- On the origin of the Somali Alphabet:-
- The Background:- Before the second half of the 19 th century the Somalis in the Horn of Africa were not divided into British, Italian, French, Ethiopian, and Northern Frontier District known (NFD). It consisted areas ruled by Kings, Sultans, and clan Lords without boundaries among them. The trade movement was mainly Camel caravans and the communication was 99% in poetry. The remaining 1% was Arabic letters. The messages in poems were either memorized or recorded in Arabic. However, since there are twenty vowels in Somali language and Arabic has only six vowels, recording Somali messages in Arabic proved impossible.
- The Inventor of the Somali Alphabet:- In 1923 a young poet named Osman Yusuf Kenadid proclaimed to have invented a phonetic alphabet for recording the Somali language accurately. He had amazingly discovered that there were twenty consonants, twenty vowels, two semi-vowels and a supra-segment phoneme. To each value he assigned a distinct sign – thus, a highly Somali phonemic alphabet was borne.
- The Obstacles :- The popular belief that the Arabic writings, ( the script of the Qur’an), was sacred and a new script may bring with it apostasy was the first obstacle. Therefore, the Authority banned it. The ban was not effective since people badly needed writings of their messages and it continued to spread until the Fascist government of Italy totally banned it though the duration of the ban became brief. During the ten year period of British Military Occupation, 1940 to 1950, the Somali Alphabet with a relative speed spread throughout the Horn of Africa. The main handicap was lack of printing materials. The then biggest political party, Somali Youth League, adopted it and taught it in its elementary schools promising making it the National Script when the country attains its independence.
- The Total Effective Ban:- In 1967 the first printing press and typewriters were introduced. The manufacturers offered cheaper prices than the ones offered by the Latin Script printing press materials because of the new market for the Native Script. The Coup D’etat of the 1969 adopted the Latin Script and totally banned the native script. The ban was so effective that even those who knew no other scripts but it were afraid of writing it for fear of imprisonment.
- The Universal Lift of the Oppressive Ban:- On the 4 th September 2002 the Lord of the creation and cultures, praise be to Him, lifted the thirty years oppressive ban on the Somali Alphabet and its digital fonts were universally proclaimed through the global internet. Thus, Allah, glory to Him, preserved the most important element of the Somali culture which is the bench mark of their civilization because, “there is no civilization without writing and there is no writing without civilization,” a grammatologist remarked.
- Gradual Replacement :- Since there is no obstacle of using the Somali native alphabet in writing the Somali language, by the leave of Allah, the most high, it will inevitably replace the current ill-adopted foreign alphabet i.e. latin, though the replacement will be gradual. On the one hand the Somalis Today, specially the diaspora scattered all over the globe are eager to cling any identifying element of their national culture such as their native alphabet and they will be proud of it. On the other hand, they will discover that the Latin alphabet was misused with the Somali language in that fifteen vowels, four consonants, two semi-vowels and the supra-segmental phoneme were not represented. The Latin alphabet was introduced to the Somali language in 1972 and Somali alphabet was re-introduced in 2002 .i.e. thirty years in between. By 2032, thirty years from 2002, with the help of Allah, glory to Him, the replacement will be total and Somalis will remain proud of their unique alphabet.
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