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Osmanya script

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Osmanya
𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖
Typewriter with Osmanya letters, from British Somaliland
Script type
CreatorOsman Yusuf Kenadid
Published
1920-1922
Time period
c.1922 — c.1972, some current interest
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesSomali language
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Osma (260), ​Osmanya
Unicode
Unicode alias
Osmanya
U+10480–U+104AF

Osmanya (Farta Cismaanya, 𐒍𐒖𐒇𐒂𐒖 𐒋𐒘𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒒𐒕𐒖), known in somali as Far Soomaali (𐒍𐒖𐒇 𐒘𐒝𐒈𐒑𐒛𐒘, "Somali writing")[1] and in Arabic as al-kitābah al-ʿuthmānīyah (الكتابة العثمانية; "Osman writing"), is an alphabetic script created to transcribe the Somali language.[2] It was invented by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, the son of Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid and brother of Sultan Ali Yusuf Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo. Material written in the script is 'almost non-existent,' so it is difficult to describe its use with certainty.[3]

History

[edit]
Osman Yusuf Kenadid

While Osmanya gained reasonable acceptance for correspondence and bookkeeping at the local level, it met fierce resistance as a national script for several reasons: it was identified with the Majeerteen clan, who supported the Italian colonial government, rather than with the Somali nation as a whole [a view that has changed somewhat in the 21st century], there was opposition to making Somali rather than Arabic the official language of the country, and in addition there was opposition to using any indigenous script rather than either the Arabic script, long used for writing Arabic in Somalia, or the Latin script.[3][4][5]

After independence a governmental commission was set up to decide on an official writing system for Somali. It favored Kaddare script, but judged it to be impractical for a developing nation. In October 1972 the Somali Latin alphabet was adopted as the official writing system for Somali because of its simplicity, ability to cope with all of the sounds in the language, and the widespread existence of machines and typewriters designed for the Latin script.[6][7][8] The administration of President Mohamed Siad Barre subsequently launched a massive literacy campaign designed to ensure its adoption, which led to a sharp decline in use of Osmanya.

Description

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The Osmanya script as reproduced in Lewis (1958: 141), with phonetic values of the letters. Note the lack of an alef even at this date and the different alphabetic order compared to the presentation below.

The direction of reading and writing in Osmanya is from left to right, as in Latin script. Capitalization is sporadic.

Long vowels were originally written either double or with consonants, as in Arabic, but later ligatures were developed from the double vowels.

Transcription of long vowels
Latin early Osmanya late Osmanya
aa 𐒖𐒀 ⟨aʼ⟩ 𐒛 ⟨ā⟩
ee 𐒗𐒕 ⟨ey⟩, 𐒗𐒗 ⟨ee⟩ 𐒜 ⟨ē⟩
oo 𐒙𐒓 ⟨ow⟩, 𐒙𐒙 ⟨oo⟩ 𐒝 ⟨ō⟩
ii 𐒘𐒕 ⟨iy⟩ 𐒕 ⟨y⟩
uu 𐒚𐒓 ⟨uw⟩ 𐒓 ⟨w⟩

The ATR/RTR distinction is not marked in vowels, except occasionally in the 21st century with a diaeresis for ATR vowels, as is occasionally done also in Latin script.

The article and determiner suffixes are written separately from the noun, which retains its underlying form. Assimilation is however shown on the article/determiner itself [feminine -ta, masculine -ka]. Thus hooyada 'the mother' is written ⟨hooyo da⟩; hasha 'the she-camel' is written ⟨hal sha⟩. When the k of -ka elides, it is marked with an apostrophe, which was borrowed from Latin script. Thus dhinaca 'the side' is written ⟨dhinac'a⟩.

Letters

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The order of the alphabet is not completely fixed, as only letters that correspond to Arabic script are consistently written in that order. The letter 𐒀 alef, which had been used to mark long vowels as well as glottal stop, was dropped around the time letters were added for aa, ee, oo, and w, y came to be used for uu, ii. The order below is -- apart from the anachronistic retention of the letter alef -- as written by the inventor's son Yaasiin, though various other orders are attested.[9]

Osmanya Name Latin IPA Osmanya Name Latin IPA Osmanya Name Latin IPA
𐒀 * alef ʼ [ʔ, ː] 𐒁 ba b [b] 𐒂 ta t [t]
𐒃 ja j [d͡ʒ] 𐒄 xa x [ħ] 𐒅 kha kh [χ]
𐒆 deel d [d] 𐒇 ra r [r] 𐒈 sa s [s]
𐒉 shiin sh [ʃ] 𐒌 ga g [ɡ] 𐒊 dha dh [ɖ]
𐒋 cayn c [ʕ] 𐒍 fa f [f] 𐒎 qaaf q [q]
𐒏 kaaf k [k] 𐒐 laan l [l] 𐒑 miin m [m]
𐒒 nuun n [n] 𐒔 ha h [h] 𐒘 i i [i, ɪ]
𐒚 u u [ʉ, u] 𐒙 o o [ɞ, ɔ] 𐒖 a a [æ, ɑ]
𐒗 e e [e, ɛ] 𐒕 ya y, ii [j, iː, ɪː] 𐒓 waw w, uu [w, ʉː, uː]
𐒝 oo oo [ɞː, ɔː] 𐒛 aa aa [æː, ɑː] 𐒜 ee ee [eː, ɛː]
*alef, which was used for both glottal stop and long aa, has been dropped from the alphabet

Digits

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The system is decimal

Digit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Osmanya 𐒠 𐒡 𐒢 𐒣 𐒤 𐒥 𐒦 𐒧 𐒨 𐒩

Although some of these digits may look identical to various letters, this is not true for all fonts

Unicode

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Main article: Osmanya (Unicode block)

Osmanya was added to the Unicode Standard in April 2003 with the release of version 4.0. Capitalization is not supported.

The Unicode block for Osmanya is U+10480–U+104AF:

Osmanya[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1048x 𐒀 𐒁 𐒂 𐒃 𐒄 𐒅 𐒆 𐒇 𐒈 𐒉 𐒊 𐒋 𐒌 𐒍 𐒎 𐒏
U+1049x 𐒐 𐒑 𐒒 𐒓 𐒔 𐒕 𐒖 𐒗 𐒘 𐒙 𐒚 𐒛 𐒜 𐒝
U+104Ax 𐒠 𐒡 𐒢 𐒣 𐒤 𐒥 𐒦 𐒧 𐒨 𐒩
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 16.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Dadweynaha, Somalia Wasaaradda Warfaafinta iyo Hanuuninta (1974). The Writing of the Somali Language: A Great Landmark in Our Revolutionary History. Ministry of Information and National Guidance. p. 5.
  2. ^ Dadweynaha, Somalia Wasaaradda Warfaafinta iyo Hanuuninta (1974). The Writing of the Somali Language: A Great Landmark in Our Revolutionary History. Ministry of Information and National Guidance. p. 16.
  3. ^ a b Tosco, Mauro (2015). "Djibouti: AGA" (PDF). The Intergovernmental Academy of Somali Language: 196–197.
  4. ^ Abdullahi, Mohamed Diriye (2001). Culture and Customs of Somalia. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-313-31333-2.
  5. ^ Lewis, I. M. (1999). A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics Among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. James Currey Publishers. ISBN 978-0-85255-280-3.
  6. ^ Andrew Simpson, Language and National Identity in Africa, (Oxford University Press: 2008), p.288
  7. ^ Economist Intelligence Unit (Great Britain), Middle East annual review, (1975), p.229
  8. ^ Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Press: 2001), p.73
  9. ^ Tosco 2010 Somali writings, p 13 ff

References

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  • I.M. Lewis (1958) Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 21 pp 134–156.
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