SomaliNet Forums

Posted: **Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:31 pm**

abdi.ismail wrote:Latin script

We should have come up with our own script instead.

Many countries in the world use latin TEXT (not script). Latin which originates from the Latin language.

Somalia was a underdeveloped country, lacked education.

Also creating your own text, can sometimes fail to present your oral language. It will also take a long time and cost to implement it and to spread into the land of Somalia.

Many Somali scholars tried to use Arabic Text, Ancient Cushtic Osmaniya text and other texts. All of them failed to create a script that perfects our language.

But alhamdulilah, thanks to Shire Jama who has chosen the latin text, worked hard to use the latin and workout a way to use the latin text as our new and needed script.

Shire Jama script

Revolutionary government also took a great part in it as they made it possible to implement it, as Somalia had no written language (script).

Posted: **Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:36 pm**

XimanJaale wrote:
Grant wrote:One of the ironies that came out of the recent Peace Corps reunions is that nearly everyone gets confused by the "New Letters". We all learned with Hirsi's script and still think with the old spellings.
What is a Hirsi script? Nowhere in the Somali history mentions it. No where in the Somali education system from the 60s to the present ever heard of it.

Care to explain to us what a Hirsi script is?

Posted: **Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:38 pm**

Grant wrote:
XimanJaale wrote:
Grant wrote:One of the ironies that came out of the recent Peace Corps reunions is that nearly everyone gets confused by the "New Letters". We all learned with Hirsi's script and still think with the old spellings.
What is a Hirsi script? Nowhere in the Somali history mentions it. No where in the Somali education system from the 60s to the present ever heard of it.

Care to explain to us what a Hirsi script is?

Who is Hirsi? and what does he got to do with the Somali written language (Shire Jama Script)

Posted: **Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:48 pm**

XimanJaale wrote:
abdi.ismail wrote:Latin script

We should have come up with our own script instead.
Many countries in the world use latin TEXT (not script). Latin which originates from the Latin language.

Somalia was a underdeveloped country, lacked education.

Also creating your own text, can sometimes fail to present your oral language. It will also take a long time and cost to implement it and to spread into the land of Somalia.

Many Somali scholars tried to use Arabic Text, Ancient Cushtic Osmaniya text and other texts. All of them failed to create a script that perfects our language.

But alhamdulilah, thanks to Shire Jama who has chosen the latin text, worked hard to use the latin and workout a way to use the latin text as our new and needed script.

Shire Jama script Revolutionary government also took a great part in it as they made it possible to implement it, as Somalia had no written language (script).

How is it that Indians have a universal script despite speaking hundreds of languages with individual scripts themselves? How is it the Chinese can do the same with different dialects and languages? The same with the Ethiopians. How is it the arabs, persians, armenians, georgians etc. can adapt they're scripts to their langauages? You said people were illiterate, then that would make it easier, not harder, to adopt a unique national script since they don't have to re-learn a foreign script like the Turks did.

I think it was to do with laziness that they went with the Latin alphabet in the end (an alphabet that would go with most languages quite easily). And because of that, we have no script to call our own and be proud of like every other civilised nation on earth.

Posted: **Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:57 pm**

abdi.ismail wrote:
How is it that Indians have a universal script despite speaking hundreds of languages with individual scripts themselves? How is it the Chinese can do the same with different dialects and languages? The same with the Ethiopians. How is it the arabs, persians, armenians, georgians etc. can adapt they're scripts to their langauages? You said people were illiterate, then that would make it easier, not harder, to adopt a unique national script since they don't have to re-learn a foreign script like the Turks did.

I think it was to do with laziness that they went with the Latin alphabet in the end (an alphabet that would go with most languages quite easily). And because of that, we have no script to call our own and be proud of like every other civilised nation on earth.

First do not mix TEXT with SCRIPT.

Our language falls under the Cushtic banner, where we had influence of using cushtic texts such as the Amhara etc.

Somalis are oral people, from the start of our existance we used oral language and we lacked written language. We had no foundation of our language in terms of writing. (Bare in mind, that most of the words in our language are bastard, and are taken from other languages such as Italian and Arabic.)

Somalis are not the only people that are like that many ethnic groups do not have their own text to their language. You cannot blame Shire Jama for using Latin text, and you cannot blame the revolutionary for using Shire Jama script.

We should be proud that we can finally write our own language, despite which text we use. Cause at the end of the day, their was a commitee that had that responsibility, they failed to agree and they failed to prove that their chosen text can work well with our language.

P.S The Indians do not have a common text, and do not have common language. They have a variety of languages and variety of text, this is duty their history and their ways of existence let it be religion, or others.

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:20 am**

XimanJaale wrote:
abdi.ismail wrote:
How is it that Indians have a universal script despite speaking hundreds of languages with individual scripts themselves? How is it the Chinese can do the same with different dialects and languages? The same with the Ethiopians. How is it the arabs, persians, armenians, georgians etc. can adapt they're scripts to their langauages? You said people were illiterate, then that would make it easier, not harder, to adopt a unique national script since they don't have to re-learn a foreign script like the Turks did.

I think it was to do with laziness that they went with the Latin alphabet in the end (an alphabet that would go with most languages quite easily). And because of that, we have no script to call our own and be proud of like every other civilised nation on earth.
First do not mix TEXT with SCRIPT.

Our language falls under the Cushtic banner, where we had influence of using cushtic texts such as the Amhara etc.

Somalis are oral people, from the start of our existance we used oral language and we lacked written language. We had no foundation of our language in terms of writing. (Bare in mind, that most of the words in our language are bastard, and are taken from other languages such as Italian and Arabic.)

Somalis are not the only people that are like that many ethnic groups do not have their own text to their language. You cannot blame Shire Jama for using Latin text, and you cannot blame the revolutionary for using Shire Jama script.

We should be proud that we can finally write our own language, despite which text we use. Cause at the end of the day, their was a commitee that had that responsibility, they failed to agree and they failed to prove that their chosen text can work well with our language.

P.S The Indians do not have a common text, and do not have common language. They have a variety of languages and variety of text, this is duty their history and their ways of existence let it be religion, or others.

They do it's called Hindi and the script is called Devanagari. My point is if a country with so many varieties of langauages can have a common script and language that unites them how incompetent must we seem to not be able to create one for a country that only has one language? And worse to plagiarise the latin script and call it a unique "somali script" is like buying a jet plane, painting SOMALIA AIRLINES on the side and then claiming we invented the 747 Boeing.

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 11:31 am**

The only recorded Somali script is called osmania/osmanya by Osman Yusuf Keenadiid

What’s New for International Customers in Windows 7 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/ee426904
In Windows 7, support for 10 new scripts is added : Braille, Deseret, New Tai Lue, Ogham, Osmanya, Phags-pa, Runic, Symbols, Tai Le and Tifinagh. There is also new added support for Unicode variation-selector sequences using Open Type fonts with format 14 in cmap subtable in Microsoft Phags Pa and Cambria Math fonts . In addition, Windows 7 adds many new fonts .

http://www.omniglot.com/gallery/pirogra ... hp?start=6

Wooden carving featuring article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Somali and in the Osmanya alphabet

You can learn more about this part of YOUR history through this link
http://www.google.com/#q=osmanya&hl=en& ... 40&bih=742

The government took already widely used Latin script for simplicity.

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:21 pm**

Whatever the case may be, despite the pride in our own indigenous script as was the case with both the Kaddare & Osmaniya Scripts, at the end of the day the Latin Script was chosen for practical reasons. It would have been a huge burden & made the efforts to combat illiteracy excessively challenging had a unique Somali Script been chosen. Most of the government workers and students were familiar with the Latin Script and this is what led Prime Ministers Abdulahi Isse AUN to write using the Latin Script in popular newspapers such as Wargeyska Somaliyed "The Somali Messenger" in 1957 and what forced Prime Minister Abdirazaq Haji Hussein to specifically order the successive committees to "pay a special attention to practical factors." A poll conducted in Mogadishu in mid-1960s, 78% favored the Latin Script. When it was chosen as the official script by the Siyad Barre Regime in the 1972, it was welcomed with huge support & the public came out in full force to hail the government's decision.

The choosing of a national script was one of the few things the Siyad Barre Regime got right. In a forceful & very passionate tribute to the great poet W E Bates, the Anglo-American poet W H Auden said of the colonialist minded Rudyard Kipling a couplet that could very well applied to Siyad Barre:

"Time that is intolerant
Of the brave and innocent,
And indifferent in a week
To a beautiful physique,
Worships language and forgives
Everyone by whom it lives;
Pardons cowardice, conceit,
Lays its honours at their feet.
Time that with this strange excuse
Pardoned Kipling and his views,
And will pardon Paul Claudel,
Pardons him for writing well."

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:28 pm**

The Latin script was already intact and existed before the Kacaan regime they reformed it a bit and that's it Somalis used to write things down in the latin scripts it's not like Rocket Science Muusa Galaal wrote Many poems using the latin script in the early sixties and before that. Only fools think you can invent something that already exists The Gadabuursi Script the Osmaniya Script and the Kadare Scripts were creations of Somalis themselves and that deserves credit

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:29 pm**

Thank U Jama Shire for inventing the somali script in latin letters

thanks to U somalia has able to have somali speaking schools

Posted: **Mon Oct 17, 2011 12:46 pm**

khalid ali wrote:The Latin script was already intact and existed before the Kacaan regime they reformed it a bit and that's it Somalis used to write things down in the latin scripts it's not like Rocket Science Muusa Galaal wrote Many poems using the latin script in the early sixties and before that. Only fools think you can invent something that already exists The Gadabuursi Script the Osmaniya Script and the Kadare Scripts were creations of Somalis themselves and that deserves credit

This weird idea & title of "The First Somali Inventer of the Latin" script is as deranged & pathetic as the idea of "First Somali to invent the wheel."The Latin Script was being used much longer than Shire who simply made very few amendments to the Somali Latin Script. Italian, British & Somali scholars were in fact using the Latin Script earlier than Shire.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:49 am**

UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, Cultural Organization) recommendation to the Somali linguistic commission in 1966

UNESCO
Paris
August 1966
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/0 ... 8072eb.pdf

In the end not only did Shire's preferred method of Latin get picked but as well as his specifically developed version which UNESCO as well as Somali and non-Somali experts were supporting since the early 1960's.

Shire was also the first President of the Somali National Academy of Culture and also founded the first Somali literary magazine which quenched the thirst of Somali intellectuals.

Shire Jama Ahmed ("Juge") A Somali national icon.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:31 am**

Voltage you sure don't give in when it comes to beesha.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:39 am**

I am only after the truth sxb and also to combat those who out of spite try to bring misinformation and outright fabrications for tribal reasons. If you notice on this topic, it went from Shire Jama didn't even have anything to do with the Somali writing to what was so special about what he did. Wallahi, Somalis are the biggest haters in the world.

The man is acknowledged by everyone from Somalis to non-Somalis to organizations like UNESCO before Siad Barre even came to power. Let that sink into them.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:46 am**

Voltage,

Aren't you the one that said the facts don't matter when it comes to Marehan in Alchemist's topic recently?

SomaliNet Forums

Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)

Re: Shire Jama Script (Somali written language)