Short history of Somali script

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UN study by Somali studies scholar Andrzejewski wrote Writing of Somali in 1966. It shows the major alphabets that were being being discussed for adoption as the official script, the guy associated with it, and what year they published their main work on it. Keep track of the number associated with each script!






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None of scripts were fully adopted but Latin won. The closest appears to be script number 4, by MuusaXaaji Ismaaciil Galaal. He was appointed as chairman of the language committee that was formed in 1960. Unfortunately, he abandoned his own alphabet. The post1969 coup government ended language committee gridlock. They ended up liking a modified version of Galaal's Latin script. The adopted a modified version of his script, was also earlier than the other major contenders.


The current script still has imperfections so we should consider more modifications we can make to Galaal's already modified version that we use as official script today
 
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The Arabic script was even adopted by non-Afro Asiatic languages like persian and urdu, why did we adopt latin? smh
 
done.

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The next step is distinguishing different but similar vowels in words like xabbad/one vs xabbad/gun. Diacritics used in Arabic might help

The Arabic script was even adopted by non-Afro Asiatic languages like persian and urdu, why did we adopt latin? smh

Modernism vs Latin waa laa diin debate resulted in modernism victory. Governments were more secular from 1950s to 1970s
 

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