Summado are definitely a whole alphabet trust me I was a Geeljire for 9 year and every single summad on an animal, camel, object, place has a meaning.
Evidence of Ancient Somali Writing Systems
- Thread starter Maintainnnin
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Garaad diinle
Quite interesting. This further add to all the other available evidence that we did indeed have a sort of a writing script. These vocabularies some of them are from arabic such as xiiso but most of them are indeed somali in origin. Why would somalis have a vocabulary for things that involves writing if they didn't write? Wouldn't they've adopted say arabic vocabularies for writing instead since arabs knew how to write and therefore had words for it?
Anthropologist that came to somalia heard the local people say that their ancestor could read, write and had a script their own. The image taken by the german explorer of the inscription on the stone was said by the local somalis to be and inscription in af somali. You said that you know or recognize some of these summado and that they're more than camel markings could you gave us a bit more information on them? Do they have individual name? How many of them are there? Are they used for more purposes other than camel marking? I heard that they were used to mark different wells too.
Precisely, brother, you can't have a term for something in a society if it didn't exist in that society or culture, hence Somalis having words for/in reference to writing is proof that there was writing. We did borrow a lot from Arabs due to their proximity, but those words are easily decipherable that they are indeed of Arab origin, unlike the few examples the author of Af-dhaab gave.
Summads have a vital role in Somali culture in general, and they provide us so many ideas of what people used to believe in(Some religious subs of Shiikhaal put a summad that looks close to a cross and given they are the culumo of Somaliweyn it raises many questions); what legends accompany these signs? Looking at the summad they use, where did particular people come from? it can even tell us of migration patterns of clans for example in mudug where Majeerten live there are 2 wells previously owned by Xawaadle and Abgaal darandole that has their clan marking on them that they still use today but today Majeerteen drinks those wells and Xawaadle and Abgaal are nowhere near that land. And with this, you might even wonder 'if Xawaadle and Abgaal were present in Mudug at the same time at some point and now are in hiiraan and shabeelaha dhexe together what is the special relationship that causes them to keep settling near each other despite not claiming each other by lineage?' Summads were always interesting to me from a young age as they habour lots of maning.
To address your question about whether these summado had meaning, they do, and they have a lot of meaning. They were most likely our alphabet. The same way that people in the modern world use shapes or phrases to mark objects, it was the same back then. Even today, if you visit Somalia, you will see animals marked with numbers or names in ink rather than the customary iron burn so it must have been the same back then as this is a custom that was passed down.
Summado are used for hundreds of purposes from animal marking to even marking a digsi. Back in baadiyo we had a pot named digsi udub leh meaning the pot with many markings and the same udub sign is used on animals, wells, trees near graves to mark a grave, tools etc.
The signs have many names, and I will even give a few examples in relation to animals mostly camels and what they mean in English. Mind you these signs are very many and I believe some are relatively recent but I'll write down a few that I believe are the passed down signs from millenniums ago.
DHAADAD- a letter C-looking kind of sign done on the chest or thigh.
GARABJIID- A sign that like letter l(L) done on the shoulder.
DILDILO- A sign made on the stomach that is a horizontal L.
DHAFOORSHIID- Made on the skull/back on the head that are two circles(shiid).
KABAAL- A sign that looks like a right up ل thats done on various parts of the body.
UDUB- is the same as Kabaal to me imo
XAYNBOORO- A horizontal L with a dot(circle) under it.
MAREEG- a circle on the neck
KILLIGUB- done above the kidney its a small circle.
ALIF- a long L, we use this in my family with an udub on the side.
HA- a arch sign done on the rounding part at the top of the neck.
LAANQEYR- a cross, this is what shiikhaal use
QALIN- done on the cheek straight over the septum to the other cheek.
QALQALE- Drag sign from the ear to the neck.
BAADISOOCDAN- a circle connected with a straight line going down.
DEEL- Sideways letter V
There's lots of research to be done inshallah on our vast and rich history we just haven't connected the dots due to constant fighting, but we will overcome this inshallah.
feel free to ask more questions and I will try answering them if they are in my capacity.
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The paper posted has many signs that are put on camels and objects and as the Djiboutian translated that might be our actual alphabet. These signs have been found in caves, graves, put on animals, tools and much more. There is little to no doubt these signs were an alphabet writing system back in ancient Somalia. I will try to get more names of summado and their literal meanings through odayo and the guys I speak to back in Baadiyo.
It seems to be more indigenous writing scripts than we may have even thought in the Horn, found this from a book titled History of Harar and the Hararis.
Thought I would share since Somalis are part of the history of Harar, and have made significant contributions.
Link to book: https://everythingharar.com/files/History_of_Harar_and_Harari-HNL.pdf
Thought I would share since Somalis are part of the history of Harar, and have made significant contributions.
Link to book: https://everythingharar.com/files/History_of_Harar_and_Harari-HNL.pdf
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Most of the calaamado in this are used in Somali culture. the sign under Jiim is the sign Shiikhaal use and is called Laanqeyr. the sideways V with the circles is called Xareed. The signunder Kha is called LAAN-SADDEX-GODLE. the Many letters on there are actual summado today.
Soo......uh..can someone continue this thread?
Writing was independently invented around four times in history - the ancient Chinese, the Sumerians in modern day Iraq, the Olmecs in southern Mexico and the ancient Egyptians. All other writing scripts in the world derive from one of these four writing scripts. Egyptian alone gave birth to almost 60 different scripts!
I thought Egyptian since it uses hieroglyphics wasn't adopted by other scripts since they are all alphabets. Wasn't it the script in modern Lebanon that gave birth to the Greek, Latin, different semitic scripts no?
The Egyptian turned from hieroglyphics to more demotic and hieratic scripts later on, which was the ancestor to the Proto-Sinaitic scripts, which then evolved into the Phoenician scripts, which then became Greek, Aramaic, Arabic, Latin, Ge'ez etc.. and all the other modern writing scripts today.
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