1958/02/01 by I. M. Lewis · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #African history and culture analysis #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis #Somali #Protectorate #Orthography #History #Scripting language #Political science #Linguistics #Reading (process) #Law #Philosophy #Colonialism #Computer science #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0041977x00063278
openalex publication_date 1958/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
At the moment, both in the British Protectorate and in Somalia, the adoption of a standard orthography for the Somali language is fiercely debated. In discussion of the merits of the various scripts proposed, technical problems of orthography have to some extent been lost sight of. Nationalistic arguments have favoured ‘Somali writing’ (‘Ismaaniya) while religious or Pan-Islamic arguments have supported an Arabic script. This article discusses an orthography invented some 20 years ago by a well-known Gadabuursi sheikh, Sheikh ‘Abduramaan Sh. Nuur, the present Government Qā1E0D;ī of Borama District in the west of the British Protectorate. The script has not, as far as I am aware, been previously described in the literature on Somaliland. I publish it here with no intention of attempting to contribute to the already abundant confusion in the choice of a standard orthography for Somali.