Somali script needs to be either updated (Latin script) or completely changed (indigenous)

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smp_borama.gif
Why does it look like geez:susp:
 
This was an Oromo script created by a Somaliphile Oromo Shiekh (Bakri Sapolo) who died in Hiraan in 1990 aun

images


"...After devoting 20 years of his life to his studies, he returned to his home village of Sapalo, where he began to teach. Besides religion, subjects he taught included geography, history, mathematics, astronomy, Arabic, and the composition of writings in the Oromo language. He also began to compose poetry in the Oromo language, which not only brought him fame but the name he afterwards was known by, Sheikh Bakri Sapalo: "Bakri" is the popular form of "Abubakar" and Sapalo after his village.


..."Shaykh Bakri, write Hayward and Hassan, "stirred the imagination and captured the love of the Oromo masses by means of his poems, which were composed in their language and were short enough for the people to learn by heart."

Sheikh Bakri Sapalo's chief accomplishment is his writing system. Although Oromo has been transcribed using two writing systems Sheikh Sapalo was familiar with, the Ge'ez script and the Arabic alphabet, both are "far from adequate" in Hayward and Hassan's opinion, for reasons they set forth. (Most important being that Amhara has only seven vowels while Oromo has 10.)

While they "have no reason whatsoever to entertain the belief that Shaykh Bakri had ever studied modern linguistics, or was acquainted with the concept of the phoneme, it is nevertheless the case that his writing system is almost entirely phonemic; that is to say, it is a system achieving the ideal of just one graphic symbol for each phonologically distinctive sound of the language."

They further describe his writing system as a combination of a syllabary and an alphabet in that while the Ge'ez script builds on a consonantal base, the base character never appears without a modification to show the paired vowel. However, although the symbols Sheikh Bakri adopted are not cursive, which suggests a connection with Ge'ez over Arabic, none of them can be traced to either writing system; "they are a complete novelty."

SyllabaryShaykhBakriSapalo.jpg

Very interesting


dippArticle-7.jpg
- FONT

dippArticle-39.jpg
- numerals which is similar to Osmanya

credits to @Huur for finding such a gem of a script, here's his thread to which he first showed us it.

https://www.somalispot.com/threads/shaykh-bakri-saṗalō-sapalo-the-inventer-of-the-oromo-orthography.21737/


Current Oromo latin script

oromo.gif



Imagine if the Somalis adapted kaddare and the Oromos adapted this script? as @Prince Abubu stated in the other thread, it would be neat.
 
Read this @fardowsa @Araman @SOMALI GENERAL

http://dspace-roma3.caspur.it/bitstream/2307/2620/1/Linguistic Report 1961.pdf

We'd have to add tones to which every script lacks plus adding in Maay consonants (P, Jh, GH, NG and NY) plus the Semi Y' vowel.

The man who invented the Kaadare script was among them. Laakin he invented that script around 30 years before the start of the mission. Why didn't they just improve upon that one? :ohhh: You'd think he'd have an advantage as an insider. :kanyehmm:

Waliiba, they couldn't transport some guy from Hargeisa because of lack of funds. This mission was doomed from the start.:dwill:
 
This was an Oromo script created by a Somaliphile Oromo Shiekh (Bakri Sapolo) who died in Hiraan in 1990 aun

images


"...After devoting 20 years of his life to his studies, he returned to his home village of Sapalo, where he began to teach. Besides religion, subjects he taught included geography, history, mathematics, astronomy, Arabic, and the composition of writings in the Oromo language. He also began to compose poetry in the Oromo language, which not only brought him fame but the name he afterwards was known by, Sheikh Bakri Sapalo: "Bakri" is the popular form of "Abubakar" and Sapalo after his village.


..."Shaykh Bakri, write Hayward and Hassan, "stirred the imagination and captured the love of the Oromo masses by means of his poems, which were composed in their language and were short enough for the people to learn by heart."

Sheikh Bakri Sapalo's chief accomplishment is his writing system. Although Oromo has been transcribed using two writing systems Sheikh Sapalo was familiar with, the Ge'ez script and the Arabic alphabet, both are "far from adequate" in Hayward and Hassan's opinion, for reasons they set forth. (Most important being that Amhara has only seven vowels while Oromo has 10.)

While they "have no reason whatsoever to entertain the belief that Shaykh Bakri had ever studied modern linguistics, or was acquainted with the concept of the phoneme, it is nevertheless the case that his writing system is almost entirely phonemic; that is to say, it is a system achieving the ideal of just one graphic symbol for each phonologically distinctive sound of the language."

They further describe his writing system as a combination of a syllabary and an alphabet in that while the Ge'ez script builds on a consonantal base, the base character never appears without a modification to show the paired vowel. However, although the symbols Sheikh Bakri adopted are not cursive, which suggests a connection with Ge'ez over Arabic, none of them can be traced to either writing system; "they are a complete novelty."

SyllabaryShaykhBakriSapalo.jpg

Very interesting


dippArticle-7.jpg
- FONT

dippArticle-39.jpg
- numerals which is similar to Osmanya

credits to @Huur for finding such a gem of a script, here's his thread to which he first showed us it.

https://www.somalispot.com/threads/shaykh-bakri-saṗalō-sapalo-the-inventer-of-the-oromo-orthography.21737/


Current Oromo latin script

oromo.gif



Imagine if the Somalis adapted kaddare and the Oromos adapted this script? as @Prince Abubu stated in the other thread, it would be neat.
I think it is this
 
Then we should use the Kaddarre script. It's an indigenous Somali script, it matches our language well and it's beautiful. I don't want to replace Latin, a foreign script, with arabic another foreign script. It's embarrassing seeing you language next to other languages and seeing all the different scripts yet ours is in latin.:ohlord:

Especially when the Amazigh (berber) people have switched from Latin to their indigenous modified script as of recently.



Regarding Kaddare there are some challenges we must overcome

Kaddare_Alphabet_Chart.jpg


1. Double vowels don't have separate characters, the only way to represent double vowels is to repeat the vowel letter twice such as EE as opposed to a unique character representing EE. We would have to create 10 unique characters for the double to illustrate it's lower case and upper case counterparts.

2. Lack of numerals

3. Lack of tone representation, no somali script what so ever has thought about tonal representation

4. Lack of maay characters. JH, TH, GH (similar to this sound غ), P, NG , NY and Y' (semi vowel) are not represented.

5. Lack of arabic letters such as غ (which is similar to maay GH), ز (i don't know why this was left out in the first place), ذ (used in Madhiban local dialect supposedly) ظ , ض ص ث . I believe they can be represented easily by simply adding a diacritic to an already existing character. For example, the letter D in Kaddare should have a dot above to illustrate ظ as seen in Arabic. Maay GH/غ should have a dot below kaddare character C/ع.


6. Cost, it will not be cheap to create a modified kaddare keyboard

7. Laziness, somalis are too lazy to accept this change

8. Opposition to clan reasons, they'll probably dislike it since the creator was of a different clan to them, in this case Abgaal. They prefer a foreign script rather than a somali script due to qabyalaad. Even though it was held to be the best indigenous script in the 1961 unesco report.
 
Especially when the Amazigh (berber) people have switched from Latin to their indigenous modified script as of recently.



Regarding Kaddare there are some challenges we must overcome

Kaddare_Alphabet_Chart.jpg


1. Double vowels don't have separate characters, the only way to represent double vowels is to repeat the vowel letter twice such as EE as opposed to a unique character representing EE. We would have to create 10 unique characters for the double to illustrate it's lower case and upper case counterparts.

2. Lack of numerals

3. Lack of tone representation, no somali script what so ever has thought about tonal representation

4. Lack of maay characters. JH, TH, GH (similar to this sound غ), P, NG , NY and Y' (semi vowel) are not represented.

5. Lack of arabic letters such as غ (which is similar to maay GH), ز (i don't know why this was left out in the first place), ذ (used in Madhiban local dialect supposedly) ظ , ض ص ث . I believe they can be represented easily by simply adding a diacritic to an already existing character. For example, the letter D in Kaddare should have a dot above to illustrate ظ as seen in Arabic. Maay GH/غ should have a dot below kaddare character C/ع.


6. Cost, it will not be cheap to create a modified kaddare keyboard

7. Laziness, somalis are too lazy to accept this change

8. Opposition to clan reasons, they'll probably dislike it since the creator was of a different clan to them, in this case Abgaal. They prefer a foreign script rather than a somali script due to qabyalaad. Even though it was held to be the best indigenous script in the 1961 unesco report.
Why do we need letters for ض ص ظ ث ز when we don't even pronounce them in somali?
 
Especially when the Amazigh (berber) people have switched from Latin to their indigenous modified script as of recently.



Regarding Kaddare there are some challenges we must overcome

Kaddare_Alphabet_Chart.jpg


1. Double vowels don't have separate characters, the only way to represent double vowels is to repeat the vowel letter twice such as EE as opposed to a unique character representing EE. We would have to create 10 unique characters for the double to illustrate it's lower case and upper case counterparts.

2. Lack of numerals

3. Lack of tone representation, no somali script what so ever has thought about tonal representation

4. Lack of maay characters. JH, TH, GH (similar to this sound غ), P, NG , NY and Y' (semi vowel) are not represented.

5. Lack of arabic letters such as غ (which is similar to maay GH), ز (i don't know why this was left out in the first place), ذ (used in Madhiban local dialect supposedly) ظ , ض ص ث . I believe they can be represented easily by simply adding a diacritic to an already existing character. For example, the letter D in Kaddare should have a dot above to illustrate ظ as seen in Arabic. Maay GH/غ should have a dot below kaddare character C/ع.


6. Cost, it will not be cheap to create a modified kaddare keyboard

7. Laziness, somalis are too lazy to accept this change

8. Opposition to clan reasons, they'll probably dislike it since the creator was of a different clan to them, in this case Abgaal. They prefer a foreign script rather than a somali script due to qabyalaad. Even though it was held to be the best indigenous script in the 1961 unesco report.

Most of the reasons you've listed can be used against other scripts as well.

What about ancient south Arabian? That's sufficiently old enough and can be found in Somaliland?
 
Most of the reasons you've listed can be used against other scripts as well.

What about ancient south Arabian? That's sufficiently old enough and can be found in Somaliland?
Itd be weird using a dead script and its not entirely suitable for our alphabet as it has extra letters
 
Itd be weird using a dead script and its not entirely suitable for our alphabet as it has extra letters

It's better than Latin. I'm tired of Somalis writing in European script that has nothing to do with us. I don't like Arabic script because it's not unique, would have to be adapted to Somali, and it will be used by booty-clappers to further arabise Somali.

I don't think we should use the Somali scripts because it would cause tribal rivalry withe every clan wanting its own script. The best solution seems to be adapting the ancient south Arabian to Somali, like the Berbers adapted Tifinagh from Phoenician/Punic. It doesn't matter if it's a dead language, many cultures have revived dead languages and scripts for heritage and prestige.
 
It's better than Latin. I'm tired of Somalis writing in European script that has nothing to do with us. I don't like Arabic script because it's not unique, would have to be adapted to Somali, and it will be used by booty-clappers to further arabise Somali.

I don't think we should use the Somali scripts because it would cause tribal rivalry withe every clan wanting its own script. The best solution seems to be adapting the ancient south Arabian to Somali, like the Berbers adapted Tifinagh from Phoenician/Punic. It doesn't matter if it's a dead language, many cultures have revived dead languages and scripts for heritage and prestige.
That would cause xabesh bootyclappers to use it too though and rivalry with xabesh themselves

Qabilism needs to stop!:susp:
 
Well Ge'ez and South Arabian look sufficiently different. Plus, Ge'ez is an Abugida script that uses syllables but south Arabian is an abjad consonants only script which can easily be adapted into af Somali. It's either that, or a whole new script.:manny:
 
Regardless of which script you prefer, aren't dadkeena amazing? Our ability to invent and learn multiple scripts and use them is a testament to our creativity and powerful command of language.

I wish I could have met some of the Somali linguists - they were badass.
 
Well Ge'ez and South Arabian look sufficiently different. Plus, Ge'ez is an Abugida script that uses syllables but south Arabian is an abjad consonants only script which can easily be adapted into af Somali. It's either that, or a whole new script.:manny:
To me they look the same apart from the vowel adding which ge'ez never used to do

To me i prefer a new script, people need to forget about qabils and let it go
Using south arabian will still attract even arab bootyclappers:susp:
 
Regardless of which script you prefer, aren't dadkeena amazing? Our ability to invent and learn multiple scripts and use them is a testament to our creativity and powerful command of language.

I wish I could have met some of the Somali linguists - they were badass.

There needs to be an institution in Somaliland/Somalia that preserves the language and it rich history. Nowadays, I see it being more and more common back home to mix Somali and and ingiriisi, even though many of the English wireless have suitable af Soomaali alternatives.
 
All these systems have issues with them.

Latin - not standardized

Osmanya / borama / kaddere - all qabiil related

Some of the constructed ones are too difficult to write.

I suggest that everyone should look at the pictures of inscriptions in Somaliland and take that as inspiration (not cave paintings, inscriptions) and if everyone posts that we can find a common script, which could, at least, be adapted onto sspot

its only qabil related to qabilists who can only see things through the lens of tribalism.

Im in favour of an indigenous somali script, i don't care which is chosen just as long as its most suitable and not for any silly reason like "clan".
 
its only qabil related to qabilists who can only see things through the lens of tribalism.

Im in favour of an indigenous somali script, i don't care which is chosen just as long as its most suitable and not for any silly reason like "clan".

That's very hard when the scripts are called Gadabuursi, osmanya (after the MJ guy who created it) and Kaddare (after the Hawiye guy that created it).

This is why the scripts on the caves and rocks are better, they are not only much older, which provides a historical connection to our ancestors but they are also completely with out baggage. Unless someone hates the ancient south Arabians for some reason.
 
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