that we will find something like the Beja ostracon for somali but that in itself is just a small evidence of occasional usage of a script.

Im just saying given the chance we should consider it.

 

[Abdirazaq]

Used ? Bro we have few fragments of inscription that are barely phrases. You can't really say we used sabean when the evidence is so scarce. Yeah we used it , but with no continuity. It wouldn't make any sense to change our script to a dead language alphabet that even yemenis have stopped using centuries ahi. We don't even know if these inscriptions were written by Yemeni traders, Ethiopians or Somalis who used the script. As far as I know scientific papers don't even say what's written in those stones.

There’s scientific papers that reveals a lot of information about some stones written in Sabaean and a temple too and it seems to be the oldest confirmed writing in Somalia going back around the 8-7th centuries BC (which is really old seeing as the majority of the world
Apparently didn’t have writing at the time that can be found within their boarders) it’s located somewhere near the tip of Puntland I think.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Inscription-Bari-2021-3-Courtesy-Mahad-Jebiy_fig6_356347086

there’s a couple other pictures on the site but to get the full paper you have to pay for it. There is another paper done by the same authors on the discovery https://iasarabia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IASA_Bulletin_2021_Autumn1.pdf

if you go to page 20 you’ll get details on the find for free.

 

[Garaad diinle]

Interesting. Could you find the source?

 

[King Khufu]

Ofc there is more ancient Somali systems.

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[King Khufu]

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[Erythrean]

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