Somali tonality

[hinters]

The modern day Somali latin script does noy account for the Somali language's tonal nature, I'll provide an example.

Inan and inan mean boy and girl however you pronounce them differently

Ìnan as boy has the stress on the first syllable with a dropping tone while inán as girl has no stressed syllable and has a slight rising tone in the second syllable along with the boy being pronounced quicker, while the one for girl is more relaxed and drawn out.

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

That could easily be fixed with 'shadd' or a 'hamza' like Arabic, Turkish, or Slavic languages.

 

[xiin-finiin]

That could easily be fixed with 'shadd' or a 'hamza' like Arabic, Turkish, or Slavic languages.

i think that still wouldn't fix it. innan is not the same as inan. it's not a matter of shadd, its more like speed/emphasis.

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

i think that still wouldn't fix it. innan is not the same as inan. it's not a matter of shadd, its more like speed/emphasis.

This was a point of lengthy discussion some years ago amongst the literati, and concluded in its being doable. I'll share more as time permits. You may think differently, but then that is the beauty of incubating ideas.

 

[backgroundISneeded]

I am against any changes to the current system of Far Soomaali. The only few words that have tones can be memorized or notice through the context of the sentence. Look at English – every word has its own spelling and pronunciation, and people recognize each one of them. Somalis can do the same.


Look at these examples:

inanta u sheeg inaad jeceshahay.
Inan ayaa tidhi, saynisku waa horumarka aduunka.
Inan ayaa yidhi, saynisku waa sheeko baraleey.
Inankan ayuu rabay Boqor Samatar.
Boqorka jarmalka ayaa lagu xidhay Shiinaha.
Boqor Xaliimo Aadan ayaa bixisay amarakaas.

 

[hinters]

I am against any changes to the current system of Far Soomaali. The only few words that have tones can be memorized or notice through the context of the sentence. Look at English – every word has its own spelling and pronunciation, and people recognize each one of them. Somalis can do the same.


Look at these examples:

inanta u sheeg inaad jeceshahay.
Inan ayaa tidhi, saynisku waa horumarka aduunka.
Inan ayaa yidhi, saynisku waa sheeko baraleey.
Inankan ayuu rabay Boqor Samatar.
Boqorka jarmalka ayaa lagu xidhay Shiinaha.
Boqor Xaliimo Aadan ayaa bixisay amarakaas.

Really? The modern Somali script is ok but it has flaws, why be against any changes?

 

[Dualke]

I am against any changes to the current system of Far Soomaali. The only few words that have tones can be memorized or notice through the context of the sentence. Look at English – every word has its own spelling and pronunciation, and people recognize each one of them. Somalis can do the same.


Look at these examples:

inanta u sheeg inaad jeceshahay.
Inan ayaa tidhi, saynisku waa horumarka aduunka.
Inan ayaa yidhi, saynisku waa sheeko baraleey.
Inankan ayuu rabay Boqor Samatar.
Boqorka jarmalka ayaa lagu xidhay Shiinaha.
Boqor Xaliimo Aadan ayaa bixisay amarakaas.

Does far wadaad have this problem

 

[Ahmedahmed5000]

The modern day Somali latin script does noy account for the Somali language's tonal nature, I'll provide an example.

Inan and inan mean boy and girl however you pronounce them differently

Ìnan as boy has the stress on the first syllable with a dropping tone while inán as girl has no stressed syllable and has a slight rising tone in the second syllable along with the boy being pronounced quicker, while the one for girl is more relaxed and drawn out.

Somali didn't adopt diacritics because the machines would have needed to be changed, other languages other than english use diacritics. We should adopt using diacritics.

 

[Ahmedahmed5000]

Does far wadaad have this problem

Arabic orthography lacks vowels, because semetic languages have something called consonantal root, the root (ktbكتب ) is reorganised to form words kataba kutiba yaktub etc. Somali on the other hand is a language rich in vowels, tuug/thief & tuug/beg is spelt the same even though they're pronounced differently. Because somali has vowel harmony in which you have front and back vowels. Somali never adopted diacritics like finnish and turkish, and wasn't standardised, hence you have all this chaos.