CULTURE Think we should change the somali writing system

[Never Broke Again]

I feel like the Latin writing system isn't made for the Somali language and that we either perfected the grammar or we get a new alphabet as we had in the past that is more useful for the Somali language. What do you think of this statement and do agree or disagree?

 

[one]

The Latin is fine. We just need to work on it.

1. Standardization of the language.

2. Change the Kh, Sh and Dh letters to P, Z and V.

3. The double consonants should be updated. M, N, L, G, R, B and the currently missing letter, "Dh".

4. Add new vowels(ä, ё, ї ö, ü) to differentiate between homonym/homograph words that share the same spelling but with different sounds/meanings. For example:

Inan(boy) and inan(girl) becomes Inan(boy) and Inän(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Döqön/Döqon/Doqön(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Düül(to fight/attack, expedition)

Or if new vowels are too much, how about double consonants?
Inan(boy) and Innan(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Doqqon(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Duull(to fight, expedition)

 

[Villainess]

The Latin is fine. We just need to work on it.

1. Standardization of the language.

2. Change the Kh, Sh and Dh letters to P, Z and V.

3. The double consonants should be updated. M, N, L, G, R, B and the currently missing letter, "Dh".

4. Add new vowels(ä, ё, ї ö, ü) to differentiate between homonym/homograph words that share the same spelling but with different sounds/meanings. For example:

Inan(boy) and inan(girl) becomes Inan(boy) and Inän(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Döqön/Döqon/Doqön(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Düül(to fight/attack, expedition)

Or if new vowels are too much, how about double consonants?
Inan(boy) and Innan(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Doqqon(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Duull(to fight, expedition)

too much work,


Im american.


We need the wadaad script!

 

[Apollo]

The Latin script works for all languages. All you have to do is add some diacritics.

Diacritic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Turkish is not related to European languages (it came from East Asia) and uses the Roman script with slight tweaks.

 

[Amirah]

I feel like the Latin writing system isn't made for the Somali language and that we either perfected the grammar or we get a new alphabet as we had in the past that is more useful for the Somali language. What do you think of this statement and do agree or disagree?

I personally have always been bitter from day one when I learned af Somali is written in Latin! We are currently the only Afro-asiatic language that uses it. Our original alphabet was something similar to other Afro-asiatic languages like Amharic, Arabic, Hebrew or Aramaic etc. When one loses their original alphabet or writing system they lose a huge part of their identity. It bothers me to my core that our next door neighbor somehow were able to retained theirs almost as it was 2000yrs ago and here we are none of us can even write a single letter of ours; we can’t even identify it. Slowly with time even af Somali being written today in Latin will be lost. Language, then culture and eventually even us will become extinct. This played out million times in history to past now extinct civilizations.

For example one of the main reasons Jews were able to retained their identity even after settling in diaspora for centuries was they always retained their language in its original form and they discouraged interracial marriages. 2 things we’ve already lost or losing in just short amount of time. Imagine us living in diaspora still for another 100yrs, most youths can’t even speak or write af Somali as is today.

 

[Fratello]

The Latin is fine. We just need to work on it.

1. Standardization of the language.

2. Change the Kh, Sh and Dh letters to P, Z and V.

3. The double consonants should be updated. M, N, L, G, R, B and the currently missing letter, "Dh".

4. Add new vowels(ä, ё, ї ö, ü) to differentiate between homonym/homograph words that share the same spelling but with different sounds/meanings. For example:

Inan(boy) and inan(girl) becomes Inan(boy) and Inän(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Döqön/Döqon/Doqön(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Düül(to fight/attack, expedition)

Or if new vowels are too much, how about double consonants?
Inan(boy) and Innan(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Doqqon(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Duull(to fight, expedition)

That’d be great i reckon

 

[Reformed J]

I personally have always been bitter from day one when I learned af Somali is written in Latin! We are currently the only Afro-asiatic language that uses it. Our original alphabet was something similar to other Afro-asiatic languages like Amharic, Arabic, Hebrew or Aramaic etc. When one loses their original alphabet or writing system they lose a huge part of their identity. It bothers me to my core that our next door neighbor somehow were able to retained theirs almost as it was 2000yrs ago and here we are none of us can even write a single letter of ours; we can’t even identify it. Slowly with time even af Somali being written today in Latin will be lost. Language, then culture and eventually even us will become extinct. This played out million times in history to past now extinct civilizations.

For example one of the main reasons Jews were able to retained their identity even after settling in diaspora for centuries was they always retained their language in its original form and they discouraged interracial marriages. 2 things we’ve already lost or losing in just short amount of time. Imagine us living in diaspora still for another 100yrs, most youths can’t even speak or write af Somali as is today.

Somali never had it's own ancient alphabet

 

[Aurelian]

The Latin is fine. We just need to work on it.

1. Standardization of the language.

2. Change the Kh, Sh and Dh letters to P, Z and V.

3. The double consonants should be updated. M, N, L, G, R, B and the currently missing letter, "Dh".

4. Add new vowels(ä, ё, ї ö, ü) to differentiate between homonym/homograph words that share the same spelling but with different sounds/meanings. For example:

Inan(boy) and inan(girl) becomes Inan(boy) and Inän(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Döqön/Döqon/Doqön(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Düül(to fight/attack, expedition)

Or if new vowels are too much, how about double consonants?
Inan(boy) and Innan(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Doqqon(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Duull(to fight, expedition)

2. Dh, kh and sh are totally fine why to change it to v,p,z is weird.

 

[Helios]

I was a fan of wadaad until I realized it doesn't work on a mass scale

You gotta realize when Somalis used wadaad it was only elites and a few educated people. Now if you try to apply it en masse, wadaad can be confused for arabic and also will lead to the degradation of our language since arabic substitutes can more easily replace somali words

 

[reer]

I was a fan of wadaad until I realized it doesn't work on a mass scale

You gotta realize when Somalis used wadaad it was only elites and a few educated people. Now if you try to apply it en masse, wadaad can be confused for arabic and also will lead to the degradation of our language since arabic substitutes can more easily replace somali words

i agree but english is more prevalent in somalia than arabic. using different script is less dangerous than it was before. this is because of globalization/internet/social media. e.g. urdu - more english loanwords entering the language despite arabic script.
most ideal would be a native script. borama script is simple and is good for an abrupt and vowel heavy language like ours.

 

[The Inquisitive]

We can adopt Osmanya or Kaddare script, i think this is better because it gives our language some kind of uniqueness, Latin script is too cliche.

 

[adventurequestworlds1.0.2]

Somalis ppl should make their own script and revive somali originals words and take those so called loan words tht is non somali words out of somali language replasy with originals somali words and not use non Somalis scripts and words

 

[Aurelian]

Somalis ppl should make their own script and revive somali originals words and take those so called loan words tht is non somali words out of somali language replasy with originals somali words and not use non Somalis scripts and words

Astonishing.

 

[Som]

illiteracy is a huge problem in somalia, we can't change the alphabet when the rest of the world uses the latin script. We would have to start everything all over again by teaching people a completly knew alphabet. There are only two practical solutions : 1) latin script 2) arabic script. The former somali govt chose the first option and it was the most logic choice

 

[Ahmedahmed5000]

I feel like the Latin writing system isn't made for the Somali language and that we either perfected the grammar or we get a new alphabet as we had in the past that is more useful for the Somali language. What do you think of this statement and do agree or disagree?

Nope the latin script works just fine, but it wasn't developed properly, no proper diphtongs and we should change some diagraphs to single letters. Adopting a new script would also need keyboards and loads of shit,which would just push us even further back. And lastly we need to represent, vowel harmony,

Tuug = beg

Tuug = theif

Are written the same but have different pronunciation.

 

[reer]

I was a fan of wadaad until I realized it doesn't work on a mass scale

You gotta realize when Somalis used wadaad it was only elites and a few educated people. Now if you try to apply it en masse, wadaad can be confused for arabic and also will lead to the degradation of our language since arabic substitutes can more easily replace somali words

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N'Ko_script

west african scripts look good.

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[one]

2. Dh, kh and sh are totally fine why to change it to v,p,z is weird.

It's not my idea, actually. It was suggested back in the 60s and early 70s when they were making the Somali script. Unfortunately, Siad Barre rushed everything, and now we're left with an underdeveloped Somali script that doesn't live up to its fullest potential.

Kh, sh, dh....6 letters. It's a pain in the neck to write them. Not to mention how the letter 'dh' is a double consonant. I'm bad at explaining things, but check pages 55-57

http://manhajka.com/grammer/Codaynta%20Af%20Soomaaliga.pdf

Gabadha(the girl) should be written as "Gabadhdha", fadhi= fadhdhi etc. Changing 'dh' to 'v' would make it a whole lot easier, Imo. Gabadhdha, fadhdhi vs gabavva, favvi.

 

[The Camels of Cal madow]

It's not my idea, actually. It was suggested back in the 60s and early 70s when they were making the Somali script. Unfortunately, Siad Barre rushed everything, and now we're left with an underdeveloped Somali script that doesn't live up to its fullest potential.

Kh, sh, dh....6 letters. It's a pain in the neck to write them. Not to mention how the letter 'dh' is a double consonant. I'm bad at explaining things, but check pages 55-57

http://manhajka.com/grammer/Codaynta%20Af%20Soomaaliga.pdf

Gabadha(the girl) should be written as "Gabadhdha", fadhi= fadhdhi etc. Changing 'dh' to 'v' would make it a whole lot easier, Imo. Gabadhdha, fadhdhi vs gabavva, favvi.

It looks like Italian

 

[The Camels of Cal madow]

It's not my idea, actually. It was suggested back in the 60s and early 70s when they were making the Somali script. Unfortunately, Siad Barre rushed everything, and now we're left with an underdeveloped Somali script that doesn't live up to its fullest potential.

Kh, sh, dh....6 letters. It's a pain in the neck to write them. Not to mention how the letter 'dh' is a double consonant. I'm bad at explaining things, but check pages 55-57

http://manhajka.com/grammer/Codaynta%20Af%20Soomaaliga.pdf

Gabadha(the girl) should be written as "Gabadhdha", fadhi= fadhdhi etc. Changing 'dh' to 'v' would make it a whole lot easier, Imo. Gabadhdha, fadhdhi vs gabavva, favvi.

I think we could write in the Ge'ez script to connect with our harari brothers or return to the wadaad's script. Latin just feels disappointing.

 

[Maxaa kaa galay]

The Latin is fine. We just need to work on it.

1. Standardization of the language.

2. Change the Kh, Sh and Dh letters to P, Z and V.

3. The double consonants should be updated. M, N, L, G, R, B and the currently missing letter, "Dh".

4. Add new vowels(ä, ё, ї ö, ü) to differentiate between homonym/homograph words that share the same spelling but with different sounds/meanings. For example:

Inan(boy) and inan(girl) becomes Inan(boy) and Inän(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Döqön/Döqon/Doqön(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Düül(to fight/attack, expedition)

Or if new vowels are too much, how about double consonants?
Inan(boy) and Innan(girl)
Doqon(masculine) and Doqqon(feminine)
Duul(to fly) and Duull(to fight, expedition)

White an academic letter